Has Iron Man always been more popular than Captain America?

[Shaka]

Sorry for the misleading title but my question is has Iron Man historically been more popular than Cap? Is he presently more popular? Iron Man was created before Cap was re-introduced, Iron Man headlined Tales of Suspense first and was the headliner when the book featured both of them. Iron Man has had more animated series and while they both have a live-action Iron Man has had an animated film and his film was definitely more popular. I'm not quite sure about who has more merchandise although I'm pretty sure he's had more video games. I also don't know about historical sales levels of both although I believe the Kurt Busiek run was real popular? Iron Man also seems to have been blessed with more consistent creative teams than Cap over the years.

[JdRavnos]

I imagine it's come and gone in phases. I know right before the Heroes Reborn mess, Mark Waid was writing a critically well received run on Cap that was starting to build up word-of-mouth (which made the tranistion to Rob Liefeld even more bitter), meanwhile at the same time Iron Man was in dire straights and resulted to the very-gimmicky "Teen Tony" concept in one of the worst Iron Man/Avengers periods ever.

[Sighphi]

Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Cap have all had books that sold in the hundreds of issues.
They were all popular until the focus was shifted to other people.
Now the focus has been shifted back to them so they are getting more attention than they did before.

[razorwing77]

Both books have gone in cycles since their inception. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are bad. In recent years, both books started out strong with Heroes Return. Cap even had two books at one point. But both series started to decline in the early part of this decade, and both rebooted about the same time. I'd say Cap has been a little more popular since then, but with Iron Man's movie, he has the edge at the moment.

[SlamBurger]

Has Iron Man EVER been more popular than Cap?

[The Stampede]

Amongst most viewers of the latest movie? Iron Man
Amongst most comic book readers? Cap

[Eli Katz]

Cap used to be the guiding force of Marvel's heroes. Now Tony has tried to take on that role, but with a very diminished reputation.

But I have no idea whose books have sold better over the last three, four decades. My guess is Captain America has usually sold better than Iron Man, but that's just a guess.

[Kahn]

Before Civil War I couldn't have even imagined it.

[SuperginraiX]

I think, historically speaking, Cap's the more popular of the two.

Iron Man's my favorite super hero and he's got a nice cult following, but there's a lot of truth to the fact that "anyone can wear a suit of armor" and that on the surface there's not a lot special with Iron Man compared to Cap. This discounts personality and the recent inclusion of Extremis, of course, but those are also things that an outsider doesn't see as readily apparent.

So you basically have "America's Super Soldier" vs "dude in an armored suit." By that comparison and leaving everything else out of it, Cap's got a lead... well, as long as you like America, I guess.

I find Tony more interesting than Steve and with a recent movie out and the events of Civil War, Iron Man has had a major boost in importance. And, of course, Cap's dead and that doesn't really help matters. Barnes is pretty interesting and the current Cap comic is a great, great read but it's definitely not the a major focus of the Marvel Universe. Also: even in Captain America Tony Stark has a presense. Even if you aren't reading Iron Man, you're probably reading a book that he appears in.

So, for one of the first times in history I'd guess, Iron Man is more popular that Captain America.

Probably. I don't know. :p

[sinosleep]

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=iron+man&word2=captain+america

[tavella]

Cap used to be the guiding force of Marvel's heroes. Now Tony has tried to take on that role, but with a very diminished reputation.

But I have no idea whose books have sold better over the last three, four decades. My guess is Captain America has usually sold better than Iron Man, but that's just a guess.

Captain America has usually been more popular than Iron Man, in terms of sales, but they normally aren't hugely far apart . Post CW the gap has been pretty high, though I daresay the movie and the new book will push IM hard in the next few charts. You can get an idea of 21st century sales from going to The Beat sales posts (http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/05/01/marvel-month-to-month-sales-march-2008/) and working your way back, and if you hunt around on this site (http://www.comichron.com/VitalStatistics/ComicShopOrders/tabid/226/Default.aspx) you can find from the mid to late 90s.

[SquidSquod]

Movie form helped Iron Man more than Cap. Moviegoers are more sticking to high tech superhero than a flag costumed superhero (considering the quality of film remains the same).

Comics give a big slant to Cap. Cap has never acted douche to other superheroes, will IM can and has done it many times. In DC Comics realm where only a few characters are focused, Batman can act douche many times and that's like his prerogative. Batfans cheered when Batman act douche to minor characters. Marvel pushed many characters, so a character that don't act properly to other characters will likely be vilified.

[Xheight]

The short answer is no. As I fan of the shell-head over the flagboy I wish I could say otherwise but I don't think there ever was a point where Cap even hit sales so low that it was facing cancelation or was kicked to writers to try anything they wanted. Like the once canceled Hulk or the held up bi-monthly Xmen, Iron Man was according to:

David Michelinie: [IRON MAN] was open and Bob jumped at it, since Iron Man was one of his favorite characters.

Bob Layton: We were given a choice of three lower end books to work on and I jumped out of my seat when I realized that IRON MAN was one of those choices. That was the one book in the entire industry that I wanted to do more than any other. At the time we took it over, sales were lackluster and the book was in desperate need of revitalizing. David was never a "hardcore Iron Man fan" in his youth. David's lack of a personal history with Iron Man's mythology proved to be a tremendous asset—translating into his fresh, more realistic approach to the character.

Demon in Bottle was just one of those more realistic approaches to the character. Even they didn't have monster sales.

Cap on the other hand has always been held a soft spot in Marvel editorial as part of their deeper golden age history and was always treated with reverence and attention.

[Scelestus]

the very-gimmicky "Teen Tony" concept in one of the worst Iron Man/Avengers periods ever.

Aaaigh!! Here I'd successfully blocked that whole period outta my mind! Nice going!

[Bandito]

There was a time in the 1940's and 50's when Captain America was more popular. Back then you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who had heard of Iron Man.

[The Stampede]

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=iron+man&word2=captain+america*Cough.* Amongst most viewers of the latest movie? Iron Man *Cough.*

I'm quite positive those numbers would be different before the film.

[RedRonin]

No, but he's always been cooler.

Well, except when Cap was punching Nazis.

[Candid Rook]

There was a time in the 1940's and 50's when Captain America was more popular. Back then you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who had heard of Iron Man.
I agree. Iron man not being created until the 60's was a serious setback to his popularity in the 40's and 50's when compared with Captain America during that time.

[Candid Rook]

Amongst most viewers of the latest movie? Iron Man
Amongst most comic book readers? Cap

Exactly. If we are just looking at comic sales then recent figures suggest that Captain America is more popular than Iron Man by a long way at the moment. The Captain America book is hugely successful sales wise while Iron mans sales have, unfortunately, slumped down to the low end of the scale. No doubt this will change now the movie has been released and a new title is being published. At least for a little while.