Is Superman Really More Famous Than Batman?

[Enda8011]

He should have kept to his word. Superman 4 was a terrible movie.
Thanks for the history lesson, didn't know that.

Reeve said, initially, that he would make a cameo as Superman for Supergirl (1984), the year after Superman III, the way Ben Affleck would later cameo as Matt Murdock for Elektra. Reeve did not, however, appear in Supergirl.

[Enda8011]

I'm not a comic/superhero historian, but the impression I get is Batman's popularity is more recent. He was popular with the Adam West tv show, then waned, then he became popular again with Frank Miller and the movies,

Another thing to keep in mind is that Batman wasn't as big of a character in the 1950's as he is now. Many people like to think that SUPERMAN and BATMAN have been of near equal stature since their debuts in the late 1930's. But prior to the Adam West TV series, Batman was in a very distant second place to Superman. In fact, during the 1940's, Batman was in a distant third place behind rivals Superman & Captain Marvel. By the 1950's, Superman was the star of a long running radio show and a long running newspaper strip. He also had appeared in several innovative theatrical cartoons in the early 40's. Batman on the other hand, had only guest started in a handful of episodes of the Superman radio show, his newspaper strip only lasted a few years and he hadn't made the jump to cartoons. In the 1950's, Batman just didn't have anywhere near Superman's name-recognition and multimedia clout.

Well, I was unable to find sales figures for BATMAN for the 50s, so let's go to the nearest thing, 1960.

In 1960, the eponymous titles sold:

BATMAN ... 502,000 (avg circulation)
SUPERMAN 810,000 (avg circulation)

So, I guess you were correct in that Batman was just not as popular as Supes.

To bolster the effect the Batman TV show had on sales, look at 1965 (pre-TV show):

BATMAN ... 453,745
SUPERMAN 823,829

But in 1966 (after the first season):

BATMAN ... 898,470
SUPERMAN 719,946


Regarding the Metropolis Rogues Gallery, by and large, live action adaptations of the Kryptonian have given them short shrift. The George Reeves show used none of them.

http://marvelmasterworksfansite.yuku...allenge?page=2

[The Darknight Detective]

They're both equally well known at this point. More popular? Batman. More iconic? Probably Supes.

[Enda8011]

Interesting to note that in the 1950's, the Superman titles included:

Superman
Action Comics
Adventure Comics
Superboy
's Pal Jimmy Olsen
World's Finest

In the early 1960's, Lois Lane received her own title.

Now, the Gotham franchise only had, as I recall, two titles of its own during the 1950's, with Star-Spangled from 1950 to 1952.

[Trey]

Under age 40 is dominated by Batman, the last 10 years his comics are always the top sellers on Amazon, bookstored.

TDKR
Year One
killing Joke

have sold 3 times as many books as the top 3 superman books, which other than Earth One, have never been in the top ten graphic novel sold

[dupersuper]

Under age 40 is dominated by Batman, the last 10 years his comics are always the top sellers on Amazon, bookstored.

TDKR
Year One
killing Joke

have sold 3 times as many books as the top 3 superman books, which other than Earth One, have never been in the top ten graphic novel sold

The blurb on my Death of Superman says it's the best selling trade of all time...

[The Animal Man]

i gotta say in this day and age batman is more famous and well known due to the fact that superman's pretty much left the spotlight batman's had several cartoons movies comics and games while superman has only had 1 cartoon 1 tv series that was way too high school drama for anyone's tastes a game that's so terrible that everyone knows it by name(Superman 64) and as far as movies go the man of steel has seen less action than the caped crusader

it's been a long time since supes was a big deal in hollywood
and it's been a long time since superman was the top dog of dc comics