Caution: Superheroes Will Destroy Your City

Caution: Superheroes Will Destroy Your City
It is a popular mechanic in movies and comics these days to have a superhero come in and save the day from a villain bent on destruction. The Avengers thwarted Loki and his Chitauri invasion on New York City. Superman took down Zod and his invasion forces to save Metropolis. Even Godzilla made a move for one of the best new superheroes in 2014 by kicking some alien ass. The question that remains though is: Did they really save the day?"

The destruction being done to most if not all of these cities is vast and in most cases done by the heroes trying to "save the day". Sure they save the city from further damage but just look at the destruction that's already been done. Earlier this year Kinetic Analysis Corp., a company know for being one of the top risk assessment companies in the US, broke down the destruction done to NYC during the Avengers victory over Loki. The Hollywood Reporter broke it down like this:

"In an exclusive report for THR, KAC, led by Chuck Watson and Sara Jupin, employed computer models used for predicting the destruction of nuclear weapons and concluded that the physical damage of the invasion would be $60 billion-$70 billion, with economic and cleanup costs hitting $90 billion. Add on the loss of thousands of lives, and KAC puts the overall price tag at $160 billion. For context, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks cost $83 billion, Hurricane Katrina cost $90 billion, and the tsunami in Japan last year washed away $122 billion."

This is a hefty price tag considering all of these terrible disasters cost billion of dollars less than the damage done by superheroes. I think what is an often overlooked detail in the aftermath of an inevitable superhero victory is the death toll. No evacuation plan, no matter how efficient, could ever evacuate that amount of people out of NYC (not to mention all of the idiots who wouldn't leave because they had to capture the event on their iPhone). There will always be a death toll. Hulk and Thor smashing that giant flying Chitauri worm through Grand Central Station? Dead people. Superman punching Zod trough a gas station in a giant explosion? Dead people. And you though that your favorite superhero didn't kill anyone.


Superman, if you have to slap Zod around could you please invite him to throw down in Antarctica or the Serengeti so you could altogether avoid hurting the people you claim to be defending. Thank you.

-Demo