Depends on what you mean by great. I feel as though few people have a lifetime favorite comic character, while many will usually flop back and forth. I've always been a fan of the big three: Supes, Bats, and Spidey, but it has varied throughout my life. They're all pretty equal IMO. Superman may have some trouble with games and movies, but he's the ultimate wish fulfillment. Spidey is extremely marketable and young kids and teens will always sympathize and relate to him. Batman represents overcoming your inner darkness and channeling it into something helpful.

Well,he's more popular since 2002.Still is.

Has his movies really done better? I don't think they have.

In terms of popularity Spider-Man has been above Superman for quite awhile. Superman is recognizable, but not very popular, which is a shame.

Spidey was actually number 1 all the way until 2008 when Batman and Iron Man started taking over.

Marvel vs DC Movie $$

You can get the numbers for ASM2 and MoS from IMDB.com

.. but yeah, Superman is loosing relevance fast, Mary Sue syndrome and DCs reluctance to let writers move away from it are hurting him.

No, Spiderman is a movie-hype, Superman is a cultural institution.

As for the movies... they've gotten far more flak from critics and fans than MoS has (ok, atleast from those with a more open mind), and partially that has to do with Sony having a constant deadline to put out Spiderman movies to hang onto the rights and the $$$ they rake in despite how terrible the movies are.

I'm going to regard the question as asking which is the more popular character because "greatest" is really subjective and you could make great arguments for both. I think that Spider-Man is a little more popular, in fact the only hero he trails is Batman. I think that his character reaches a wider range of demographics than Superman, not to mention his media presence has dwarfed Superman's over the past decade and that is very, very important.

This comment really reeks of bias. First off, the idea that those who criticize the Spider-Man films more than MOS have a more open mind is absolutely ridiculous. Believe it or not, it is possible to go into MOS with an open mind and still criticize it just as much as it is possible to go into a Spider-Man film with an open mind and enjoy them, don't waste time explaining otherwise. Secondly, why do you think the Superman franchise was rebooted? It wasn't to launch a new DC Cinematic universe, it was to hang on to the rights of Superman.

Spidey has been more popular than Supes for years now. Supes hasn't been anywhere close to Spidey whether it be movies, comics, cartoons, toys and games etc.

Superman is the Rapper's Delight of Superheroes. He's the first one. There are "better" songs than Rapper's Delight but they will come and go and Rapper's Delight will always remain as the original. Same with Superman. Spiderman even rocks Superman's colors. The idea of Spidey being a regular kid with problems is a juxtaposition to Supes who has super everything and has to PRETEND to have shortcomings. So even Spidey's most relatable trait is still derived from Superman indirectly.

Having said that:

Yes Spiderman has surpassed Superman (popularity is the only measure of this. Every single other aspect of these "guys" is FICTION). No one has come close to f***ing with Bats yet.

The space shuttle is cooler than a campfire, but the campfire is way more significant in a historical sense.

And that comment reeks of ignorance.

Warner Bros. own DC, the company, the characters and even the toilet paper in the loo. The only way WB and DC will ever loose the rights to the franchise is if they stop printing the books.

Secondly, Superman was rebooted because the films they would have been otherwise built on was from years before the Crisis on Infinite Earths. And as we saw with Superman Returns, what was cool in the late 70'ties isn't cool 40 years later. So why was Spiderman rebooted less than a decade after the first movie?

Thirdly, most of the criticism I've seen has been based on how it wasn't the Superman from the 50'ties, or how pissy everyone got when Superman killed Zod (conveniently forgetting Superman has killed Zod on paper and on the silver screen before and shown far less remorse about it in either case). With this 'new' Spiderman, people seem to be constantly harping on how the badguys look like garbage, how predictable the story is when its not about how stupid the whole thing about Pete's dad's science experiments with Oscorp is or how the only human in it is Gwen Stacy.

More popular certainly, more iconic, no I don't think so. I think Superman is almost a brand name like coca cola. You go places and people wearing stuff with the big S on it, not just kids. The word kryptonite has become a by-word for weakness..Superman was the original super-powered character and will always be. But Spiderman is certainly more popular at the moment, definitely shifting more comics too. Blame that partly on DCs poor marketing of the Superman brand and his comics. Action Comics is a great read at the moment, one of the best runs on Superman for years, but hardly anyone knows about it and it sold 37,000 copies last month.

This is a good point. Also has to do with how well DC marketed their heroes, even way back when, by giving them all a unique, discernible logo. People who don't even read Superman or watch the movies will wear the Superman "S" shirts because it's more of a cultural thing.

