Superhero Quiz
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This superhero trivia quiz covers 185 free questions with answers on the heroes of Marvel, DC and beyond: where Superman was born, what Wolverine's claws are made of, who Peter Parker's first love was, which villain runs Gotham's underworld and which comic-book issue started it all. Most of the questions are easy enough for kids who know the movies and cartoons, so it works for a family game night, a classroom reward or a birthday party round; the last stretch digs into origins and first appearances that will test lifelong comic readers too. Every answer has been checked against a reliable source such as the publisher's own pages or a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation once you have answered. Play it through for a score you can share, then try the Marvel Movies and Comic Books quizzes for more.
30 of 185 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which comic book issue featured the first appearance of Superman?
Action Comics #1
Superman debuted in Action Comics #1, cover-dated June 1938, after Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had spent years failing to sell him to newspaper syndicates as a daily strip.
Q 02In his 1962 origin story, which teenager is bitten by a radioactive spider at a science exhibit?
Peter Parker
Peter Parker first cashed in on his powers as a TV novelty act and let a fleeing burglar run past him; the same man later killed his Uncle Ben, and the guilt made him a crime-fighter.
Q 03In the MCU films, which fictional metal makes up the shield carried by Steve Rogers?
Vibranium
Vibranium is what Howard Stark says the shield is made of in the films; in the comics it is a one-off alloy that even its own inventor could never recreate.
Q 04Which of these was one of the original five X-Men introduced in 1963?
Beast
Beast, Hank McCoy, joined Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel and Iceman in X-Men #1; he only grew his fur in 1972, after drinking a serum he had developed himself.
Q 05In which comic book did Batman make his debut?
Detective Comics #27
Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27, cover-dated May 1939, in a murder mystery whose plot was borrowed from 'Partners of Peril', a 1936 pulp story starring the Shadow.
Q 06Which color was the Hulk originally intended to be before printing issues forced a change?
Grey
Grey was the Hulk's skin colour in The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962), but the colourist could not keep the shade consistent from page to page, so he turned green from issue #2.
Q 07What word does Billy Batson shout to transform into his superhero form?
Shazam
Shazam is the magic word that turns Billy Batson into an adult hero; it spells out the six elders who lend him their powers: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury.
Q 08Deadpool's civilian name, Wade Wilson, is an in-joke about which DC character, Slade Wilson?
Deathstroke
Deathstroke is Slade Wilson; writer Fabian Nicieza saw the DC assassin in artist Rob Liefeld's new design, so he named Deadpool Wade Wilson as an in-joke between the two of them.
Q 09Which Marvel superhero was a billionaire weapons manufacturer before becoming a hero?
Tony Stark
Tony Stark ran Stark Industries, a weapons manufacturer, before becoming Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #39 (1963); later writers had him renounce arms dealing.
Q 10What is the name of Thor's enchanted hammer?
Mjolnir
Mjolnir can only be lifted by the worthy, which in 1983 turned out to include an alien, Beta Ray Bill; Odin had a second hammer, Stormbreaker, made for him.
Q 11Which comic-book city bears Washington Irving's 1807 nickname for New York?
Gotham City
Gotham City borrows the mocking nickname Irving gave New York in his satirical magazine Salmagundi; Batman's city was not called Gotham until Batman #4, more than a year after his debut.
Q 12Which hero starred in Marvel Comics #1, the 1939 debut of the publisher that became Marvel?
The Human Torch
The Human Torch of 1939 was an android, Jim Hammond, who shared that first issue with Namor the Sub-Mariner; the Fantastic Four's hero of the same name arrived only in 1961.
Q 13What is the name of the fictional African nation ruled by Black Panther?
Wakanda
Q 21What is the name of the hidden island of the Amazons where Princess Diana was raised?
Themyscira
Themyscira began life in 1941 as plain Paradise Island; later writers renamed it after the Amazons' ancient home in Greek myth.
Q 22Which symbiote-bonded character was partly based on a fan's contest submission that Marvel purchased?
