This trope is when the hero is famous. By the nature of going and saving the city, of course they would be known by everybody and be in the news all the time, but this hero takes it a step further. They will give interviews, sign autographs, maybe even get paid to sponsor products. Most of the time in these cases the hero doesn't have a secret identity, and just presents himself as the hero all the time.
Oftentimes this type of hero is given the same feet of clay that actual celebrities tend to be; for instance, caring more about their image than about actually saving people. In some exaggerated cases, the character will be a Sociopathic Hero that cares only for their fame and status, and performs acts of heroism merely to maintain their lifestyle and/or branding; expect them to comically Kick the Dog as soon as the cameras are off or the civilian crowd is no longer paying attention. However, in other cases of this trope, don't rule out the possibility of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
See also Corporate-Sponsored Superhero, in which superhero life is what makes him/her famous. For cases on the other side of the law, see Villain with Good Publicity.
Sister trope of Celebrity Masquerade, in which being the big star is the secret identity for a superhero.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Chainsaw Man: Though Denji himself remains a public unknown, the Chainsaw Man becomes the world's most famous and loved Devil Hunter, even receiving (unlicensed) merchandise. Makima deliberately let the news get out to rob Pochita of the fear the name "Chainsaw Man" provides him. But this also backfires by giving Denji motivation to keep carrying the name on, even if he has to kill Makima to do it. In Part 2, Denji schemes to eventually push the public's attention to his true identity, thinking that exposing his identity as Chainsaw Man will make him attractive to girls.
- Heroes in My Hero Academia are career superheroes who are funded by the government, but some maintain day jobs that allow this trope. For example, Uwabami is a famous model and Present Mic is a radio show host.
- My Hero Academia: Vigilantes hangs a big lampshade on it with Captain Celebrity, the playboy hero, who’s a walking version of this trope. He’s boastful, pompous and loves his fame and the ladies.
- Tiger & Bunny: While ostensibly law enforcement, heroes are also highly commercialized by corporations, who directly sponsor them through advertising, and thus most of them are famed as heroes. Blue Rose is also marketed as an Idol Singer by her management.
Comic Books
- The Authority. They often appear on TV in between being a super edgy pro-active strike force.
- The Boys: Official superheroes are funded by Vought Corporation, who keeps them up to their eyeballs in drugs, booze and prostitutes to keep them from using their powers on innocents (it rarely works) and hushing up the (many, many) scandals the Smug Supers they produce get up to. As a result, supers are adored like rock stars by the unwitting masses, which allows Vought to make a fortune on merchandise and advertising.
- The DCU:
- The second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, was known as a famous scientist and businessman who managed his own enterprise, Kord Industries.
- Booster Gold came to the past with the intention of becoming this, and can be seen occasionally wearing logos from his latest sponsors. He was once part of a superhero team called the Conglomerate, which was entirely made of these.
- Watchmen:
- Adrian Veidt and Dr. Manhattan became famous first for doing work for the government, and then for developing alternative energy energy sources. Other heroes just retired, went insane, or died.
- The first Silk Spectre was a model who started fighting crime for the publicity, even having her first few fights staged by her manager. This heavily contributed to the jaded bitterness of the second Silk Spectre, her daughter.
- Wonder Woman has been known as an ambassador of Themyscira on the United Nations as the Princess Diana when she's not fighting.
- Zatanna has a long and successful career as a stage magician (occasionally supplementing her act with real magic).
- Ex Machina (2004): The Great Machine is pretty much Charles Foster Kane (and therefore a few degrees separate from William Randolph Hearst) with superpowers.
- Subverted in Evan Dorkin's comic Kid Blastoff; the eponymous character is marketed in-story as a fresh new superhero with a fan club, but he's completely incompetent as a superhero, and only one kid shows up to his debut party (and is only there for free food).
- Marvel Universe:
- The Fantastic Four are sometimes portrayed this way, being some of the earliest superheroes with publicly-known identities. The 2000s films crack a few jokes about them signing deals with big corporations.
- Played for Drama in the Volume 3 Run of Fantastic Four, which states that Reed deliberately made the Fantastic Four celebrities as both a way of protecting themselves from the stigma of being "something other than human", and because he believes that by giving his friends a glamorous life it will allow him to atone for indirectly causing the incident that made them this way, and taking away the normal ones they once had.
- Doctor Strange has kind of a reputation. In early appearances, he gets called in by ghost-breaker TV shows who wanted to disprove his power (he usually ignored them). The fact that he used to be a great surgeon might contribute.
