In recent years, the superhero universe has expanded, with Marvel landing on top. This bias could possibly affect how people answer questions about the subject. We asked 174 BHS students, “Who would win in a fight: Batman or Captain America?” Captain America received the majority vote with 57 percent, while Batman received 39 percent of the vote. The remaining 4 percent of BHS students had no opinion on the matter.

Reasons for these student answers could be due to the cinematic differences between the two superheroes. Some argue that Marvel makes better movies while DC creates better comics and animations. However, despite the contrast, the question posed to BHS students was more opinion-based as opposed to relying on factual knowledge. In 1996, DC Comics and Marvel had a big crossover event called “DC versus Marvel,” where they placed some of their heroes against each other. In this crossover, Batman fought Captain America in the sewers of Manhattan. Though Batman was victorious, the two heroes battled for hours due to them being equally matched. Their fight only ended when Captain America passed out from exhaustion.

Without any background information, the students of BHS were most likely to choose a Marvel character over a DC character due to the weight Marvel currently has in the superhero universe.