Well-put. I think all these people who bitch and moan about how superheroes just aren't realistic enough are missing the point - superheroes are SYMBOLS. There's nothing wrong with injecting realism into a superhero universe - it keeps it relatable - but when you get right down to it, superheroes are symbols, and if you are going to write them well, you must successfully manipulate the symbols to make your point. Superman is a symbol of hope, honor, decency, fair play; Batman is a symbol of man against the darkness, of what you can make of yourself, of getting beyond tragedy and using it to become stronger; Wonder Woman is a symbol of peace, love, and the feminine ideal, etc., etc. That is also the reason why they wear costumes - it makes them immediately identifiable, like a stop sign or a peace symbol. You know immediately when you see a superhero's costume what you will be getting (or what you SHOULD be getting), and this makes them potent tools for storytelling. Basically, you can give a superhero a realistic background. You can tell us how his powers work, or what his costume is made of. You can address political issues, reverse our expectations, satirize the ridiculous aspects of superheroism - you can do all those things. But all of them are worthless if you don't acknowledge just what a really good superhero IS - a symbol. A powerful one, representing powerful things. The sort of symbol that, if you ever ran across, you would softly gasp 'oh, wow.' You can tell us why Superman put the 'S' on his chest, and what makes his cape spread out behind him like that - but the S better damn well be there, and the cape better spread out behind him and flap in the wind, and some part of your mind had better be softly gasping 'oh, wow' - or he ain't Superman. That's all.