In The Amazing SpiderMan (1 & 2), Peter Parker & Gwen Stacy have some sort of 'ultimate love'-relationship---as if Mary-Jane never even existed! (true, she truly hasn't in that particular universe, and there's all sorts of ways that a future-'Mary Jane' could replace/become Gwen Stacy; I guess I just wanna 'be true to my girl' ) I mean, why do superhero-movies have to include a "romantic love"-story anyway? Being a superhero isn't about that kind of love! (Look at what happened to Jesus Christ's story when it 'came out' that He might've had a pregnant girlfriend at the time of His execution! Kinda shifts His 'purpose' from "dying to save the world" over to "dying to impress His girlfriend"). Kinda makes you wonder about ALL superheroes---as in When Superman SPUN THE GLOBE IN REVERSE so that he could keep Lois Lane from falling (nevermind that he could've 'gone back & prevented the whole problem' that way). Maybe 'vengeance over his parents' death' was just BatMan's cover-story for his attempt to impress Vicki Vale & Selina Kyle etc. What do you think?
I understand your point of view. I mean, could writers not write a good superhero story without including romance? Can a superhero not function well without a love interest? I think it is because a superhero without romance would be drab and would not bring in the crowd (and lots of cash, of course). It has become the norm among writers, a cookie-cutter sort of thing, that a rich imagination seems to be thrown out the window already. Sigh. Because of that, I became picky. I seldom go to cinemas to watch movies because of the overused formula.
Considering that the mainstream audience of comic book superheroes are males, who may not have been as successful in finding love in real life, adding a romance element into the story allows for escapism and of course better sales. It might be overused or appealing to the lowest common denominator, but ultimately comic book publishers (and their subsequent movie adaptations) would want the highest sales volume.
I kind of agree with most of what you said except for the Batman bit. Batman was avenging his parents' deaths for a long time before he met either of those women. I don't think he was fighting crime for years in hopes of impressing Vicki Vale in 1989. He was already doing his thing before those women showed up.
They also include romance so that males can bring a date with them. It's profitable to throw in "something for the ladies". That way couples are likely to see the movie on date night.
Well, I think if they don't add a love interest in the movie, then it would lessen the excitement, especially if the 2 rivals are also rivals in love, like Harry and Peter in Spiderman. In X-Men, I think the love story in there involving Jean Grey, Wolverine and Cyclops is acceptable, as long as it doesn't overshadow the movie, but in Smallville it's gotten tiring, that's why I lost interest watching it.
The romance stories for super-hero movies are simply for these two reasons: humility and fallibility. Writers want to show humans watching their works that even super-heroes do express mortal things like love, empathy, jealousy, emotions, etc., and that he/she can fail in these endeavors even if he/she has super-powers. Mainly, it's to build a connection between viewers and super-hero characters, because humans agree much easier to people or entities that are similar to them e.g. if Superman was omnipotent to everything including not failing in a relationship with women, it will be unbelievable to most humans and will not be as attractive to pay attention to.
