Who is the Most Popular Superhero Today?

Joe Dorish, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Dec 7, 2010 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

Do you know which Superhero is the most popular today? To answer that question I ran the names of the following seven Superheroes through some of the most popular Internet websites in the world. These are these results preceded by a very brief bio of each Superhero.

Spider-man

Spider-man was created by Stan Lee in 1962 as a comic book Superhero. He's gone on to star in movies, TV shows, cartoons, video games, ads and all types of media outlets.

Superman

Superman made his debut in 1932 in a DC Comics comic book. He's gone on to star in movies, TV shows, video games, toys, ads and also has a roller coaster named after him. The name Superman has become part of the American language.

Batman

The caped crusader made his debut in a DC Comics comic book in 1939. Batman is a crime fighting icon in movies, TV shows, video games, ads and cartoons.
A roller coaster ride is named for him at the Six Flags Amusement parks.

Hulk

The Hulk was created by Stan Lee and made his debut in a 1962 comic book called The Incredible Hulk. He's since starred in movies, TV shows, video games, and all forms of media. Is there any parent out there who did not buy their kids a pair of Hulk Hands at some point?

Hercules

Hercules is a mythological superhero who possess great strength as the son of Zeus or Jupiter and the mortal woman Alcmena. Hercules is the original superhero since he dates back to ancient times.

Doctor Who

It's debatable whether or not Doctor Who is a superhero but he does posses a superior intellect and has the ability to regenerate which is really just used to replace different actors who play Doctor Who on TV in the long running sci-fi show. Doctor Who is a Time Lord who travels through time battling aliens such as the Daleks and their creator Davros, Cybermen and the evil Time Lord The Master.

Iron Man

Iron Man is the 3rd Superhero on this list to have been created by Stan Lee. Iron Man debuted in a 1963 comic book and has gone on to make a ton of money in featured films starring Robert Downey Jr.

Google

Doctor Who - 143 million

Iron Man - 95.4 million

Batman - 49.3 million

Superman - 29.9 million

Hercules - 23.4 million

Spider-man - 22.7 million

Hulk - 21.8 million results

Doctor Who turns up the most search results from Google followed by Iron Man. The Hulk brings up the rear with 21.8 million results but combined there are almost 400 million results for these superheroes. That's why all of them keep turning up in movies, as toys, on TV, in ads and all types of media. They are all popular.

AdWords Keyword Global Monthly Searches

Iron Man - 11.1 million

Batman - 11.1 million

Spider-man - 6.1 million

Superman - 4.1 million

Hulk - 3.4 million

Hercules - 2.7 million

Doctor Who - 2.7 million

Iron Man and Batman are searched for the most each month globally. Surprisingly Doctor Who is tied with Hercules for the lowest totals. But again there are over 40 million total globally monthly searches for these superheroes.

Amazon

Batman - 33,026

Spider-man - 27,442

Superman - 25,166

Iron Man - 15,260

Hercules - 13,427

Hulk - 12,201

Doctor Who - 8,388

On Amazon, Batman has the most results followed closely by Spider-man and Superman. Doctor Who is once again last as not many kids want a Doctor Who action figure for Christmas.

YouTube

Iron Man - 1,000,000

Doctor Who - 919,000

Batman - 427,000

Superman - 341,000

Spider-man - 225,000

Hulk - 193,000

Hercules - 98,000

Iron Man rules YouTube with over 1,000,000 videos linked to his name. Doctor Who is not far behind with 919,000. Hercules has the fewest videos linked to his name which is not surprising since he's the oldest and farthest removed from videos. Combined there are well over 3 million videos linked to these seven superheroes.