- Luna Snow of the Agents of Atlas was a K-pop idol before she got ice powers as a result of an attack by A.I.M., and continued performing even after becoming a full-fledged superhero.
- The Order (2007) are half-way between this and Celebrity Masquerade, being a group of existing celebrities given artificial superpowers as part of the short-lived Avengers Initiative project. Despite their publicity-oriented origin, they end up as a well-intentioned and quite competent superhero team, until Ezekiel Stane picks them as C-List Fodder to be curb-stomped as his first major act of supervillainy, leading to the death of one member and the others being too mentally affected to continue.
- In Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), Karolina Dean has reluctantly become a public figure, having inherited a position on the board of her celebrity parents' charitable organization.
- In The Twelve, the Blue Blade states that the reason he became a costumed vigilante was to gain fame and wealth, and believes that being a superhero from the 1940's brought to the modern day will allow him to finally achieve this goal. One of the first things he does is set out to get his own TV show. Unfortunately for him, though, wife jokes and vaudeville aren't as popular in the 21st century as they were in the 30's and 40's. And any chance he had of becoming a celebrity is definitively ended when he is murdered.
- The Ultimates in the Ultimate Marvel line. They've even got a toy deal coming up, and Iron Man gets into a sex tape scandal. Their obsession with PR sometimes made them seem a lot less heroic than their mainstream counterparts.
- While not as obsessed with PR as their Ultimate self, the Avengers of the main continuity have this going on as well. They're generally portrayed as world-famous with plenty of merchandise existing in-universe of their biggest names, particularly Captain America and Iron Man, while The Wasp is a famed fashion icon who's also hosted several in-universe reality TV shows.
- An issue of What If? (Marvel Comics) purports to show what would happen if Spider-Man had stopped the burglar who later killed Uncle Ben, but for selfish reasons. It boosts his celebrity, and he becomes a movie star who happens to have superpowers. (The long hair and revolving-door bed seems to suggest they had Warren Beatty in mind.) He eventually walks away from celebrity resemblance when Daredevil dies protecting him and he has a Heel Realization.
- Wonder Man. As Simon Williams, he's an actor. Wonder Man is famous for being a movie star who does his own stunts. Being an invulnerable hero basically made of Hard Light, he doesn't need a stunt double. Lately, writers have been playing up his vanity, with him once stopping pursuit of an enraged Hercules to sign autographs for a smitten fan. His appearance in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 has him introduce himself as though posing for a photo.
- X-Men:
- Dazzler uses her powers to become a successful disco singer. Or punk. Or whatever was popular at the time of writing.
- Strong Guy from X-Factor is a famous comedian.
- The second X-Force and later X-Statix parodied this with a celebrity superhero team who were often far more interested in the material and sexual perks of stardom than actually being heroic, with a few of them having a Face–Heel Turn in X-Men (2024) hoping to regain their fame. X-Factor (2024) followed in their footsteps, as the latest iteration of the team is sanctioned by the U.S. government with a Corrupt Corporate Executive tv producer as The Team Benefactor who tries to make them (and himself by extension) rich & famous by filming their missions, which the mutants go along with in the hopes this will finally make them accepted in the public eye.
- New Warriors
- Ultragirl initially rejects the team to try and salvage her modeling career, after she becomes famous for defending herself against a mutant killing sentinel robot. One of the mutations that became active during the fight is extreme muscle growth that limits the kind of clothing she can slip into, however, so she eventually throws in her lot with the team and tries to make money as a publicly known super hero.
- The entire team became this in order to fund their heroics, which ultimately became horrifically deconstructed. Their focus on appearing heroic on-camera instead of on doing their jobs, combined with their comparative youth, led to them fumbling a simple raid on a supervillain hideout that resulted in the deaths of 300 people in Stamford, CT, including school children, which triggered the Superhuman Registration Act and the subsequent superhero civil war.
- The Fantastic Four are sometimes portrayed this way, being some of the earliest superheroes with publicly-known identities. The 2000s films crack a few jokes about them signing deals with big corporations.
- With Youngblood (Image Comics), Rob Liefeld claims he wanted to explore the concept that superheroes would be treated the same way as star athletes or actors. Of course, while Youngblood do endorsements and TV appearances, they also do black ops for the government (how many people in the Phoenix Program could you really call celebrities?).
Fan Works
- Downplayed in Court Summons (Miraculous Ladybug): As payment for letting them use an apartment over a certain tourist shop as their Home Base, Ladybug and Chat Noir grant the owner licensing rights to their images, as well as provide him with autographs.