On the flip side, I don't think that makes Supes a greater character so much as he planted the flag first in a lot of ways. It's arguable, at any rate. They're both obviously "great" characters as they've endured for so long.

I'm not a huge fan of either, really, so I could care less. Just saying.

@outside_85: Not quite, one of the reasons why Zack Snyder was hired to take on MOS was because he could get the film done as soon as possible. Why you might ask? Well WB was in a legal battle with the heirs of Siegel and Schuster over the rights to Superman in the late 2000's, one of the claims that was made by the Siegel family (that was supported by the court in 2008 and then struck down in 2013) was that if a Superman film wasn't in production by 2011, the Siegels would be entitled to 50% of the Superman rights, what were those rights, the origin, the suit, Clark Kent and everything else from Action Comics #1, WB would have been left with things like Luthor, the power of flight and Kryptonite, basically would make developing a Superman movie close to impossible. So at the time, they needed to start production on the film.

Your third point, there are plenty of reviews that talk about problems with the movie that are more than just "he's not like Richard Donner Superman", hell I did a blog where I talked about all the problems the film had that never talked about how this wasn't Richard Donner's Superman. Look if you like MOS over the Spider-Man films, that's fine, but don't think that people who like Spider-Man films over MOS don't have as open of mind as those who think the way you do because that line of thinking ironically, is very close minded.

I actually think Spidey's popularity is fading. Like Batman, he's been shoved in our face so much, I'm losing interest. Superman has been unpopular for years, and even with the awful MOS movie, I feel like he's slowly making a comeback (if WB dosen't decide to throw him under the bus again). I would say that I consider Spider-Man to be the 2nd greatest comic book character of all time, but I still feel like Superman is number one.

I feel like the end of this video sums it up best: (skip to the 7th minute)

I think this video sums up the situation best:

Spiderman will always be popular, as will be Superman. Right now, Spiderman is definitely more popular. Don't agree his popularity is fading, how you can say that when this months Issue 1 of Spiderman is the highest selling comic this decade? Whether that makes Spidey greater than Superman is really open to debate. Personally I have always been a fan of both....

Of course... :)

Hell no, Spidey's not even in his own universe as revered and respected as Superman in his own verse. He's always in a eternal underdog role playing off the qualities of superior superheroes and teams while he's abused, suffering, stuck, and failing.

Superman is basically god, god or jesus as a alien with the power to inspire billions of lifeforms across the multiverse and do the impossibly heroic against any evil threat.

As a franchise, people still wear the famous S symbol more than Spiderman clothes. Hell Cap Americas Shield has more credit as a symbol on shirts than Spider-Man symbols on shirts.

Spider-Mans time is done, he had a good run.... the new movies are good... but in two years time, its all about Justice League and Avengers. Sony will be left behind, Spider-Man will lose his importance and hype as more Marvel movies come out and more Avengers movie come out.

This is surely to happend if not Marvel somehow gets the rights back to Spider-Man or i sadly see him dissapear completly, only still living strong on the raimi series.

My money would be on that Superman, Batman and Avengers are the heavy hitters in 2020, were Spider-Man will have faded almost completly away in the background.

Spider-Man may be more popular at the moment, but imo I actually enjoyed MOS a great deal more than any of the Spidey flicks, past and present.

That's what pains me the most as I'm much more of a Spidey fan than Superman.

I have most of ASM vol 1 and many other Spider-Man titles in my collection and would love to see MARVEL STUDIOS regain the film rights and present a mature treatment of the web slinger as an adult.

They really need to move away from the Spider-Teen sagas. They have done them to death with Sony perpetuating the High School stuff.

Fair enough that the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book series launched in 2000 was a throwback to High School stories, but the longest running flagship title Amazing Spider-Man has seen Peter Parker graduate High School, College and enter the workforce.

This is where I believe MARVEL STUDIOS will produce an adaptation that is far more genuine and faithful to the character with a mature aged Peter Parker who has left some but not all of his nerdy geeky traits behind.

No, no and no. People place too much stock on films. Spiderman only got his first film in 2002 and he was massive way before then. Spiderman is and will always be one of the big 3, alongside Supes and Bats. By 2020 RDJ will have given up Iron Man, so a large part of the Avengers appeal will have faded. As for Justice League, the jury is out on a) if they will ever get a film finished b) whether it will be any good as their only not Bats/Supes film to date (Green Lantern), flopped!

Spider man... No I don't think so