(STUDY FINDS) -- COLUMBUS, Ohio — In today’s day and age, when it comes to superhero lore, it certainly seems like it’s good to be bad at the box office. But, whatever happened to good, old fashioned truth and justice? Surprisingly, a new study conducted at Ohio State University finds that, while movies that center around anti-heroes and villains seem to thrive in Hollywood, at the end of the day, people still want their heroes to know right from wrong.
The Joker, Thanos, and Deadpool. Besides being homicidal maniacs, what do all three of these characters have in common? They’ve each produced hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office over the past two years. Joaquin Phoenix’s unsettling yet sympathetic portrayal of the classic Batman villain is already one of the most talked about films of the year, and despite the fact that Thanos killed literally billions of people in the mega-successful Avengers franchise, all it takes is a quick search of social media to see that he has just as many fans as any one of the iconic heroes he faces off against.