What was Iron Mans Popularity like Pre MCU?

I might be wrong but wasn’t he a B Lister?

Yeah he def was a b-lister, an argument could even be made for a c-lister. In my experience he was only known within the comic community, and even then he was not the level of Hulk, Spider-Man, XMEN, Wolverine, Superman, Batman etc..not even the level of early 90’s hit property’s from Image Comics. If you walked up to a random person on the street and asked them who Tony Stark was they’d probably think he was a local tax accountant or something. Iron Man didn’t hit until RDJ revamp the character in ‘08, now he’s a household name, it’s crazy.

Honestly, he was probably C-list.

I never heard of him

He was a B lister for sure. Maybe even a C lister.

A lot of people had heard of him, but no one really cared about him or even knew much about him beyond the fact that he had a robotic suit.

Within the comic community Iron Man was known yet neglected.

Outside the comic community Iron Man was inconsequential.

apart from spiderman and wolverine he was the only other Marvel superhero I knew of before MCU.

I'd say a B-Lister. Maybe C. While an original Avenger I don't think he was anywhere near as popular as his fellow Avengers like Thor, Captain America or the Hulk. Well below other characters like Spider-Man and probably even Daredevil too.

Iron man IS the biggest evidence of how things can change over night. At best Iron man was B. Now he's the biggest single, not even just hero but movie character period. Because of Iron man RDJ was the highest paid actor in Hollywood for three years in a row. At the biggest theme park in the world, Disney World there is a actual Stark Expo. Iron man has been the lead in 5 of the highest grossing superhero or films period. IM3 was the highest grossing hero film until BP.

During Superman's, Batman's or Spider-man's prime they never made the impact Ironman did at any one particular time. Iron man totally spit in the face of comic fans who thought they knew how the holy order of comic heroes had to go.

@generalbeastgod, is that you?

@_kingoflatveria: ???

He was a B-lister like Captain America appropriately enough. Spidey, Wolverine, the rest of the X-Men and the Hulk were at the top and I think The Punisher was close in the mix along with Daredevil in popularity. I had a friend who read Thor so I guess he had a sizeable following. Honestly, I don't remember the Avengers themselves being all that popular in the 90's but the addition of the West Coast Avengers and Alpha Flight blurs my memory. Obviously, all of the X-books were the focus as far as team books went. I read the Fantastic Four back then, but I don't remember if they were more or less popular than the Avengers. Black Panther and Dr. Strange were characters people knew from their appearance in more popular books. No one knew of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Ah, the 90's were pretty crazy looking back.

You don't lead 1/2 of the Marvel Civil War and be a C lister. he was a solid B list hero

He most definitely wasn't a C lister.

This.

I had never heard of him

@gobbluth: Everyone, you may add this guy to CaptainSalt's alts.

@jujucrunk@charliechampion@generalbeastgod@captainsalt

You were even easier to spot this time.

A-list for the fangirls.

Oh, pre-MCU? Well, at least I've known the name before reading any comics or watching any MCU movies. IIRC my dad used to work at comic book store so he might've been the one that told me.

Come on guys, he was not a C-Lister, he was a B-Lister and he always had a very active role in the bigger MU.

I knew him from Ultimate Avengers

Wasn't old enough to read comics in 2008 (was like 4, lmao) but even then he wasn't close to the aforementioned A-listers like Spider-Man, Hulk, Wolverine, etc. I remember walking into Toys'R'Us and seeing all the assortments of superhero merchandise, and there was absolutely nothing for Iron Man.

So the MCU got you into comics?

@jumpstart55: I still don't read many comics (has to be online, as there's no comic stores or shops that sell them where I live) but yeah, it did help.

Thats dope. It still blows my mind that an entire generation of comic fans got intrduced to Superheroes and comics from the MCU and Possibly DCEU.

Before MCU I only remembered IM from some boring cartoon. I hated him because that Iron Man cartoon was always before my favourite show and it was so boring and bad I was falling asleep during it lol Same with Silver Surfer cartoon, it was awful.

He was a B-lister that was prominently known for overcoming his alcoholism, that Marvel and its fans used to promote that their world was more "realistic".