Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:Hmm... I think I quite disagree with the reason they want to show the hero's journey from a young, insecure individual to the hero that he becomes. How do we explain heroes that stay single in their adulthood like Tony Stark (Iron Man), Professor Charles Xavier, MacGyver, The A-Team members, and Captain Kirk.
But the "romantic story" reason does have a point. Maybe on of the reasons they prefer unmarried hero so they can involve some romance in the plot....
An interesting note though: Usually when heroes are married, their spouse is also hero (except Spider-Man. Well, but I think Mary Jane is pretty adventurous and doesn't mind to be involved in hero business.). Examples: Scott Summers (Cyclops) and Jean Grey, Hawkeye and Mockingbird, Green Arrow and Black Canary, etc. Most of them doesn't have kids, though.
Sticking to the fictional aspects. . .
Most authors are only going to introduce character relationships if they have some reason for doing so. In other words, for a given character, they will be married for a reason, or single for a reason, or courting for a reason.
And there are a whole selection of archetypes to choose from (married, permanently single, single-but-looking, widower, whatever) - and if you check out enough fiction, you will find most of them have been used at one time or another (if they hadn't been used a lot, I guess they wouldn't qualify as archetypes!).
Generally though, a main character will be made single because that is the story the authors want to tell. By making the main character married, the author is going to have to deal with a whole host of issues merely due to the existence of that relationship. If adolescent males are a significant part of your target audience, then that course of action may be a little unwise. On the other hand, a debonair, Kirk or Bond style main character, with a new women every episode is designed to appeal to the 'if-only-the-world-was-like-that' in the male half of the audience
For brain-dead action, dealing with ties of family often isn't an area of interest. (Notable exceptions, such as True Lies, usually manage to avoid the 'brain-dead' part of the label)
"People should buy our toaster because it toasts bread the best, not because it has the only plug that fits in the outlet" - Robert Morris, Almaden Research Center (IBM)
"If you have any faith in the human race you have too much." - Enlightenment
