These Are the 5 Richest Superheroes
It's pretty good to be a superhero. As if it weren't enough to have the awesome fighting powers themselves, the men and women who grace our comic book covers and headline blockbuster action movies also get spiffy outfits, cool names, dashing good looks, and, in many cases, a huge fortune to help fund their crime-fighting adventures. We at Money decided to research how much the wealthiest caped crusaders are worth and see which comic book champion is the most (economically) powerful.
5. Emma Frost - Net Worth: $1-3 billion
Frost, a reformed villain, now helps lead the X-Men with her psychic powers—and her enormous fortune. As chair of the board and CEO of Frost International, a multi-billion dollar electronics conglomerate, the telepath has considerable financial resources. And while there's no specific figure placed on her wealth, her liquidated holdings were apparently sufficient to fund the X-Men's island base for "the foreseeable future." So that's probably a lot.
4. Charles Xavier - Net Worth: $3.5 billion
Running a mutant superhero team isn't cheap, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that two X-Men leaders make the list. Professor Charles Xavier, the founder of the X-Men and Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, is worth $3.5 billion; at least according to Fantomex, who tried to extort Xavier (New X-Men #129). You'd think the same person who can read everyone's mind might have a little bit more money on hand (he'd only be #497 in the Forbes 500), but Professor Xavier seems to have bigger priorities than acquiring cash.
3. Bruce Wayne - Net Worth: $9.2 billion
Considering Bruce Wayne's superpower is essentially "being rich enough to afford gadgets and karate training," it makes sense that the Batman would be pretty loaded. Forbes estimates Wayne's worth at $9.2 billion, and lists his company, Wayne Enterprises, as having an annual revenue of $31.3 billion.
2. Tony Stark - Net Worth: $12.4 billion
Tony Stark, otherwise known as Iron Man, narrowly edges out Wayne in the battle of billionaire playboys. Interestingly, while Forbes ranks Stark's wealth ahead of Batman, the publication lists Stark Industries' revenue ($20.3 billion) as less than that of Wayne Enterprises. Chalk it up to Wayne's legendary philanthropy.
1. T'Challa - Net Worth: $90.7 trillion
T'Challa, the Black Panther, isn't just the richest superhero. He's almost undoubtedly the wealthiest fictional character of all time.
How is it even possible for one person to have this much wealth? T'Challa is the king of Wakanda, a fictional African country with nearly all of the world's reserves of Vibranium. And Vibranium, being a super-strong metal (Captain America's shield is made out of Vibranium), doesn't come cheap.
According to the comics, the material costs $10,000 per gram, and Wakanda's Vibranium vaults have 10,000 tons of the stuff (Doomwar #1). A little math and that amount of Vibranium would cost more than the GDP of the entire world.
Unfortunately for T'Challa, a plot by Doctor Doom to steal Wakanda's Vibranium forced the king to release a fail safe rending the stockpile inert, and potentially worthless. But on the upside, Black Panther is getting a movie in 2018. So you win some, you lose some.