Travis Petersen | May 2, 2022
Marvel vs. DC: Who Prevails in Your State?
Jump to:
In 2022, the superhero phase is far from over. Americans can’t seem to get enough of caped crusaders and masked vigilantes, shown by the global success of Spider-Man: No Way Home and the release of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness as well. The DC Universe is also adding superhero flicks to their library, including a standalone Flash film due out later in 2022 and Black Adam starring Dwayne Johnson to go with their critically-acclaimed superhero film The Batman. While DC and Marvel both continue to churn out comic books as well, the age-old question remains: which superhero universe is better? Everyone can’t help but watch the previous movies and then compare notes about which side possesses the better, stronger, wealthier, or smarter characters.
We’ve done this before and we’ve done it again—for the third time, USDISH wanted to know which hero (or anti-hero) was the most searched for across the United States from both the DC and Marvel Universe. Which billionaire philanthropist-made-superhero captured the hearts of Americans: Iron Man or Batman? Which femme fatale punched and kicked their way onto our list: Black Widow or Harley Quinn? Did the Man of Steel reign supreme again or did the King of Wakanda Black Panther take his place on the throne?
Interesting Findings
The Battle for Supremacy
In 2018, the Marvel Universe dominated preferences across the nation. The DC Universe came roaring back in 2019 and took over as the preferred comic book universe. In 2022, Marvel is back on top, preferred in 29 states. When it comes to Marvel vs. DC characters though, DC characters are more popular across fandoms. What does that mean exactly? More people preferred DC superheroes individually but enjoyed the Marvel Universe collectively . For example, the Dark Knight was favored in Kentucky, Nevada, and Oklahoma, but that same population would rather watch a Marvel film or read their comics.
Where are they now?
Thor was popular back in 2019 when five states chose him as their favorite character. This time around, the God of Thunder was nowhere to be found, even with Thor: Love and Thunder expected to come out in the summer of 2022. DC’s Supergirl was also a popular choice back in 2019, with the new series being picked up by the CW. Unfortunately, she was also missing from our list, making it a true disappearing act for Kara Zor-El. Some other notable missing DC and Marvel characters include Wonder Woman, Star-Lord, Hulk, and Catwoman.
How it Started vs. How it’s Going
How did the superheroes of yesteryear fare this time around? Both the Flash of DC and Deadpool of Marvel fame were only searched the most in two states each back in 2019. This time around, they are the most searched superhero characters for their respective universes, with Deadpool taking the top spot as the most searched superhero in America in 13 states. The Flash came in second at 11 states, a huge bump from his search rate three years ago. You couldn’t find Captain America or Harley Quinn on our list in 2019, but they found their way into plenty of search bars this time around, with the First Avenger topping five states and Harls searched the most in three.
New Heroes Save the Day
This year, a few new faces graced both our screens and search bars. On the heels of his new Disney+ series, Hawkeye made his debut on our list with Iowa wanting to learn more about the bow and arrow aficionado and his new protege…also Hawkeye? Morbius also made his debut in the movie theaters and on our list, with one state (Alaska) curious about the literal bat man of the Marvel universe. After her prequel movie came out in late 2021, Black Widow burst through the proverbial glass ceiling to make it onto our list and into the hearts of Utahns.
Methodology
To identify each state’s most popular superheroes, we used SEMRush keyword volume data. Once we had our list of 20 superheroes total (10 for DC Universe and 10 for Marvel Universe), we used Google Trends to see which state googled which superhero the most.
For each state’s most popular comic book universe, we analyzed each state on Google Trends to find out which of the comic book universes they googled the most.
| State | Most Searched Superhero | Most Searched Universe |
|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | Aquaman | Marvel Universe |
| Kentucky | Batman | Marvel Universe |
| Nevada | Batman | Marvel Universe |
| Oklahoma | Batman | Marvel Universe |
| Utah | Black Widow | Marvel Universe |
| Georgia | Black Panther | DC Universe |
| Maryland | Black Panther | DC Universe |
| California | Captain America | Marvel Universe |
| Massachusetts | Captain America | Marvel Universe |
| Pennsylvania | Captain America | Marvel Universe |
| Vermont | Captain America | Marvel Universe |
| Washington | Captain America | Marvel Universe |
| Colorado | Deadpool | DC Universe |
| Maine | Deadpool | DC Universe |
| Nebraska | Deadpool | DC Universe |
| Ohio | Deadpool | DC Universe |
| South Dakota | Deadpool | DC Universe |
| Wyoming | Deadpool | DC Universe |
| Arizona | Deadpool | Marvel Universe |
| Idaho | Deadpool | Marvel Universe |
| Indiana | Deadpool | Marvel Universe |
| Minnesota | Deadpool | Marvel Universe |
| Montana | Deadpool | Marvel Universe |
| North Dakota | Deadpool | Marvel Universe |
| Wisconsin | Deadpool | Marvel Universe |
| Alabama | Flash | Marvel Universe |
| Mississippi | Flash | DC Universe |
| New Hampshire | Flash | Marvel Universe |
| New Jersey | Flash | Marvel Universe |
| Virginia | Flash | Marvel Universe |
| Arkansas | Flash | DC Universe |
| Connecticut | Flash | DC Universe |
| Delaware | Flash | DC Universe |
| Kansas | Flash | DC Universe |
| Louisiana | Flash | DC Universe |
| Oregon | Flash | DC Universe |
| District of Columbia | Green Lantern | Marvel Universe |
| West Virginia | Harley Quinn | Marvel Universe |
| New Mexico | Harley Quinn | DC Universe |
| Texas | Harley Quinn | DC Universe |
| Iowa | Hawkeye | Marvel Universe |
| Alaska | Morbius | Marvel Universe |
| Illinois | Superman | Marvel Universe |
| Michigan | Superman | DC Universe |
| Missouri | Superman | Marvel Universe |
| Rhode Island | Superman | Marvel Universe |
| South Carolina | Superman | Marvel Universe |
| Florida | Superman | DC Universe |
| New York | Superman | DC Universe |
| North Carolina | Superman | DC Universe |
| Tennessee | Superman | DC Universe |
For any media inquiries, contact media@usdish.com. USDISH is an authorized reseller of Dish Network.
