No matter how much fans would like to insist that the true superpower of Iron Man and Batman is their genius brains, and their will to succeed, we all know what gives the two heroes their edge is the oodles of cash they inherited from their parents. Now, the UK's Vanquis Bank has issued a report that estimates the annual income of 25 of Marvel and DC's richest superheroes. The Bank also explained the methodology behind their salary estimates.

"To calculate the salaries of our superheroes, we took the average salary for their listed profession in the city where they are based. For characters based in fictional locations (e.g. Gotham City), we took the average salary from the real-world city that fictional location is based on. Currency conversions based on rates of 1 USD to 0.76 GBP and 1 USD to 0.85 EUR. All average salaries and conversions accurate as of August 2020."

Based on the data compiled, it seems Bruce Wayne aka Batman is the guy who is minting the most amount of cash per year. As the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, Bruce makes 751,566 poun sterling in a year's worth of salary, which is $988,902 when converted to American dollars.

Hot on his trail (or a distant second, depending on your definition of a $68,896 difference) is everyone's favorite genius, playboys, billionaire philanthropist Tony Stark aka Iron Man, who draws a yearly salary of 699,205 pound sterling ($920,006). Third on the list is Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, CEO of Queen Consolidated, who clocked in at 679,514 pound sterling ($894,098) a year.

While these superheroes won't be hurting for cash any time soon, the report also shows that the superhero making the least amount of money is Scott Lang aka Ant-Man, whose job slinging ice cream at Baskin Robbins nets him around 14,093 pound sterling $18,543 in a year. Scott took the thankless title of the least-paid superhero from the perennially underpaid Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, who only makes 14,140 pound sterling ($18,605} as a freelance photographer.

While the report is an amusing exercise in imagining superheroes making money in the real world, the truth is the imaginary wealth of such characters is far greater, which is the only way to explain the massive amounts of money Batman and Iron Man have funneled into crimefighting, from building state-of-the-art weaponry to space-faring vehicles, interdimensional portals, etc.

Still, in the annals of fictional characters who have more money than they know what to do with, there is one character who trumps every superhero on the market. In a report published by Forbes, the company estimated that the richest fictional character of all time is none other than Scrooge McDuck.

While Tony Stark would no doubt have a problem with Bruce Wayne beating him on the richest superheroes list, the characters are doing quite well for themselves in the only category that actually has real-world value: their popularity among fans. Iron Man in the MCU and Batman in the DCEU are the undisputed top dogs, seen by many as the face of their respective superhero worlds. And that's an accomplishment you can't put a price on. This was first reported at vanquis.co.uk.