Who says academic life has to be boring and dull? Not the University of Leicester. The best and brightest at the institution embarked on a seven-year study (!?), publishing papers between 2009 and 2016 in the University of Leicester’s Journal of Physics Special Topics and Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics (I need a nap after reading that title), essentially breaking down which superhero has the most feasible powers, and thus, who was the bestest (which I’m just going to presume is an actual scientific term).
The winner? Superman. Essentially, because he can exert a calculated stored solar energy output of 7.07×105 Joules per second and has higher muscle density tissue than your average human. Or, to put it in layman’s terms, dude is fucking strong and has insane powers. But you know who fares the worst? Batman. Which makes sense, since he’s just a rich playboy with a bunch of fancy gadgets and no actual superpowers.
READ MORE: The 25 Best Sci-Fi Films Of The 21st Century So Far
Of course, the folks at UoL didn’t study every superhero, and there are plenty of names left out of the mix. But in fairness, Superman would probably take all comers anyway. Apparently, Wolverine and Mystique came close to topping the list, thanks to the former’s regenerative power, and the latter’s ability to hide basically anywhere.
Anyway, if you really want to dork out on this, you can dive into the research papers here, which gets into superhero physics and more. And you can click on the chart below to dig into the various superpowers and weaknesses exhibited by each test subject. And finally, you can hit our comments section to weigh in with your thoughts. [Gizmodo]
