Diagnosing the Avengers' injuries: Medical professionals weigh in

We asked medical experts to analyze an epic superhero battle scene and tell us what would happen if the protagonists weren't so super

Yeah, they're not walking away from this battle.
(Image credit: Marvel)

I guess there's a reason they call them "super" heroes. Because even in monstrously violent battles against seemingly unbeatable villains, the good guy always manages not just to win, but to do it without breaking a sweat or suffering even a scrape. This is quite common in superhero movies; the violence and destruction is casually massive, but the damage to our heroes is weirdly negligible.

In reality, of course, our combatants would have far more serious and long-lasting injuries. To learn a bit more about how our protagonists would fare without their hyper-fictionalized superhuman capabilities, I asked two experts to analyze The Battle of New York, the iconic final fight scene from 2012's The Avengers, in which all our favorite characters, from Captain America to Black Widow, face epic physical assaults, and then skip the hospital to go eat shawarma.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Katie Ingram

Katie Ingram is a freelance journalist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her work has appeared in, among others, Halifax Magazine, Atlantic Books Today, SheKnows, J-source, Haligonia.ca and on CBC Radio.