A little boy is three years old and is with his family visiting Niagara Falls. It’s like any other day full of tourists taking a gander at the pure grandiosity of the waterfalls. Then, on that warm summer day, that young boy makes a break for the railing of the falls. Immediately, the mother sees her child gunning for the edge and sprints to catch the soon-to-be-punished for a very long time boy. She saved him from going over the edge of the waterfalls and when she frantically asked him why, he replied, “Well, Superman saved a kid when he fell over Niagara Falls.” The motive: wanting to meet Superman.

Comic Con 2012 just finished its annual gathering in San Diego, complete with your neighbors whose lifelong dream is to be a superhero. To be fair, who doesn’t wish he or she were Superman or Thor or Wonder Woman or Batman or Cat Woman or He-Man? Even just holding a light saber (insert chills and feeling a power unlike you’ve ever felt before) and the full belief of being Luke Skywalker…Anyways, last year the biggest movie stars were Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and of course, the one and only, Steven Spielberg. All were there promoting “Cowboys and Aliens.” For this year’s crowd, Christopher Nolan’s films had one of the upper hands with the movie fanatics. The hype surrounding the release of “The Dark Knight Rises” just one week away and an exclusive first glimpse of 2013s “Man of Steel” contained some of the highlights of the conference. Nolan’s Batman took an already dark Bruce Wayne and stripped him down to an even more raw caped crusader in a Gotham more directly tied to a world we live everyday. To elaborate, his Batmen movies are not filmed so much on sets as just filming at locations in a major city. But is this more true to reality setting good for superheroes?

Anyone who has seen Nolan’s two (and soon to be third) Batman films and/or has googled “Man of Steel” knows that his versions showcase a darker and again, more raw look at Batman and Superman personally as well as with regard to his surroundings. Is this good? My first impression of Clark Kent/Superman was portrayed by the best actor that will ever play the part (my opinion), and that of course being Christopher Reeve. His version had one clear difference to Nolan’s interpretation and it’s very simple. The “S” for Reeve is significantly brighter than what Henry Cavill is set to sport to the world in summer 2013. This is not just a minor costume change, but the large contrast on how Christopher Nolan and his team envisions this cherished All-American super hero: darker and more human. I always thought that superheroes were above the fray of us mere humans and that that was why we looked up and admired the man flying through the skies in a red cape holding onto the woman he just saved from a falling helicopter on the top of a skyscraper in New York city. Should Superman fans of years past be concerned?

From Bruce Wayne & Batman to Clark Kent & Superman, Christopher Nolan has reinvented both characters and their respective worlds for a new generation. For those seeing them for the first time, he will leave a very impressionable imprint in their minds of what to expect with these super heroes and for others to compare with movies/classics of the past. Pre-Nolan, the settings for superhero movies had elements of suspended belief and whole worlds created for the audience. With Nolan, the viewer is seeing more of the streets they walk everyday (especially in “TDK”) and heroes who appear to be more like us with flaws as well as sharing some of our vulnerabilities for getting seriously hurt by the bad guys.

One scene that comes to mind in “The Dark Knight” is when the Joker forces Batman to choose who he will save: Harvey Dent or Rachel? In a split second decision, he goes for Rachel, leaving Harvey’s rescue in the hands of Commissioner Gordon and the Gotham police. Except that the Joker tricked Batman and Harvey is saved by Batman, barely. Rachel doesn’t make it. In one of the following scenes, the sky is a blueish colored overcast with a gloomy mood overwhelming Wayne’s penthouse windows as he dwells on his decision. It’s as if the audience shares and can even feel the bone-chillingly cold emotional moment with the reflective Bruce Wayne. He couldn’t save everyone…he couldn’t save the day. He was human, like us. It all felt very real.

Without a doubt, this generation is seeing famed super heroes Batman, and the full Superman reboot in a year, through a new lens. I wonder though if people are seeing these new versions as a natural evolution of the characters and simply the next chapter of their stories or as the new status quo? Do fans want the more epic and personable saviors or the heroes who get knocked down, but have that super-human quality that always gives them that push to overcome even the most insurmountable obstacles to save the day in a world ultimately filled with optimism for good?

Fans of superheroes are at a turning point and must determine how we will see the man flying faster than a speeding bullet as well as the caped crusader in crime-ridden Gotham city: with us or above us?