Moving toward anti-heroes?

I'm a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy and used to be a huge fan of comic books. I've noticed a trend I'm not happy with. There seems to be some type of trend over the last several years of the Anti-Hero?

The first Anti-Hero story I ever tried to read was the Thomas Covenant series. I never made it through the first book. I've never even tried to read any of the Venom (Marvel Comics) books.

I do like the bad-boy heroes (Logan has always been a favorite and I used to read a lot of the Mac Bolan and Remo Williams books). Some of my favorite heroes are the ones who become heroes in spite of themselves (Luke Skywalker and Peter Parker).

But, many of my favorite heroes are truly heroes from the word go (Steve Rogers, Ben Kenobi, Michael Carpenter, and Clark Kent).

Steve Rogers has been replaced by Bucky, who is much darker. Not quite the Anti-Hero, but still, why go darker.

Would a story about a heroic figure sell in today's market? Do Superman (the blue boyscout version), Lensmen, or Doc Savage type stories have an audience?

Please note, I'm not talking about real heroes like our brave men and women in the military, or those protecting us at home, or bravely landing planes in the Hudson, or any real life heroes. This is about story telling; entertainment.

Do we really want our heroes to be dark? I know Dark characters are different than Anti-Heroes. I'm defining Anti-Heroes as the character who has no desire or ability to be the hero, but is forced into that role anyway (Thomas Convenient, The Joker). Dark characters (Bruce Wayne, Logan) are interesting, but I think it's now overdone(all the urban vampire stories, with the exception of the Dresden files, which are the best books especially for dialog). Also, the struggling hero (Peter Parker, Luke Skywalker) is a great story line, but at some point get over yourself and accept the mantle you are given and man up (as these characters do).

I'm ready for another knight in shining armor story.

(The opinions in this story are made with a very wide brush. Caveats, arguments, huge holes, discrepancies can be found all over. Hopefully you get my overall point.)