A study from the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition revealed superheroes actually cause more damage than villains, according to CNN:

"We actually found the protagonists were performing a greater amount of violence per hour than the antagonists. Protagonists were performing 22.7 violent events per hour, while the antagonists, or bad guys, were performing 17.5 events per hour," said John Muller, a medical student at Penn State College of Medicine and lead researcher of the project. The findings have not been published or peer-reviewed.

The research looks at 10 superhero films from 2015 and 2016: "Suicide Squad," "Batman: The Killing Joke," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows," "X-Men: Apocalypse," "Captain America: Civil War," "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," "Deadpool," "Fantastic Four," "Ant-Man" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron."

To work out who was committing the violent act, "each major film character was classified as either a protagonist ('good guy') or antagonist ('bad guy')," the research says.

But on the flip side, superheroes go up against violent villains all the time, and the difference is that heroes typically think about the safety of civilians, even while committing collateral damage. Also, in the Marvel Universe, there's Damage Control, a construction company that cleans up after fights between heroes and villains. Damage Control is a representation of the realistic acknowledgment that superheroes must perform violent acts to get the job done, and beyond ensuring that civilians are safe, they help to repair collateral damage they might cause.

The self-awareness and significance of Damage Control has been highlighted by Marvel in the animated series "Ultimate Spider-Man." DC devoted an entire show to the subject called "Powerless," about an insurance company that deals with repercussions of civilians being hurt in violent acts between heroes and villains. Unfortunately, the comedy was canceled too soon after just one season.

Check out a clip of Damage Control on "Ultimate Spider-Man" below, and let us know what you think by voting on if you think superheroes are just as guilty, or worse, than the villains in regards to creating collateral damage.

Which filmmaker is the master of horror? | The Tylt