- LadyBugOut: Alya Invokes this concept while attempting to defend her handling of the Oblivio incident. Specifically, she declares that being a superheroine makes Ladybug a celebrity by default — and part of the cost of fame is dealing with Paparazzi spinning stories about you. Frustrated, Marinette decides to start her own blog for the sake of setting the record straight, which morphs over time into the titular blog becoming a valuable resource.
- In Perfect Masks (MHA), Izuku and Momo are both tired of maintaining their professional images at all times and dealing with Immoral Journalists.
- Raise yourselves up (We're done): As part of the World Travellers' Club's fundraising efforts, Marinette makes and sells little yarn dolls of her alter ego Ladybug, as well as the other Miraculous heroes. Later, Ladybug shows up at one of their raffles, letting them offer a meet-and-greet with her as one of the items people can bid on.
- The Secret Return of Alex Mack: Alex doesn't have any particular interest in the limelight, but she lets a trusted friend collect and use the intellectual property for "Terawatt" in order to make it harder for others to misuse it. So there is official Terawatt clothing, and merchandise, and a Twitter account, and even Terawatt Barbie. She also takes an opportunity to appear at Comic-Con (in costume) and judge the Terawatt impersonators.
- Two Letters: One of the many frustrations Marinette ran into while she was Ladybug was how certain people wanted her to act this way: Mayor André wanted someone he could bribe into endorsing his political campaign, while Nadja wanted to milk Ladybug's personal life and potential romantic entanglements for drama and ratings. After she decided to retire, Marinette picked a Sketchy Successor who's more than happy to behave this way and give them what they thought they wanted.
- Whatever Happened to Battle Fist? explores the consequences of this from multiple angles. Itsuka is frustrated by how she's the only member of her class year who hasn't been able to break into the Top 100 rankings, in no small part because she refused to accept being marketed as a Brainless Beauty. Izuku, meanwhile, finds that Celebrity is Overrated and that he's forced to maintain his mask practically all the time.
Films — Animation
- The title character of Disney's Hercules is the Ancient Greek equivalent of this: a famous, rich and incredibly popular monster slayer with superhuman strength. According to the musical number "Zero to Hero", he's "person of the week in every Greek opinion poll", "they slapped his face on every vase", and "from appearance fees and royalties [he] had cash to burn".
- Superheroes in The Incredibles 1 were practically celebrities during the prologue, a point Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and Frozone all discuss in interview clips at the start of the movie. Mr. Incredible in particular is one of the most popular supers. Unfortunately, this celebrity also made supers juicy targets for lawsuits after Mr. Incredible gets sued for stopping a suicide attempt, which sends their popularity crashing to the ground and gets them banned by a Super Registration Act. The plot of Incredibles 2 centers around an attempt to get the act overturned and restore superheroes' celebrity status.
- Metro Man of Megamind, a Superman Substitute, is a beloved celebrity, who signs autographs and kisses babies when he's not saving people. Although the fame gets too much for him, and the plot is kicked off by him pretending to die.
- In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man/Peter A. Parker is a celebrity beloved by all, and even has licensed merchandise.
- In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles attempted to be this via guest-hosting Jeopardy! and endorsing a brand of baby powder. He was forced to apologize online for the latter.
Films — Live-Action
- DC Extended Universe:
- In Aquaman, Arthur is shown to be this after the events of Justice League. He's approached by a bunch of tough guys in the bar, who ask if he's the fish guy they've heard so much about and look like they're about to start a fight... then ask if they can have a selfie with him.
- In SHAZAM!, Billy is embraced by the citizens of Philadelphia as the local hero, and becomes a viral sensation due to Freddy's YouTube videos. The film also shows the Justice League are now beloved celebrities, with all of them, even Batman, having merchandise. (Complete with DC Comics branding!)
- Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Avengers have a bit of this trope:
- Tony Stark is probably the most famous. He already was a billionaire and a tech genius before becoming Iron Man, so when he announces his superhero identity at the end of Iron Man, the world was hyped. Iron Man 2 opens with Tony using his Iron Man-persona to promote the StarkExpo and by the time of Iron Man 3, Tony and Iron Man became synonymous.
