Provided by USDish
It’s currently a new era of superheroes and the team at USDish is not upset one bit that these new blockbusters are bringing us back into movie theaters.
With Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness recently released and Thor: Love and Thunder coming soon, USDish was curious to find out which superhero is favored in each U.S. state and which comic book universe reigns supreme.
Although most of the U.S. states preferred DC’s characters, the country overall enjoys tuning into the Marvel Universe more.
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 this 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 the 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, USDish used SEMRush keyword volume data. Once they had a list of 20 superheroes total (10 for DC Universe and 10 for Marvel Universe), they used Google Trends to see which state googled which superhero the most.
For each state’s most popular comic book universe, they analyzed each state on Google Trends to find out which of the comic book universes they googled the most.
