Has Ironman out-cooled Batman?

I mean, think about it. Ironman 3 was more successful on the box office than The Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises, RDJ is now arguably a bigger star than Bale and Tony Stark became a household name. Not too shabby for a secondary Marvel character!

What do you guys and girls think? Is Ironman/Tony Stark a bigger pop culture icon than Batman/Bruce Wayne?

Well not really, I don't think anyone can really "out-cool" Batman....

Iron Man 3 came out right after The Avengers film so it got a boost from the film success.

Oh and IMO The Dark Knight is way better than Iron Man 3.

Any character can be successful with the right marketing.

No he isn't, but I do think Iron-man is closing in on Spider-man, possibly overtaking Spidey's spot in being the face of Marvel. Which isn't bad considering where he as a decade ago.

Amongst comic book fans I think Batman has a place that won't be usurped for a very long time. However, amongst the general populace I think Iron Man is probably closing the gap between the Big 2 at DC and Spider-Man at Marvel and himself. Iron Man 3 made more money than TDK and TDKR because of Robert Downey Jr more so than because of The Avengers. RDJ is as synonymous with that role as Johnn Depp had become with Captain Jack Sparrow.

@youknowwhattodo: Agreed.

No not at all

No, and its worth reminding Batman is one of the only comic book characters, whose last two movies made a billion each (so no Iron man didn't really beat him there.) However I think why Batman has lasted so long is that he's a chameleon, he changes to fit what decade he's in. Whether was promoting war bonds in the 1940s to fighting quasi-terrorists in Nolan's Batmam movies, that probably why he's successful which is something I would like to see but I wouldn't count on it.

i don't think ironman will ever catch up to batman.

The real question is "Will Ironman stil be popular after Robert Downey Jr. is done with the role?"

Batman's popularity is not predicated on an actor playing the character, rather he is popular because people love the character and have for over 70 years. The same certainly cannot be said for Ironman.

This is Batman we're talking about guys

No on is as cool as him

No, Batman has been the ultimate badass for decades. Iron Man has (and pretty much every comic character other than a select few) has only recently caught the public eye.

Psssh not even

In the views of the general public yes he has by a longshot.

@strider92: A longshot?!? Why would you say that?

I personally think he's taken Spider-mans place at the head of Marvel but no he hasn't out-cooled Batman, at least.... Not yet.

I also agree with some other users here asking if Iron Man will still be popular after RDJ stops playing him.

@deathstroke19: Because Iron Man is in a specific way the most realistic superhero that has been churned out and because of the great leaps in technology we continue to have Iron Man's principle is not just entertaining but also plausible given we have already made exo-skeletons capable of lifting incredible amounts of weight. Is some of it due to RDJ? yeah sure it is but a lot of it also has to do with what Iron Man is. Outside the comic community i'm fairly damn sure that Iron Man is considered far cooler than Batman and with good reason.

@greenarrowfan12: not even remotely close. People still know batman, and most people still recognize him over iron man. Also, RDJ was always a more commonly known actor than Bale, nothing has changed in that respect. Before Batman Begins the only movie I knew Bale from was Equilibrium, and even then, I barely knew him. RDJ has been getting a lot of huge parts though, so it's no surprise that people see him more often, in more than just the superhero franchises.

It's also a question of whether people actually liked him enough to look him up, in which case they may be disheartened that the comics and movies are so different.

@strider92: In the views of the general american public, he might be close. Globally though, I doubt it. There's actually a chart floating out there that has statistical lists of the most discussed heroes, and IM didn't even crack the top 5. He's certainly growing in popularity, but he's certainly not the same sort of gilded icon that bats is.

Ironman out-cool/a bigger pop culture icon than Batman?

For real. Here is the old Marvel poster:

And here is the new Marvel Poster:

Spider-Man, Wolverine and the FF gently brushed aside in favor of the Avengers with Iron Man front and center.

@laserlambert said:

@youknowwhattodo said:

No he isn't, but I do think Iron-man is closing in on Spider-man, possibly overtaking Spidey's spot in being the face of Marvel. Which isn't bad considering where he as a decade ago.

For real. Here is the old Marvel poster:

And here is the new Marvel Poster:

Spider-Man, Wolverine and the FF gently brushed aside in favor of the Avengers with Iron Man front and center.