- Captain America actually became a celebrity superhero before an actual superhero as after Dr. Erskine was killed in Captain America: The First Avenger as the government decided to use him for PR before he officially joined the war. The Avengers introduces a staple of trading cards focusing on Cap. A young boy recognizes Steve Rogers when he visits the Smithsonian's Captain America exhibit in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
- Peter Parker (Spider-Man) also becomes one over the course of the MCU Spider-Man Series: In Spider-Man: Homecoming he's introduced as Queen's local costumed hero. However, he gets a push after Mysterio reveals his true identity as Peter Parker at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. By the time of Spider-Man: No Way Home he becomes a controversial public figure, who on the one hand gets blamed for Mysterio's death, but on the other hand is also loved by many and his high-school as well as his former bully Flash Thompson try to capitalize on Peter's new-found fame. However, at the end of the movie a spell by Doctor Strange makes everyone forget about Peter existing, this inverting the trope eventually.
- Two young women ask Thor to pose for a selfie with them in Thor: Ragnarok.
- Hulk also is asked for selfies in Avengers: Endgame.
- The phase 4 MCU shows seem to confirm that this is totally true after the events in Endgame, with especially Scott Lang/Ant-Man becoming one: Hawkeye introduces the audience to a commercial in-universe musical adaptation of the events of the franchise (with Scott being included in events he wasn't involved) and Ms. Marvel has an AvengersCon celebrating the heroes as well as revealing Scott has his own podcast now. By the time of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Scott has published his own books and seemingly makes a living cashing in on his adventures as a superhero.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Christine Plamer's new husband is mentioned to be a "huge fan" of the magic doctor, and a huge crowd is seen watching and cheering when Strange heads to fight the interdimensional being Gargantos.
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces Earth-828, an Alternate Universe were the Fantastic Four are seemingly the only superheroes on that world - and are pretty much this trope: They are said to be active for four years, have their own shows and projects and are constantly in the focus of the press. The beginning of the movie is in fact part of an in-universe show that retells the history of the team.
- Mystery Men: Parodied with Captain Amazing, a famous Corporate-Sponsored Superhero whose costume has more advertisements on it than a NASCAR racer. Given that he gets his Arch-Enemy set free to bolster his image, he comes across as a Nominal Hero Glory Hound who's in it entirely for fame and fortune.
Literature
- Nowhere Stars: Keepers, the settings Magical Girls (and Boys) are frequently this. They have merchandise, fan-clubs, and an officially sponsored trading card game in the vain of Magic: The Gathering. Even their Mentor Mascots, which are Invisible to Normals, have a boatload of plushies and cute toys based on them. That said, many do avoid the spotlight where possible, including main character Liadain, though the alterations becoming a Keeper makes to their bodies means maintaining any Secret Identity for long is all but impossible. In Liadain's city, the title for "most popular Keeper" is contested between Stardust Seraph Roland and Silver King Irida.
- Velveteen vs.: The Super Patriots, Inc. specifically sets up their heroes as this, controlling their life down to every last detail to make them more marketable to a general audience. Non-sponsored heroes are subject to this as well — for example, the titular character has to deal with the paparazzi while out on her first date with fellow hero Tag.
- Whateley Universe: Unpleasantly common, even for ones who are otherwise sincere in their efforts to fix problems.
- Superhero School Whateley Academy includes courses on costume design, legal issues for both heroes and villains, and public relations. The school's fashion club, Venus, Inc., also acts as a modeling agency for the (often superhumanly attractive) students, and sometimes advises adult models - and superheroes - as well.
- Publicity agents - including at least one Amoral Talent Agent who had powers himself - are common for both heroes and villains.
- Most Super Teams have at the very least a PR rep (either a team member or a hired agency) of some sort, both to promote their public image and to handle spin control when things go sour.
- When being interviewed by police
regarding the murder of a former member of the Empire City Guard, one of the other heroes from his time reflects ruefully on how it had been a mistake to hand their PR over to the victim during the late 1970s, as he turned out to be their sleaziest and most ego-driven member. After a few years, they quietly forced him into retirement over his underhanded dealings.
- The Hollywood All-Stars are shown as being a bunch of glory hounds in stories set in the 2006-2010 period; in a story set in 2016, their successors complain about how the group had almost been ruined by their predecessors' grand-standing. This doesn't stop them from promoting two of their protegees, Tresse and Maiden Starlight, before sending them to Whateley, however.note
- When being interviewed by police
- Some Corporate Sponsored Superheroes essentially are just PR reps who happen to have some sort of superpower, such as the Neon Knights in Las Vegas.
- Both teams and individual heroes sometimes make sponsorship deals, mostly with toy and poster companies - if only to give them more leverage in swatting down the inevitable unlicensed toys and posters when they arise.
