How often is it that superheroes start the violence? Or are you suggesting that smiling as your teeth are knocked down your throat should be the reaction, here?

Here in the US, law enforcement escalates to force far more often than they encounter someone who is already aggressive, so it raises a question why villains in comics so consistently engage first?

The propaganda is in what is implied. Redemption arcs are the exception not the rule, and the implication is that most villains don’t get redeemed.

Now maybe it’s because they know their audience wants to see brightly colored supers knock the tar out of each other, and that might be true, but in the context of police work or vigilantism, it does paint human civilization as a lot more violent than it is. How often do heroes see violence break out during their day to day life (rather than, say, tracking it by police radio?)

I get that you don’t want your hobby criticized too sharply. Still, have you seen Spider-man stopping Proud Boys from harassing a drag queen? Have the avengers interposed themselves between a BLM demonstration and the police armed with CS-gas and riot munitions? (I really don’t know if they’ve done these things. I’d be delighted to see right-wing culture wars cross into the MCU, but Disney has their own opinions about their right to continue capitalizing.