BATMAN : THE HERO OF HEROES

Batman has defeated his comic book rivals Spiderman and Superman to be named the greatest superhero of all time in a new poll. The Caped Crusader, who has been fighting crime in comics, on TV and in numerous film adaptations since 1939, beat Peter Parker''s arachnid alter-ego into second place in the survey by SFX.co.

uk, Contactmusic reported. The Man of Steel flew into third place ahead of X-Men hero Wolverine, who clawed his way to number four.

''Iron Man'' rounded out the top five. "No matter how often Batman is reinvented - a noir detective in the 40s, a camp icon in the 60s, a Gothic Knight in the 80s - he''s always the coolest, most iconic and recognisable superhero there is," Dave Golder,