Summary Getting to see a superhero in action is obviously the primary draw to most comic book movies, but many of them will feature moments in which capes and masks get hung up. Having a precedence in the comics, this trope has existed for a long time, and movies adapting the most famous superhero properties have followed suit with a litany of stories that take inspiration from source material in which heroes take a leave of absence.
9 Tony Stark Scales Back His Iron Man Life Dramatically Iron Man 3 Iron Man 3 is a fascinating entry in Iron Man's Marvel Cinematic Universe solo trilogy, and one of the most underrated films of the entire franchise. Stripping back Tony from his expansive armory of Iron Man suits and forcing him to survive off of his own ingenuity alone in the wilds on rural Tennessee, Iron Man 3 put the MCU's flagship her on the backfoot for the majority of its runtime.
7 Batman Retires From Crime-Fighting The Dark Knight The Dark Knight is considered to be one of the finest comic book movies ever made, and even it isn't above utilizing the well-known trope of a hero's retirement. At the end of the chaotic events of the film that leaves both Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent dead, Batman is publicly believed to be the murderer of the latter. This results in Bruce Wayne eventually retiring as Batman, utterly traumatized and a public enemy to boot.
5 Batman Is Long-Retired In An Alternate Reality The Flash Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy isn't the only big-budget superhero film to explore the idea of a retired Batman. Though The Flash centers around its titular speedster hero, a fair amount of screentime is given to Michael Keaton's Batman, brought back to the movies via multiverse shenanigans.