Last summer, Superman was held in a pocket dimension on the verge of collapsing Metropolis. In 2016, Captain America, the symbol of our nation, was on the run from the government. In 2014, a U.N. body was infiltrated by a Nazi organization that survived from the 1940s. In 2012, the World Security Council dropped a nuclear weapon on New York. None of this is accidental.For as long as they have existed, superhero stories have been an insight into American values and a sign of changing times. In the 1940s, Captain America presented a pro-military ideology while fighting Nazis and the U.S.’s isolationist policies. In the 1960s, the X-Men served as a symbol for oppressed minority groups during the civil rights movement, and the Fantastic Four continued to feed into growing U.S. excitement about the possibilities of space travel, as well as the social development of traditional family dynamics. As time has gone on, superheroes and their stories have evolved to reflect the trends in American society. Eventually, we get to the modern era of blockbuster superhero films. These films adapted decades-old comics for a mass audience, transforming superheroes from niche icons into America’s dominant modern mythology. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, the largest film franchise, began with Iron Man, which critiqued defense companies and the U.S. military-industrial complex, while portraying the government as bureaucratic and slow-moving.