Many Americans also say they prefer Marvel comics over DC
Comic book writer, editor, and publisher Stan Lee died on November 12 at the age of 95. During his life, he created a number of beloved comic-book characters, many of whom eventually became the center of various movies, video games, TV shows, and other media. According to new data from YouGov Omnibus, the most popular Stan Lee-created character is Spider-Man, with 22% of Americans saying this character is their favorite.
Other popular choices were Iron Man (9%), The Hulk (8%), Thor (7%) and Black Panther (6%). Men were especially likely (27%) to identify Spider-Man as a favorite character, while women (16%) were less likely to agree.
Throughout the 1960s, Lee scripted, art-directed, and edited most of Marvel's comic book series. In 1972 he became the publisher, and at one point was also the president of the company. In his later years, he also did some work with DC Comics, but many Americans tend to prefer his flagship company.
Though large numbers of people say they have no preference between the two companies, fewer than 10% say they prefer DC across the categories of comics, movies, TV shows and video games. About one-quarter prefer Marvel’s comics and TV shows, while four in ten (39%) say they prefer Marvel movies to DC movies.
For many comic-book aficionados, it’s fun to imagine which superpower they’d most like to have. The most popular responses among Americans were “ability to read minds” (9%), “invisibility” (9%), “super-human intelligence” (9%) and “immortality” (9%). But a similar number (11%) say that they would not want to have any superpowers at all.
