Batman rules Social Media
With over half a century of battle between the titans of the comic world, Marvel and DC have been at each other for the coveted title of the most popular publisher in the marketplace. Over the past decades, this battle has been fought on many worlds, starting from print media in the early 60's, moving on to TV-Series in the 80's and finally to the big screens in 2000. The Avengers was one of the biggest comic story block busters to hit the big screen, raking in close to 1.2 billion. The bar has been raised and its game on for both, with 9 movies planned for Marvel and the much anticipated Man of Steel for DC in 2013.
But how have the superheroes been performing on social media? We thought to take the battle of the superheroes and villains to this world. Whether Superheroes or just humans, social media is all about being social, reaching out to your fans and followers. Superheroes and Super villains are no exception and hence we rank them on how effective they have been in performing their social duties.
Superheroes
Batman is the superhero people look up to the most in social media, with almost double the lead from the second place Iron Man. The rankings presented below is based on the social authority score that our team calculated. The social score is a combination of variables such as accounts, avg tweets, re-tweets etc. To put it simply, its not enough to have the most social profiles, it has to be a combination of the number of social profile, the reach, influence and the level of engagement to find a place in the leader board.
Hence, putting almost a dozen or so variables in play, here are the top 10 Superheroes of Social Media.
Rank Superhero Alter Ego Social Authority Comic
| Rank | Superhero | Alter Ego | Social Authority | Comic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Batman | Bruce Wayne | 87.24 | DC |
| 2 | Iron Man | Tony Stark | 43.34 | Marvel |
| 3 | Wonder Woman | Princess Diana of Themyscira | 21.15 | DC |
| 4 | Superman | Clark Kent | 19.76 | DC |
| 5 | Captain America | Steve Rogers | 17.30 | Marvel |
| 6 | Spider Man | Peter Parker | 3.76 | Marvel |
| 7 | The Incredible Hulk | Robert Bruce Banner | 3.11 | Marvel |
| 8 | The Thing | Ben Grimm | 2.55 | Marvel |
| 9 | Thor | Thor Odinson | 1.50 | Marvel |
| 10 | The Flash | Barry Allenn | 0.13 | Marvel |
Here is a little more detail on the top 10 Superheroes. The most popular cities are the places where most of these accounts originate and as for influence, the higher the better.
| Superhero | Most Popular Cities | Avg Followers | Avg Friends | Avg Tweet | Influence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Captain America | Briarwood, Buenos Aires | 271 | 315 | 10720 | 1.72 |
| Thor Odinson | Glasgow, Washington | 155 | 213 | 4535 | 1.46 |
| Spider Man | New York | 212 | 51 | 1949 | 8.31 |
| Wonder Woman | London, New York | 248 | 202 | 5237 | 2.46 |
| Batman | Gotham, California Pines | 393 | 226 | 4705 | 3.48 |
| Superman | Metropolis, New York | 301 | 138 | 1995 | 4.36 |
| The Flash | Newton | 71 | 90 | 1471 | 1.58 |
| Hulk | Aurora, Dallas | 230 | 217 | 3542 | 2.12 |
| The Thing | Laguna Beach | 296 | 269 | 2839 | 2.20 |
| Iron Man | Atlantis, Baltimore | 981 | 222 | 3575 | 8.84 |
The graph below is a raw comparison of superheroes based on the number of social profiles their fans have created online. Batman takes the lead here, followed by Superman, Wonder Woman and Iron Man.
Top 10 Marvel Superheroes of Social Media Top
Top 10 DC Comic Superheroes of Social Media
90% of the total profiles belong to Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. This doesn't come as a surprise since DC has come out with only 8 branded movies since 2002, the better known has been for the character Batman.
Super Villains
Mainly dominated by DC comic villains, Loki, The Lizard and Green Goblin are the only marvel villains that were able to make the top 10 list with the most social profiles.
The Villains don't seem to be as popular as the Superheroes (obvious from the scores), surprisingly though, Catwoman seems to be more popular in social media than The Joker.
| Rank | Villain | Real Name | Score | Universe | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Loki | Laufeyson | 74.479 | Marvel | California Pines, Hell 352 450 17852 |
| 2 | Catwoman | Selina Kyle | 20.348 | DC | London, Stockholm 611 218 5714 |
| 3 | The Joker | Unknown | 2.628 | DC | Hell, New York 458 210 1905 |
| 4 | Green Goblin | Norman Osborn | 1.765 | Marvel | Cape Town, New York 385 254 7815 |
| 5 | The Penguin | Oswald Cobblepot | 0.382 | DC | Davo City, Lake Michigan 157 78 3659 |
| 6 | Darkseid | Uxas | 0.210 | DC | Albertson, Caillou Bay 190 232 4037 |
| 7 | The Riddler | Edward Nigma | 0.169 | DC | East Los Angeles 103 96 3496 |
| 8 | The Lizard | Dr. Curt Connors | 0.013 | Marvel | Atlanta 168 202 326 |
| 9 | General Zod | Dru-Zod | 0.011 | Marvel | Krypton 57 189 697 |
| 10 | The Scarecrow | Jonathan Crane | 0.001 | DC | Brisbane Market 10 10 234 |
Marvel takes the Trophy
We have taken together the Top 10 Superheroes and Top 10 villains of social media, categorized them according to the publisher and put them on a face-off to see who wins the battle between Marvel and DC Comics. Even though DC has double the social profiles as compared to Marvel (graph below), the social scores are the reverse for the two, with Marvel at 61.31 and DC at 38.68.
Marvel may have won the battle but has it won the war?
Popular Tweets
Connect with us during #CannesLions2024 to learn more about how X is bringing it all together in an open marketplace for ideas, conversation and commerce that accelerates self-expression for all. pic.twitter.com/HhsSegxzQp
— Business (@XBusiness) June 10, 2024