It is the most popular film genre of the moment, and everyone has an opinion about it, whether it’s in the pub, in a café, or at universities.

Etienne F. Augé and Barry W. Fitzgerald crossed paths during a panel on superheroes at Erasmus University in Rotterdam a few years back. Barry is a physicist, Etienne a historian. And both of them are big fans of superheroes.

In Superheroes, they combine their scientific and historian powers in search of the ultimate answers to the key themes withi...