Jul 27, 2017, 8:56 PM

In all fairness, I believe that I see what @Chet is poking at.

There is, on some psychological level, probably a number of theories that are probably quite interesting surrounding the love of superheroes.

What emotional or psychological elements might lead someone to attracting to Batman instead of Captain America, or the Incredible Hulk instead of Squirrel Girl? What psych/emotional elements attract or cause aversion to Dr. Doom more or less so from Magneto?

Is there something in our psychology that pits people in the Xavier camp of mutant rights versus Magneto's camp, and would a preference for either's method in a fan sense tell us anything about the fan themselves?

Whenever I hear studies about these things, I tend to approach them as interesting rather than some kind of metaphysical fact, because the approach the author of the study tends to lend heavily towards predispositions the author had to begin with. These studies tend to read to me like yet another example of a stance the author already had, kind of like how the same UFO EXPERT writes the same book 4 times...only each expounds slightly further than the previous one.

In a MU sense, though, I think it's a slippery slope to assume the psychology of the player based on their hero and villain selection. There are more factors towards why someone chooses a particular FC, including: what was left at the time, cool factor, fanboy/fangirl love, emotional resonance with character, someone asked them to pick WASP...

But could there be a reason why I am more attracted to the Green Lantern Corps than the Punisher? I'm sure there's an interesting topic there.