Marvel wasn't the only ones canceling superhero marriages in recent years. To the credit of DC, it never occurred to them to do something as dumb as The One More Day disaster

In 2011, DC rebooted their entire universe with the launch of the New 52 sending all magazines back to issue 1 as a result of a cataclysmic universe changing event (they're big on those at DC). The New 52 took characters all back to younger earlier stage in their careers in hopes of drawing younger readers.

In the process, they canceled out the marriages of Clark Kent to Lois Lane and of the even longer term marriage of The Flash (Barry Allen) to Iris West.

The Heroic Marriage

Of course, just because the Comic book companies have cut down on the number of marriages, doesn't mean they've gut down on the sex and shenanigans. Sex is bigger than ever.

Marriage not so much. (Unless it's the X-men and a gay marriage.)

In this way, the comic book companies are responding to demographic trends which show less people getting married. By canceling out the marriages of long-time married superheroes and making them available for trysts, they hope to appeal to a younger generation where marriage is becoming less appealing and certainly less inevitable.

But is this new trend heroic?

I really think you can make an argument that both the Golden Age celibate heroes and superhero marriages showed a lot of heroism.

If you think about Superman. The reason he originally stayed away from romance is he didn't have time. His life was completely and totally dedicated to the pursuit of Truth and Justice. And so many of the heroes gave away their normalcy so that they could serve others.

I think if you look at the superhero marriages, there was something noble about that particularly the marriages to "normal people", not just in the superhero and his dedication to try and have a family in the midst of the craziness, but also in the superhero's spouse. You think of Mary Jane Watson or Lois Lane knowing what their husbands are going up against and standing by them and supporting them. There's a strength in that, there's heroism. The same sort of heroism that is shown every day by military spouses and police spouses. Of course, there's all kinds of physical risks they take along with that.

When I read about what's been done to characters like Lois Lane and Mary Jane Watson in recent reboots, you get the distinct impression that they've become less noble, less heroic, along with their former men.

When you get in between marriage and celibacy and in to the more frequent bedding of characters with no commitment, you get a lot of heroes who play with people's hearts and avoid commitments. Or they try to protect people from things that they assume that they can't handle, there's some weak and beggarly about that.

And I think the great irony about this shift in sexuality in order to appeal to millennials is that I don't think it's going to work.

When millennials look even at work, there's an overwhelming desire for meaning. And I'm not sure meaningless superhero trysts are going to cut it at least not in the long term. It's lowest common denominator stuff that may work for a while.

It's lowest common denominator stuff, sure. I honestly think that the untapped potential is out there for well-told stories of relationships that embody and suggest something noble and higher than short term gratification. Sadly, it appears that these concepts have slipped out of reach of modern comic books.