Who is richer: Batman or Iron Man?
Be honest: if you were a billionaire, would it ever occur to you to spend a good part of your fortune to create special costumes and a structure that could help you fight crime and become a hero? Well, although this idea is unattractive in real life, it happens quite frequently in Marvel and DC Comics comics. And there remains the eternal question among fans: who is richer, Batman or Iron Man?
First of all, it is worth saying that it is very difficult to obtain a single answer to this, since, depending on the phase, the context, and even specific criteria, the result may be different. Here we will be based on a reasonably credible survey, on a projection created by the English bank Vanquis.
“To calculate our superheroes' salaries, we take the average salary of their professions listed in the city where they are based. For characters based on fictional locations (e.g., Gotham City), we take the average pay of the real-world city in which the fictional location is based,” explain the ranking’s authors.
The currencies are based on rates of US$1 equivalent to 76 cents in the pound sterling and 85 cents in the euro, according to the exchange rate in 2020, when the study was carried out. All average salaries and conversions were calculated with reference to August of the same year.
According to the bank, Wayne Enterprises CEO Bruce Wayne (Batman) has an estimated annual salary of $988,902. This puts him ahead of Tony Stark (Iron Man), the CEO of Stark Industries, at $920,006 per year.
Just out of curiosity, another rich man, Oliver Queen (Green Arrow), CEO of Queen Consolidated, would be in third place, with US$894,098 per year. Arthur Curry, Aquaman, who could beat all three together, doesn't even make the list — and that's understandable, as his fortune as king of an underwater nation full of treasures would be incalculable.
Note that, in less than five years, these figures don't even seem that astronomical when compared to the fortunes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, among other technology billionaires. Still, it's good money, right?
Ultimately, we can imagine that, depending on the year, Wayne could be below Stark, and vice versa — the important thing is to keep asking questions like this to keep the fun, discussions and rivalry going.
If you follow me and comment on "BATMAN" I'll answer a fun fact about the character for you.
