Male superheroes are too obese and the girls are often underweight, say scientists after analysing thousands of characters
- Scientists analysed thousands of characters, including those in new Avengers
- Body mass index of Iron Man, Captain America and Thor is above recommended
- In contrast, female characters had a BMI at the low end of the normal range
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow
They are usually depicted in life-or-death struggles with all-powerful, evil masterminds hell-bent on destroying the Earth. But it seems that most superheroes have an even trickier opponent to battle: their own weight.
New research has found that male superheroes are all too often obese – while superheroines are often underweight.
That is the finding of scientists who have analysed thousands of characters, including those in the new cinema blockbuster Avengers: Endgame.
From drawings in comic books and movie adaptations, experts calculated the body mass index, or BMI, of Marvel characters such as Iron Man, Captain America (as played by Chris Evans, left) and Thor, and found they had an average of 30.8.
Results between 18.5 and 25 are normal, those above 25 are classed as overweight and anything over 30 is officially obese. However, the results may be misleading as BMI makes no distinction between fat and muscle.
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Captain America in The First Avenger in 2011. Played by Chris Evans
In contrast, the female Marvel characters – among them Black Widow, as played by Scarlett Johansson, right – had an average of 20.2 BMI, placing them at the low end of the normal range.
The research published in the Evolutionary Behavioural Sciences journal found that just two per cent of Marvel comic women were obese, and 23.7 per cent of them were underweight.
The study, by US academics Laura Johnsen of Binghamton University and Rebecca Burch of Oswego State University, found the men to be 6ft 2in tall on average and weigh more than 18st, while the women averaged 5ft 8in and just over 9st. The academics say the characters were drawn that way to be sexually alluring.
