Find out the cost of being a superhero or supervillain

With his New York skyscraper home, collection of flash cars and plethora of ultra-high-tech gadgets, have you ever wondered how much Iron Man is worth? Or do the worldly possessions of the of the havoc-wreaking Joker fill you with intrigue?

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Weaponry, gadgets and transport are the obvious contributors to a comic book character’s financial worth, but there’s a selection of underlying factors that might not instantly come to mind. Expensive qualifications and high-maintenance image upkeep, for example. Remember, Harley Quinn was a trainee psychiatrist prior to her life of crime.

Topping the rich list, of course, is Black Panther. He’s the rightful guardian of a £9-trillion reserve of vibranium after all. Not to mention he resides in a royal palace and boasts an advanced collection of gadgets.

Our list also includes the notorious Marvel villain Thanos, and ultra-powerful heroine Captain Marvel. Read on to find out how much it costs to be a superhero or supervillain.

How did we cost up these iconic characters?

They’re comic book icons that we all know and love – but they come from a fictional world. So just how did we calculate their worth?

Some characters had assets that could be easily compared to real-life goods. Other commodities were trickier to cost up. In this case, we looked to real-world items that were in the same ballpark, as well as leaning on a dash of creativity to arrive at a final figure.

Here’s a breakdown of each character:

Iron Man:

Stark Tower – The skyscraper is reported to have been built by Stark for $600 million (£450 million).[1]
Gold titanium exoskeleton and weaponry – Combining the exoskeleton, helmet and inbuilt weaponry, Stark’s Iron Man suit is estimated to be worth $180 million (£140 million).[2]
JARVIS supercomputer – This high-tech computer system, which utilises artificial intelligence, is estimated to be worth $10 million (£7.5 million).[3]
Car collection – A combined worth of £500k was calculated for the cars Tony Stark has been seen driving throughout the movie series, including the Audi R8.[4]

TOTAL: £598 million

Black Panther:

Nanotechnology suit and vibranium sneakers – A value of £200 million was calculated for the suit and trainers, based on the fact they’re made of mesh vibranium.
Fighter jet – The fighter jet was valued at £50 million, based on the price of your standard military jet.[5]
EMP discs – EMP discs were likened to hand grenades (£100 each) and a 10,000-piece supply was valued at £1 million.[6]
Royal Palace of Wakanda – Arguably, the Royal Place of Wakanda is significantly more impressive and therefore was priced at £250 million.
Reserve of vibranium – Vibranium retails for about $10,000 per gram (Fantastic Four #607), and Wakanda’s vaults hold 10,000 tons of the stuff (Doomwar #1), which adds up to $9.7 trillion (£9 trillion).[7]
Kimoyo beads – A price tag of £7.5 million was attached to the kimoyo beads, which were likened to a top-of-the-range smart watch, enhanced with vibranium.[8]

TOTAL: £9 trillion

Thanos:

Gauntlet and infinity stones – A comparison was made between the infinity stones and the precious Musgravite stones (worth £27.5k per carat), giving the former a value of £1.05 million for six 5-carat stones. Another £50,000 was added for the gold gauntlet.[9] [10]
Armour – The armour was priced at £12k, based on the price of a full suit of custom armour.[11]
Starship – The starship was likened to an aircraft carrier, which costs approximately $13 billion (£10 billion).[12]
Sanctuary – Sanctuary has been valued at £10 million. As a barren area in space, we compared it to the price of buying a small private island.[13]

TOTAL: £10.01 billion

Captain Marvel:

Super suit and boots – An estimate of $3.7k has been previously given for three of Captain America’s suits combined. Captain Marvel’s suit is very similar, so therefore has been costed at £1.2k for one.[14]
US fighter pilot training – The cost of training a basic qualified fighter pilot is approximately $5.5 million (£4.2 million).[15]
Pscyhe-magnetron – We estimated the Psyche-Magnetron to be worth a cool £1 million – since it’s a fictional piece of technology, this price was based on the cost of advanced technology and engineering.

TOTAL: £10.05 billion

Joker:

Custom suit – Based on the cost of custom clothing, you can reasonably expect Joker’s suit to be no more than £220.
Gold chains – A selection of genuine gold chains have been valued at £6k.[17]
Makeup, hair dye and tattoos – Estimated at £1,200, based on image upkeep (annual expense of buying makeup and hair dye) and cost of tattoos.
Razor playing cards and acid lapel flower – The cost of sulphuric acid (sprayed from the flower) and razor blades were combined with the price of playing cards and a joke flower, adding up to £80.[18]
Glock 17 pistols and grenades – A Glock 17 costs approximately £500.[19] A pocketful of five hand grenades costs approximately £500.[20]

TOTAL: £8.5k

Harley Quinn:

Harlequin outfit, boots and accessories – An estimate of £235 has been given for the Harlequin outfit, boots, PUDDIN necklace[21] and graffitied baseball bat.
Makeup, hair dye and tattoos – We estimated £820 for the maintenance of Harley Quinn’s image, including replacement of makeup and hair dye and her tattoos.
Chiappa Rhino 6DS revolver – This gun model is priced between $670 (£525) and $1000 (£780), therefore we costed it at £750.[22]
Psychiatric training – The cost of attending a four-year medical course in the US is $220k (£170k).[23]

TOTAL: £171.7k

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[1] https://www.gobankingrates.com/net-worth/celebrities/iron-man-3-tony-stark-net-worth-bank-accounts/

[2] https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-much-would-it-cost-to-build-a-real-iron-man-suit-5533077

[3] https://www.gobankingrates.com/net-worth/celebrities/iron-man-3-tony-stark-net-worth-bank-accounts/

[4] https://blog.dupontregistry.com/celebrity-cars/tony-stark-iron-mans-car-collection/

[5] https://militarymachine.com/most-expensive-military-jets/

[6] https://www.quora.com/How-much-would-a-single-40mm-HE-grenade-cost

[7] http://money.com/money/5157592/black-panther-net-worth/

[8] https://www.montblanc.com/en-gb/collection/watches/montblanc-summit-collection/119563-summit-2-titanium-sport-edition.html

[9] https://financesonline.com/10-really-expensive-gemstones-from-tanzanite-to-pink-star-diamond/

[10] https://www.bullionbypost.co.uk/gold-bars/250-gram-gold-bar/umicore-250-gram-gold-bar/

[11] https://www.businessinsider.com/medieval-super-hero-armor-2016-4?r=US&IR=T

[12] https://www.stripes.com/news/navy/launch-and-landing-failures-add-to-13-billion-carrier-ford-s-troubles-1.566658