Venom
Venom's black costume began as fan Randy Schueller's 1982 contest pitch for Spider-Man, which Marvel bought for $220; the alien suit later became the symbiote Venom.
Q 23Which speedster was the original Flash of the 1940s, introduced in Flash Comics #1?
Jay Garrick
Jay Garrick became the Flash after inhaling hard-water fumes in a college lab accident; Barry Allen did not take over the name until Showcase #4 in 1956.
Wakanda grew rich on a meteorite of rare metal and hid itself from the outside world so that nobody would come to take it; the kingdom debuted in Fantastic Four #52 (1966).
Q 14Which Green Lantern villain is a former Corps member dishonourably discharged for abusing his power?
Sinestro
Sinestro used his post to rule his home planet, Korugar, as a dictator; banished for it, he went on to found his own Sinestro Corps, armed with fear instead of will.
Q 15Which scientist debuted as the original Ant-Man, with the power to shrink to the size of an ant?
Hank Pym
Hank Pym first shrank in 'The Man in the Ant Hill', a one-off science-fiction tale of 1962 with no costume and no hero name; he returned eight issues later as Ant-Man.
Q 16What type of radiation exposure transformed Bruce Banner into the Hulk?
Gamma radiation
Gamma radiation from a test bomb caught Bruce Banner as he pushed Rick Jones, a teenager who had driven onto the range on a dare, into a trench.
Q 17Which character was created for Batman: The Animated Series before ever appearing in a comic?
Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn was written as a one-off henchwoman for a single 1992 episode, but the producers kept bringing her back, and she reached the comics a year later.
Q 18Which of these is one of the six main Infinity Gems?
Soul
The six are Mind, Power, Reality, Soul, Space and Time; Marvel later renamed them Stones and recoloured them to match the films.
Q 19Which hero was blinded as a child by radioactive chemicals that sharpened his other senses?
Daredevil
Daredevil is Matt Murdock, who as a boy pushed a blind man out of the path of a truck; its radioactive cargo spilled on him, taking his sight but leaving him a radar-like sense.
Q 20Which Marvel film was the highest-grossing film of all time from July 2019 until March 2021?
Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Endgame passed Avatar in July 2019; Avatar took the record back with a 2021 re-release in China, and Endgame's own re-release reclaimed it in October 2026.
Q 24Kryptonite made its official debut in 1943 in which medium, six years before it reached the comics?
A radio serial
A radio serial, The Adventures of Superman, introduced kryptonite in 1943; a 1940 comic story about a similar 'K-Metal' had been shelved unpublished, so print waited until 1949.
Q 25Which Marvel villain collected all six Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all life in the universe?
Thanos
Thanos kills half the universe in the 1991 comic The Infinity Gauntlet to win the affection of Death herself, the cosmic figure he is in love with.
Q 26Which ancient beings from the planet Oa created the Green Lantern Corps?
Guardians of the Universe
Guardians of the Universe first policed space with androids, the Manhunters; only after the machines turned on the living did they recruit the Green Lantern Corps.
Q 27Psychologist William Moulton Marston, creator of DC's Amazon princess, also co-invented an early prototype of what?
The polygraph
William Moulton Marston's systolic blood-pressure test became an early component of the polygraph, or lie detector; he went on to create Wonder Woman, who debuted in All Star Comics #8 in 1941.
Q 28Which superhero, leader of a team empowered by cosmic rays, can stretch his body into any shape?
Mr. Fantastic
Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, got his powers on an unauthorised test flight of his own rocket, taken to beat the Communists into space despite warnings that its shielding was too thin.
Q 29Which metal are Wolverine's claws and skeleton bonded with?
Adamantium
Adamantium was long assumed to be what the claws themselves were made of, until Magneto tore the metal out of Wolverine's body in 1993 and bone claws were left behind.
Q 30Bucky Barnes returned from apparent wartime death in 2005 as which brainwashed assassin?
Winter Soldier
Winter Soldier was Bucky, pulled from the sea by a Soviet submarine, fitted with a bionic arm and kept frozen between missions for decades.