words by alyssa mercante // design by tri vo
We did the math to determine which Marvel character reigns supreme.
score: 2.926
8. thor
score: 3.000
6. stan lee
score: 2.039
9. dr. strange
Score: 1.950
10. black widow
score: 2.961
7. hulk
score: 7.030
3. spider-man
score: 4.010
5. captain america
score: 5.599
4. star lord
score: 9.190
2. black panther
score: 10.250
1. Iron Man
HOW WE DID IT...
and the ultimate avenger is...
After tallying a winner in each of the five categories, we weighted each score based on our perceived value of that category. For example, we considered box office and time on screen to be of equal importance, so we multiplied them together, normalized their numbers, and assigned those values the highest weight. The weight for each category decreases exponentially from there (the factor of time on screen and box office is weighted the highest, then the Rotten Tomatoes score, then the Twitter sentiment score, with the Infinity Stone score having no additional weight). Add up all the weighted scores and you’ve got the Ultimate Avenger.
5. Agent Maria Hill & Heimdall
4. Iron Man, Nick Fury, Hawkeye & Hulk
3. captain america
& black widow
2. thor
1. stan lee
The plot of Infinity War centers around six Infinity Stones, which pop up in several movies throughout the MCU. Characters got a full point if an Infinity Stone is featured prominently throughout their film (including the stone embedded in Vision’s head), and a half a point if it appears only briefly (think Thor’s premonition in Avengers: Age of Ultron)—the final number is a sum of the stones.
Infinity stones
818.5
10. hawkeye
910.9
9. war machine
1004.3
8. winter soldier
1017.1
7. Pepper Pots
1053
6. thor
1235.4
5. black widow
1423
4. nick fury
1479.1
3. captain america
1700.1
2. iron man
3528.4
1. STan lee
**Because the The Incredible Hulk contains the word “incredible” in the title, the Google API ranked the film higher than it should have (it wasn’t Marvel’s finest). So, for Bruce Banner, we gave him the average sentiment score of every character we analyzed.
We analyzed a sample set of more than 17,000 Tweets posted during each film’s opening weekend that referenced a specific character. Then, we ran the Tweets through Google’s sentiment analyzer, which ranks things on a scale from -1 (the most negative) to 1 (the most positive) and added up the scores.**
social sentiment
score
We averaged the Rotten Tomatoes score for every MCU film appearance of our 57 characters.
Hover over their names to see how they scored:
rotten tomatoes
score
85.3%
10. black widow
& Agent Maria Hill
85.8%
9. captain america
86%
8. Ulysses Klaue
& Agent Jasper Sitwell
86.2%
7. pepper potts
86.5%
6. ant-man
87%
5. The Guardians ofthe Galaxy, Nebula & Yondu
87.8%
4. winter soldier
90.5%
3. Dr. Strange
91.5%
2. The Other, May Parker
& spider-man
94%
1. black panther, Everett K. Ross, T’Chaka & Ayo
10. black widow
& Agent Maria Hill
9. captain america
8. Ulysses Klaue
& Agent Jasper Sitwell
7. pepper potts
6. ant-man
5. The Guardians ofthe Galaxy, Nebula & Yondu
4. winter soldier
3. dr. strange
2. The Other, May Parker
& spider-man
1. black panther, Everett K. Ross, T’Chaka & Ayo
We compiled each Marvel character's total time on screen across every film appearance (not including voiceovers, sorry J.A.R.V.I.S.).
05:05:30
02:04:17
00:00:00
total
Time on screen
1. iron man
01:04:00
10. Pepper Potts
01:13:45
9. loki
01:16:30
8. Dr. Strange
01:22:30
7. star lord
01:24:25
6. spider-man
01:29:00
5. black widow
01:51:30
4. hulk
02:49:00
3. Thor
03:25:00
2. captain america
We calculated the opening weekend box office numbers for every Marvel title in which our characters appear.
$644M
10. hawkeye
$725M
9. pepper potts
$912M
4. CAPTAIN AMERICA
$923M
3. BLACK WIDOW
$1.2B
2. iron man
$2.3B
1. stan lee
$758M
8. thor
$771M
7. war machine
$830M
6. hulk
$851m
5. nick fury
In the ten years since Iron Man, the Marvel mega-franchise has churned out 19 movies, banked $14.7 billion worldwide, and redesigned Tony Stark’s Mark 1 suit more than twenty times—all while spawning a web of intertwined plotlines that promise infinite spin-offs across endless multiverses. So if we count all the movies up to (but not including) Infinity War, how do we figure out who is the ultimate Avenger? Not the strongest Avenger, as that topic is a point of contention between Hulk and Thor, and certainly not the richest, as Tony Stark's money is unparalleled, but perhaps who is the most loved Avenger? Or the Avenger with the most screen time? With Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet threatening to shatter cinematic relationships that have lasted a decade, and the fate of our beloved superheroes hanging in the balance, we ask the most important question—who is the best Avenger?
To do this, we started by identifying 57 key Marvel players and tallying up their total time on screen, the box office of any film in which they appeared, their Twitter popularity, and their exposure to the elusive Infinity Stones. Then we did some college-level algebra to determine the highest ranking Marvel heroes and villains. Follow our process below to determine the ultimate Avenger.
Note: Since Stan Lee’s cameos are billed differently in almost every film, his character in each appearance is considered “Stan Lee”.
