DO superheroes help with real-life problems in comic books?

[Bradley P]

People say it happens, but it's not there on the panel, on the page. Not really.

A lot of it depends on the specific character though--you have Tony Stark _saying_ he donates millions here, and you have Bruce Wayne over there showing up at a charity event in a panel or two. It's not much though because it's not the sort of thing you'd _expect_ to sell comic books.

Really, people either expect saving lives--catching people when they fall, rescuing people from burning buildings--or they expect LOTS of whoopass. Those sorts of things tend to lend themselves to the visual medium. You really don't see comic-book writers do much about social justice unless it's _immediately and flagrantly_ made political (on the rare occasion DC has, for example, made Green Arrow live up to the full Robin Hood Mythos).

It does make me wonder sometimes how a social worker, school counselor or therapist with super-powers would even work. How could such a person NOT end up a "well-intentioned villain" or a martyr (sacrificing him or herself) trying to do the right thing in a comic-book setting that has all the markings of a war zone?

There are ways to do it--but not in the mainstream of comic books these days. You have to look in weird places to see the idea at work.