With the Oscar winning superhero movie Black Panther out now in Cinemas, we would all probably wish that superheroes were real. But what if they were real and their enemies in the movies did not exist? How it would impact the world? What attacks would not have happened? How many lives could have been saved? Well we can now look at what impact they could have had in human history. However, we will only look on impacts that would have an effect on the 21st century, and we will talk about superheroes from both D.C and Marvel movies only, based on their release date of their first movies or last movie made and look out on the most popular ones from both movie companies. This will be based on mainly the war on terrorism and other major events in recent history.
So the first event that superheroes could have had an impact on starts from the beginning of the 21st century, being the September 11 attacks. On september 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the world trade centers and the pentagon with one crashing in Pennsylvania by hijacking four commercial passenger planes, killing around 3,000 people in total. So what could have happened differently if superheroes were there? Starting with one of the most beloved ones, superman. So basically, the events that could have played out, is that, the first plane could have still crashed into the north tower, with citizen endangered, superman, who had his last movie being released in 1987, could have taken action and upon seeing the plane, he could have stopped it from crashing by pushing it from the bottom, making the nose rise which would increase the altitude of the plane and the plane could have missed the south tower and he could have landed it somewhere safe. Apart from the world trade center, the next attack was on the pentagon. So following the world trade center attack, a third plane was hijacked and was heading towards the pentagon, air traffic control thought this was a fighter jet but still tried to identify the aircraft, with something wrong they could have called in Batman. Batman, who had his last movie released in 1997, could have possibly saved the plane. Basically, when the plane was at a low altitude, he could have hooked onto the plane, climbed aboard, kill the hijackers, save the plane from crashing but safely landing it somewhere nearby as well. However, the last plane could have not been saved as Superman could not have reached it in time and would probably still be helping people in New York and Batman helping passenger of the 3rd plane.
Following the September 11 attacks, only 2 out of the 4 planes would have been saved. Countries would still have initiated the anti-terrorism acts with the U.S still declaring “War on Terrorism”. Which led to the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. As mentioned, without the enemies of superheroes in movies, they would probably be asked and be deployed to the middle east to help the fight. So let’s look into other possible situations in which, Spiderman and the Hulk would be involved. Spiderman having his first movie released in 2002, and the Hulk having his first movie released in 2003, They could have been deployed to the middle east with the Hulk and his massive strength being able to take bullets, through which, saving soldiers lives and crushing terrorists. Spiderman, on the other hand, could have tangled terrorists with his spiderwebs, making it impossible to fire their weapons or set of their suicide vests. But also, he could have stopped cars loaded with bombs in them, that terrorists used to blow up people. Because of terrorists being defeated, it would sooner have the defeat of terrorism in the middle east by at least 2005, in which, thousands of lives could have been saved world wide.
Furthermore, they would not have to be fighting against terrorist groups, but also help out countries in states of civil war or in the case of mass shootings. With the ongoing civil wars in Syria and Somalia, superheroes could be able to defeat whoever is causing problems that are triggering the civil war. Superheroes would be able to operate in these places as United States is involved in supporting both wars and considering that the idea of superheroes war created in the United States. Since these are both two most recent Civil Wars, the Avengers would be involved since the avengers had their first movie come out in 2012 as well Justice League being involved in this as well, as their movie got released in 2017. Even though superheroes would most likely be asked to serve overseas, some superheroes could be asked to stay behind to protect innocent civilians in America as well, such as Ant Man. This is because in last 12 months, there have been several mass shootings, such as the deaths of 58 people in Las Vegas, around 26 dead in Texas and more recently, 17 dead in a high school in Parkland, Florida. With all these shootings going on, there should be someone looking out for the American people.
So in conclusion, we might have avoided a lot of violence because of superheroes. Unfortunately, we can only imagine that superheroes could save the day as there is still so much violence in the world. Despite terrorism being defeated in the middle east, there are still two civil wars going on, and millions of refugees have come to Europe, because they have to escape their homes. We can only hope that one day, we could live in a world where we don’t have to live in fear of terrorism or mass shootings.