In the other direction, Warren Ellis used the last volume of _StormWatch_ to show how evil the hither-to "morally grey" characters were, and fire up _The Author

In the other direction, Warren Ellis used the last volume of _StormWatch_ to show how evil the hither-to "morally grey" characters were, and fire up _The Authority_ to replace them: a super-team that wanted to actually make the world a better place. (They tried and failed, but at least they tried.) It's possible to tell superhero comics that don't fall into the traps, but I don't think it can be done directly in the medium of continuing comics: without a planned conclusion, it becomes self-negating or self-parodying. A different critique is offered by Wildbow's _Worm_, a giant webnovel that tried to provide consistent reasons for all the superhero comic tropes: why do mass-murdering villains get to live? Why do they escape from custody so regularly? How do they store their money? What's most important, thinking or action? The novel is 1.7 million words long, and has generated about 250 million words of fanfic...