In movies the Dark Knight series was more popular than either of the Spiderman film series, In Video games Batman is bigger with the Arkham Series. In TV Batman is bigger with Gotham, There's been far more animated movies with Batman in too.

Batman is bigger, more popular, more famous and has had a bigger cultural impact then Spiderman.

Superman and Batman are in a league of their own. The Raimi made Spider-Man popular with kids but overall, Superman and Batman are cross-generational. Iron Man is popular while RDJ is around - give it a couple of years and it'll be gone.

My movie made 1.2 billion on its own. I'm just that charming. Hell I even decided to help cap go above the billion mark by making myself the focus of his movie, cause that's just the kinda guy I am

Has Iron Man reached the same iconic level as Superman, Batman, and Spiderman?

Absolutely not. In no way. And those of you who are simply going by movie box office totals are doing it all wrong. We're talking generations of comics, shows, other movies, merchandise, and overall lore.

Sure he's super popular now thanks to Disneys clever marketing designed to infiltrate kids minds, something that they'll appreciate for years to come. And will the MCU character survive without RDJ? I doubt it. He MADE Stark come to life in ways I think would be hard to replicate.

To the others arguing, the top 3 most iconic and popular heroes, really in ANY order are Superman, Spiderman, Batman. It's been this way for decades.

No Batman is way more popular than Iron Man. But Iron Man might beat superman since its own movies did well and he is the main avenger. (Yes I know captain America is the leader.) Bit as he said himself he buys everything, designs everything, makes everyone look cool and especially in the second avengers movie has the biggest role considering the story.

Worldwide, Spiderman has grossed 4 billion in 5 movies, Batman has grossed 4.5 billion in.... 8.

In merchandise, Spiderman outsell Batman by a factor of 3 (!!). In TV, should we include the Spiderman animated series?

I've always seen those heroes as being popular back then as they are today. Back in the 90's and 2000's I remember seeing all sorts of Superman shows and of course the movies that came way before Spiderman's at the time. Spiderman was also somewhat popular during his first time on TV and eventually the silver screen. Iron Man also had a form of popularity of his own during the 90's, maybe not as much during the early 2000's but eventually came into his own during 08-10 and onwards.

Batman has been popular for god knows how long, just as much as Superman has been around for, a lot longer than Spidey that's for sure. Hell Batman more or less has his foot in the live action, animated and animated movies side as well as gaming, Spiderman has yet to have a slew of animated movies the way WB has been throwing some teen/adult ones the past 5-7 years now. I've yet to see a SPiderman animated feature film that shows us as much gore and death as Justice LEague: Flashpoint Paradox.

I guess so, it depends what people mean by Popularity. I'll stick by the statement that Batman is more famous than Spiderman.

More famous, sure, but not more popular. Superman is more famous than both, but lags far behind in popularity.

To be honest, I think Iron Man is getting up there among the most popular. Though its mainly due to the Iron Man movies, RDJ did a great job in portraying a character that once was more of an after thought in the past, compared to Spider-Man, Thor, and even Capt. America.

As for being up there with Spidey, Batman, and Superman? I'm not sure about that yet. Spidey is still the face of Marvel along with Wolverine. Spiderman's story remains one of the most well-known in pop culture: a kid who was given a gift/curse and has to endure the hardships of being a superhero.

Superman and Batman are icons for decades and have continued to be so even during these changing times. I'm even more impressed with Superman's perseverance as an icon as comics moved towards a more darker and more serious tone, which brought Batman to even greater popularity that surpasses Superman during the 80s till now. Sure, Supes is probably not the most popular hero due to the misunderstandings of him being too much of a boyscout, but his logo and name still resonates for a reason.

Anyway, I think Iron Man is just behind Capt. America, Wonder Woman (though some would say she's up there with Supes, Bats, and Spidey due to her own iconic status and enduring character), Wolverine, Robin, Hulk, etc.