Whether or not “Superhero A” can beat up/win in a fight against “Superhero B” has been the subject of nerd fascination and pointless debate discussion probably since most of us were still in preschool. On some level, this fascination has no doubt fueled the rather large box office receipts of movies like Captain America: Civil War and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Now, students at the university of University of Leicester in the U.K. have decided to take this age-old argument and apply science for the “correct” results. The university students used scientific principles to examine the feasibility of the powers of world famous comic book superheroes, and  –  surprise — the study suggests Superman may have the greatest chance of winning in a fight. (I didn’t need to do a study to tell you that.) The University released the results on June 12th — which happens to be what DC Comics deems as “Superman Day.”

Although Kal-El won, it does seem that certain iconic heroes were left out of the argument. Characters with less quantifiable powers, like the Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange and even Jean Grey from the X-Men weren’t included, maybe because in the comics, their powers are pretty much whatever the writers need them to be at any given moment. Heroes besides Superman who fared well in the study were characters like Thor, Wolverine, Mystique, and even the Inhuman’s leader Black Bolt, whose lethal voice was deemed “the most destructive of the superheroes.”

As for who didn’t fare well in the study, I hate to break it to you fans of the Dark Knight, but the Leicesters study found Batman to be the most ill-equipped of all the superheroes. This is where the comic book fanboy in me calls the entire study into question, because everyone knows that Batman has files on every super powered hero for their weaknesses, and plays dirty. He’d totally win — just as long as you don’t mention his mother Martha’s name in the middle of a fight. That tends to throw him.

You can read the results of the University of Leicester’s findings here, and even check out the university’s character chart.

So, do you agree that Superman is the most powerful superhero, able to beat anybody? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.

Image: by Mike Deodato, Marvel Comics / DC Comics