And not only superheroes--how about regular people? For all the kids involved in school shootings there's many more involved in charitable work trying to better the world.
Sure there are ways one could say life today is darker--there are also many ways in which life today is less dark. It always depends on the person which way they look at things. Plus I haven't read this in a while, but it doesn't sound like this Batman is so inspiring he'd make a very good role model.