20 most upbeat superhero stories

4. LEGO Batman

While it’s true that the vast majority of entries on this list are comics, there’s nothing to say that we can’t include other media. And, honestly, if there’s at least one chance to feature a truly funny and entertaining Batman story, we can’t pass that up.

Perhaps I’ve unfairly targeted Batman here. As mentioned earlier, he hasn’t always been the brooding, overly-serious hero that more recent stories have depicted. I mean, the whole conceit of Batman is that he’s a stupendously rich man who thinks that dressing up as a bat creature is an appropriate response to crime.

The LEGO Batman Movie is also, on its surface, a really weird concept. There’s the whole thing about Batman being Batman, of course. Then, you must also deal with the fact that you’re watching a film where, instead of live action or traditional animation, the audience is watching computer-animated Lego figures on the screen. Pop culture is an aggressively hungry ouroboros.

Despite that, LEGO Batman is really good. Moreover, watching the movie make fun of grimdark Batman is so fun you’ll forget the utter despair of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Plus, unlike almost any other Batman movie in recent memory, you could actually take a kid to see it and enjoy it yourself.