I remember when DC comics made the shift from "good guy" to "realistic".
It was when I was reading Green Lantern and Hal Jordan went through
some personal problems. To matter the fact, in the late 80's it seemed
a lot of heroes did.
Luckily just as the Flash was getting his battery of personal problems
he was killed off in Crisis on Infinate Earth.
Hal Jordan would not be so lucky.
He was the hero through and through. Fearless, and nearly flawless as
he maintained his role as guardian of Earth's sector of space.
Then DC made the statement "In able to be Earth's greatest hero, he will
first have to become a man" I remember as a fan of Hal Jordan being
confused and insulted by this statement. It was not a year before he
had been dumped into the arctic without his ring, and managed to brave
the elements and survive till making it back to civilization. And here
they are questioning his mettle as a man?
Soonafter that statement was made, his home town with Pieface, his
girlfriend and all is obliterated. Then he goes crazy, starts killing
off other Green lanterns to get their rings to recreate his home town.
At some point he becomes Parallax, yadda yadda yadda.
Interestingly enough, this to me shows the trend towards the morose over
the regular hero.
However... the pendulum then swings the other direction.
In recent times, like since 2005-ish? Hal Jordan had parallax exorcised
from his being, and he was re-instated as a Green Lantern. Hal Jordan
is back to being his fearless and daring self again, and I think many
fans are glad to have him back.
Even Barry Allen, the original Flash, has been brought back.
Granted all this is before the new 52 happened, but even in that changed
universe you still have Green Lantern in that place.
Point being, is there a place for Morose? Sure.
Is there a place for heroes and examples? Sure.
I just think that for heroes you need heroes who are believable.
People who you can say "Hey, they have flaws like me, but I am inspired
on how they overcame those flaws like I face."
I think true heroes need to be able to show others the way. How to get
from point A to B. We need to be reminded sometimes that they are
human, and can fail, but see how they get back up when they do, thus
showing how they are heroes and ultimately lead the way.
I think that classic Apollo and Starbuck (and Boomer, Adama, Tigh, and
the rest) were all that. Their characters as they were could live on
today in television. The way it would have to be different is that
when Apollo and Starbuck have problems they would need to go on for a
few episodes. They get into a fight and they would have to have some
of that come up later, even if they did manage to quickly resolve
differences. You know, more real life stuff.
Anyway, my two cubits on the matter...
Jubal