How many total comic book superheroes are there?

Looking at Marvel alone, hundreds. But it depends, because a lot of them I wouldn’t consider “Super Heroes” but rather characters in comics who happen to have powers. And a percent few are villains.

Expand that and you have dozens of other big publishers like Dark Horse and DC, not to mention independent publishers.

The short answer is – hundreds.

The long answer is–

a) What do you consider a “comic book”? Do graphic novels like Watchmen count? What about the one-off comics like Strange Adventures and Amazing Tales that told stories in comic-style panels and illustrations but whose stories and characters changes from week to week?

b) What do you consider a “superhero”? The world of comics is littered with hundreds upon hundreds of characters with superpowers that were never featured in more than one or two issues. Consider Matter Eater Lad, whose superpower was the ability to eat anything. What about Mr. Terrific, a man who was just kind of smart and whose costume was a green blazer?