WHO IS

THE MOST POPULAR

SUPERHERO

IN MCU?
Individual Project by Jinqi Li
Instructed by Dr. Alberto Cairo
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There are a bunch of characters in Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), featuring different skill sets. Who is your favourite one? And who do you think is the most popular one?

This project explores the most popular superhero in MCU. It's hard to rank movie characters though, since there's not any evaluation index system to follow. But we can still get a general idea by looking into some data.

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Click on the portraits to see more.
Spider-Man
With amazing spider-like abilities, teenage science whiz Peter Parker fights crime and dreams of becoming an Avenger as Spider-Man.
Participated
2016
2017
2018
2019
Movies     in     MCU     Each     Year
Captain America: Civil War
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Endgame
Spider-Man: Far From Home
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Major Events Happened in Marvel Cinematic Universe

  1. Poignant events in the MCU, such as the birth of the Infinity Stones and vibranium landing on Earth, occur long before any of the movies in the MCU actually take place. But they have a lasting impact on overarching stories and events that take place in individual films.
  2. Steve Rogers becomes Captain America, an event that jumpstarts the formation of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.) and, eventually, the Avengers.
  3. Many events are set in motion that test the heroes in the future, such as Ego finding Peter Quill's mother on Earth, Janet van Dyne disappearing in the Quantum Realm, and Carol Danvers gaining her powers.
  4. The '90s were a turning point for the stories yet to come of Iron Man, Black Panther, and Captain America. It's also when Carol Danvers becomes Captain Marvel.
  5. Tony Stark becomes Iron Man and Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk throughout the mid-to-late 2000s, which prompts the reveal of other heroes.
  6. Thor is put through challenges that make him the hero he is today, like his first visit to Earth. Vanko's deportation comes back to haunt Tony Stark, as his son becomes the villain Whiplash with a vendetta against the Stark family.
  7. The Avengers make their debut and halt an alien invasion led by Loki. The invasion sets in motion many of the events of the present-day MCU. Thanos makes his on-screen debut.
  8. The Reality Stone is put in safe keeping ... for now.
  9. A turning point for S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Captain America and Black Widow discover that S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised, while Peter Quill finds his father, Ego.
  10. The Avengers face Ultron. Elsewhere, future allies experience their powers for the first time.
  11. The Avengers are torn apart when they pick sides between Captain America and Iron Man over whether they should be forced to work for the government. Black Panther and Spider-Man make their debut in the ensuing confrontation.
  12. Doctor Strange safeguards the Time Stone, Asgard is destroyed, and Janet van Dyne is rescued.
  13. Thanos retrieves all six Infinity Stones and successfully wipes out half of humanity. But Nick Fury has a back-up plan.
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Defined by Popularity of Participated Movies

As characters in movies, it's normally for people to define their popularity by the results of the movies. In this case, box offices and scores on Rotten Tomatoes which is a review-aggregation website for film and television. Each circle with portrait on the chart is on behalf of all the movies that the character participated in.

X-axis presents the median scores of all the participated movies on Rotten Tomatoes, while Y-axis displays the total box offices of all the participated movies.

As the chart shows, Iron Man gained the most box offices and Black Panther got the best scores on Rotten Tomatoes among all the characters.

Defined by Search Interests on Google

Movie lovers tend to search for their favorite movie characters a lot on Google these days, to get information about the characters' actors, profiles, peripheral products, videos behind the scenes, and etc. In this case, the chart was generated from the data on Google Trends which is a website by Google that analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search.

X-axis presents the dates from January, 2004 to Sepetember, 2019, while Y-axis displays the search interests over time provided by Google Trends. "Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term.", from Google Trends.

As the chart shows, Iron Man got the value of 100 in May, 2013, when Iron Man 3 was on show. While Black Panther also got 100 in February, 2018, when Black Panther was on show.

Defined by Hashtag Popularity on Twitter

Marvel movies have never been just about movies. People talk about the superheroes everywhere. On Twitter, which is the most popular microblogging and social networking service, people post messages about Marvel characters with hashtags.

In this case, estimated Twitter posts of hashtags were used to define the popularity of related characters. The sizes of bubbles present the numbers of estimated posts of each hashtag on Twitter.

As the chart shows, Spider-Man got the most related Twitter posts with hashtag #spiderman. While Black Panther got similar Twitter posts with hashtag #blackpanther.