Article Author: Prof. Colleen Donnelly

Over the past decade, Marvel and DC movies and series have begun to provide traumatic backstories to their villains and antiheroes to partially justify their actions and make them appear more empathetic. While this may further engage the audience and evoke their sympathy, these media representations are sensationalizing and perpetuating misinformation for entertainment about mental illness, conflating schizophrenia and antisocial personality disorder, fueling the misnomer that the mentally ill are prone to violence, and suggesting childhood trauma leads to more serious psychiatric conditions. These popular superhero stories dangerously further stigmatize mental illness by perpetuating existing myths rather than debunking pervasive stereotypes.

Keywords: Antisocial Personality Disorder; Sociopathy; Psychopath; Supervillains; DC Series and Films; Marvel Cinematic Universe; Marvel Films; Trauma

Article Review Status: Published

Pages: 1-10

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