12 Superheroes Ranked By Science (From Lame To Awesome)
Scientists spent SEVEN YEARS studying superheroes, so who will come out on top?
We can sit and argue for hours about the various pros and cons of our favourite superheroes, but most people tend to limit their debates to the pub and/or angry comment sections on pop culture websites.
Well, a group of students at the University of Leicester decided to make it all a bit more official and set about ranking superheroes from a range of universes and backgrounds, using real proper science to examine each contender's standing on the superhero world stage.
Yeah, scientists are nerds. Who knew, right?
The research was conducted over a period of seven years and the results were published by the university in celebration of Superman Day, which falls on the 12th June. The official ranking is the culmination of 25 supplementary papers with pleasingly bonkers titles such as Trajectory of a falling Batman and The Spectacularly Exploding Iceman.
Here are the students' findings, in the order they proposed and their observations about each superhero* - they've even compiled them into a handy table for your reference purposes.
Not every scientist can cure cancer and send humans to Mars, I guess, so why shouldn't they use their science superpowers for the benefit of nerdkind?
*N.B. This is the order that the students put them in, so take it up with them if you disagree.