If you haven’t seen a superhero movie in recent years, whether X-Men, Avengers, Batman, Superman, or even Guardians of the Galaxy, you can’t be going to the cinema at all. Superhero movies (and the comic books and graphic novels on which they are based) have become a multi-billion-pound industry with massive, popular movie franchises. In the USA most such movies hit the lucrative ‘sweet spot’ of 12A rating. Many fans go to various comic and sci-fi conventions, some even doing cosplay (costume play) to dress up as their favourite heroes or villains. But is all of this focus on superheroes good for us? Or does it mask a sinister side in terms of negative effects on our behaviour?
It turns out that this question is remarkably hard to answer. This is, in part, because there’s a tremendous history of politicians, activists and scholars making overblown statements about the supposed bad influences of various forms of media.
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