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

Abstract

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.