Originally Posted by
MRP
Of all time-Superman. The comic industry was built on the back of Superman's popularity, and as popular as Batman is now and has been since the ;ate 80s, even with the Batmania surrounding the fist movie in '89, it never reaches the sales levels of the Superman books (Superman and Action routinely sold over a million copies per issue through the 40s, and even through the 60s with the Adam West series and into the 70s Superman titles routinely sold 2-3 times what the Batman titles did, in fact Detective was selling so poorly in the 70s it was nearly cancelled and was mashed together with Batman Family in an attempt to save the title) and merchandising of Superman in the 30s, 40s and 50s was beyond the pale, surpassing the market penetration even of Batman today. In the 60s DCs best selling titles were: Superman, Action Comics, Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, Adventure Comics featuring Superboy and the Legion or Supergirl, Superboy and World's Finest featuring Superman and Batman. The other Batman titles, without Superman's presence, weren't in the top tier of sellers, even during the peal of Adam West Batmania. That certainly increased Batman sales but it still never caught Superman in sales of comics. It wasn't until the 80s when Batman sales topped Superman sales for the first time, but those Batman sales averaged less than a third of what Superman sales were at their peak in the Golden Age.
Batman certainly rules the roost now, but if we're talking all time, even Batman's success now doesn't reach anywhere near the levels of success and popularity Superman had through his first 50 years, and sales of Batman comic themselves have never even approached what Superman titles used to sell regularly. And without Superman paving the way for the super-hero and fueling the growth of the comic book industry as a whole, there would be no Batman (created in the rush to get more super-heroes out there to capitalize on the success of Superman) and no roost for Batman to rule today.
-M