Why are most Super Heroes Mentally Unstable?

Because they think they can change this fucked up world when they can’t? I promise I am not grumpy today, :)

Look at it from a literary and marketing point of view. Giving the white-lighted character a dark side is essential to keep the superhero from being a super bore and thereby keep him readable/watchable. Consider Superman, for example. In the early years, he was pretty much a goody twoshoes (twoboots?) who just fixed problems. But readers tired of that, and over time his character was hardened by giving his alternate personalities and increasingly dangerous enemies.

I’m not referring to how they were changed by us….

But the way they would change on their own… The original goody goody Superman “could” progress to the current Superman over the span of his life (long, long, long life) or from his creation in…1932 to now)....how many people he loved could he watch die from old age…..how many times can he watch people he is trying to save die….how many times can he stop the same kind of crime….things like that….. could also be he is an exception because he’s not human

Being different. They were mostly sufferers of childhood trauma (Bruce Wayne saw his parents murdered and thus became Batman). Superman’‘s whole planet exploded and he was sent away knowing his parents would die.

After all, you have to be a little weird to put on the costumes, right?

great question!!
yeah i was wondering the same thing for so many years now!
i think you gotta have some mental unstability to be even able to think about saving this world where only mentally unstable persons join forces with you trying to save old women and young children, not to mention, sometimes even the whole world! i mean would you do it? could you sacrifice?
and super villains won’t even exist if there weren’t any superheroes! so in a way super heroes and super villains exist to neutralize the equation… and you gotta be a mad guy to be able to kick another one in the arse without thinking about the consequences
so this is definitely one of the questions that will remain unanswered till an actual super hero answers it… and tiger woods is the closest contender we got, he kept 23 mistresses and his wife didn’t know about it, thats serious super hero business alright!!

Perhaps in the course of his superheroing his tights squeezed his groin area a bit to tightly causing a small stroke that twisted his brain to the dark side?

Or… (to steal a bit from “The Incredibles”) Perhaps his cape got caught in a jet engine causing him to clonk his head on the intake manifold, the resulting concussion then twisting his brain to the dark side?

Or… how about the profit motive. Nobody actually pays superheros, but there can be big money in super villainy.

I think you could get some helpful ideas from Marvel Comic’s story about Sentry who eventually is consumed by the Void (the dark side of himself)