The older poster looks cooler for some reason probably Spidery's pose.

Not at all.

I doubt it. I hear people talk about how Batman can beat everybody. But even the people that don't read comics and are fanboys know Ironman loses to Thor. If Ironman gets to the point where people who don't read comics believe he can beat everybody then yes.

Probably, the general audience most likely sees Batman as either the ridiculous Adam West version or the Dark Nolan version. Neither were really "cool".

As for popularity, its pretty difficult for anyone to knock Batman of his pedestal and it won't be happening soon.

He maybe more cool then Batman now but cool doesn't necessary mean better superhero & general public still sees Batman as a better superhero so Batman's still more awesome!

This

This and

This.

People don't care about iron Man as much as they care about Batman.

Lol Marvel can put Iron Man in front of as many posters as they want, Spidey will always be king at Marvel.

Nah,while IM definitely has many things going for him he still isn't close to being on the Batman/Superman/Spider-Man level. High earning movies are not really good indicators imo.

i know this comment is like a week old, but i just want ot mention that IM3 was in 3D and TDK and TDKR were not. take that away and its even at best, probably a win for TDK/TDKR. That's why it made more.

Spider-Man 3, the worst of the Sm3 movies made 900m in 2007 without 3D too.

@greenarrowfan12: No. Iron man 3 was in three d so it made more. Bale has Oscars. Batman is a much much more popular character. After avengers is over iron man will fade. Batman is everywhere. Games TV shows, even movies like the lego movie. Not too shabby for a marvle character but its nothing compared to Batman

1. One does not simply "out cool" Batman

2. Mass Popularity =/= Coolness. Titantic is the highest grossing film ever, yet Leo DiCaprio isn't cooler than Rorschach.

People seem to forget that 3D tickets are more expensive than regular / imax.

TDKR sold more tickets than the Avengers, if memory serves. The box office is different because TDKR wasn't in 3D.

LMFAO ya downey JR is bigger than bale lmao... i havent watched a downey movie since iron man where bale is winning oscars and golden globes like its his job. Bale is arguably the biggest star right now, but he has a private life so you don't hear too much about him. The guy is playing Moses for pete sake.

also ironman 3 democraphic was for 10 year olds (one of the main characters being 10), tdk tdkr was made for young adults

iron man doesn't even have any good games to compete with Batman.Batman arkham origins, asylum.

@greenarrowfan12: wrong question, the real question is 'has RDJ out-cooled Batman?' The answer... Yes, Yes he has...ask any woman alive or dead ;)

Anyway as soon as he hangs up his arc-reactor and they re cast the role, then batman will regain his spot... Well unless he is played by someone like Val Kilmer or Ben Affleck or something, that would reduce bat and coolness factor loads ;)

Honestly, outside of message boards, I think that Bats has been stale for quite a while now.

Well people recognize Batman by his character, not so much the actor who plays him. Iron Mans attention is more people being fans of RDJ, not the character itself.

A friend of mine has a problem with that statement:

Nevet

@the_stegman: This isn't that important but titanic is second to avatar. Avatar made about 800 million more than it.

Never.

In his dreams.

...and then Tony wakes up.

@lyrafay: yet also bats has stayed the same at heart as the writers of knightfall said, they wanted to see if people still cared about the fact the he had stayed the same in his morals and attitude.

@cf12793 said:

@youknowwhattodo said:

No he isn't, but I do think Iron-man is closing in on Spider-man, possibly overtaking Spidey's spot in being the face of Marvel. Which isn't bad considering where he as a decade ago.

A friend of mine has a problem with that statement:

Wolverine's solo comic has never outsold Spider-Man's for a long period of time. Check out 2013, which is about as current as it gets:

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2013.html

This is all comics, all distributors. Wolverine's first issue is pretty high up there, but number 2 is way down in 298th place. Everyone collected the number 1 and then dropped it. But Spider-Man? There are 15+ Superior Spider-Man issues between Wolverine's 1st and 2nd best selling ones. That tells you everything you need to know. If Wolverine is more popular or more important to anyone, why is he getting destroyed in sales by fake Spider-Man that a lot of people dropped?

When you can't outsell SpOck, you're not Marvel's biggest hit.