Do all superheroes wear capes? A case-control study of the highest grossing superhero movies.

OBJECTIVES

The main goal of this study was to determine the frequency of cape use among superheroes and predictors of superhero status.

DESIGN

Observational case-control study where superheroes were considered cases and villains/neutral characters controls.

SETTING

Top 25 highest grossing superhero movies.

PARTICIPANTS

Main characters in superhero movies classified as superheroes and villains through a multi-tier systems including videographic review and information collected in a superhero community database.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Frequency of different attributes between superheroes/villains (e.g., cape wearing), correlation of attributes and univariate and multivariable adjusted models of attributes associated with a superhero status.

RESULTS

There were 97 observations of 68 characters over 25 movies from three studios. There were 61 observations of superheroes and 36 villains and neutrals. Just 16% of superheroes wore capes, while 11% of non-superheroes did so. The majority (67%) of superheroes were humans, while among non-superheroes were 56%. Almost all superheroes had an altruistic mission (98%), while this attribute was present in just 19% of non-superheroes.

CONCLUSIONS

In a sample of characters from the highest grossing superhero movies, most superheroes did not wear a cape. The strongest predictor for a superhero status was having an altruistic mission.