In Marvel and DC movies, rough childhoods do not doom characters to become villains

Jan 15, 2025

In a study of characters from the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, the amount of potentially traumatic events a character experienced in childhood—as measured by a real-life questionnaire—had no bearing on whether they were a hero or villain. Julia Wigmore of the University of Calgary, Canada, and colleagues present these findings in the journal PLOS ONE.