- More than a few would-be heroes are essentially Jerk Jocks solely interested in self-aggrandizement, with the worst offenders including Jack Rabbit or Crimson Kid.
- Holly and Haley Hellion, the teen daughters of Science Villain Hector Hellion, are rather blatantly angling to get a Reality Show, hoping to leverage their Gadgeteer Genius skills, super-augmentations, gorgeous looks, and alleged goal of 'righting their father's wrongs' to become a super-powered version of the Kardashians, with their Stage Mom Helen Hellion acting as their agent. Considering that they have already gotten into trouble over the laws regulating Kid Heroes and Kid Sidekicks, this might take some work.
- Wild Cards:
- A ton of Aces: Peregrine has a talk show similar to Oprah's, Fatman runs an eminently famous restaurant, Golden Boy is a washed up actor, etc. This is in contrast to jokers, who come from lower walks of life and tend to have horrible disfigurements to go with their powers (if they even have powers).
- Some jokers still manage to be this, by joining the scuzzier variety of rock band: just look at Joker Plague and the Jokertown Boyz.
- In a neat twist, aces in other countries tend to be celebrity-equivalents. In India, they're always members of higher castes, in Europe they're nobility, and in some places they're believed to be ancient gods reborn.
- There's also some discussion on what the actual difference is between an ace and a joker: Peregrine, for example, is technically a joker because the effects of the Wild Card Virus manifested purely physical changes in her, but because they happened to be wings and big boobs, she got counted as an ace and became rich and famous as a result. Had she instead gotten the head of a falcon, she'd likely have been seen as just another joker... unless she was in Egypt, where a falcon-headed ace was considered to be the reincarnation of Ra.
Live-Action TV
- The Arrowverse treats a lot of its heroes that way:
- Arrow zig-zags and downplays it with Oliver Queen and his team members. In the first three seasons, thanks to his actions as an outright murderous Vigilante, he is seen as outright criminal by the police and media, with the general public of Starling City being skeptical to say the least. While he gradually gains a following in the city and even starts building a rapport with the police in season 3, it's derailed towards the end. However, when Oliver gives his superhero career a fresh start as Green Arrow, he's still divisive, but is generally seen as a more positive figure and soon becomes a franchised superhero alongside the Flash and Supergirl.
- The Flash plays it totally straight with The Flash being celebrated as the hero of Central City from the beginning, complete with coffee drinks being named after him and having action figures. Furthermore, the same can be said about every superhero that joins Team Flash (Vibe, Killer Frost, Kid Flash, Elongated Man). However, all the heroes still have Secret Identities, so the celebrity status only appeals to their superhero personas, while their civilian personas are pretty normal.
- Supergirl plays it similarly: Supergirl is seen as the local heroine of National City while her Secret Identity Kara Danvers lives a pretty normal live (although later seasons see her as a star journalist). It helps that her cousin Superman also is a very big celebrity superhero in this universe.
- Luke Cage (2016): Luke Cage is probably the best example among the heroes of the Marvel-Netflix-series, as Cage doesn't have a Secret Identity and becomes an icon among the Black community. During season 1, he in-universe gets his own song performed by Method Man and in season 2 has his own merch-brand.
- Power Rangers:
- Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue has the Lightspeed organization, a government-backed organization, thus making it the first time the Power Rangers have their identities known to the public from the beginning.
- Power Rangers S.P.D.: Their identity is known because being a Ranger is a full-time job in the era the setting takes place, and their identities are also well-known among the citizens.
- Power Rangers RPM also has the Rangers' identity be known to the public, but for different reasons, as they're usually fighting on a domed city holding the last members of humanity.
- The Boys: As in the comics, all heroes are this, by nature of being sponsored by Vought Corporation. Unlike the comics, they do actually stop crimes, but only those selected by Vought to look good.
- The spin-off, Gen V, introduces Godolkin University, a Superhero School which main goal for Vought is to find and encourage young superpowered individuals that they can promote as their new celebrity superheroes.
- Wonder Man (2026): DeMarr Davis, who is accidently turned into a Single Power Superhero by some weird looking glue that can phase people through him like a portal when pressed against a wall. He uses his power to help a night club evacuate during an emergency, which leads to Josh Gad (As Himself) hiring him as his bodyguard and dubbing him "Doorman". He then hires Doorman to play in a movie, leading to a career in the limelight for him, without doing any real superheroing anymore. His 15 Minutes of Fame come to an abrupt end when he accidently has Josh Gad vanishing inside him.
Podcasts
- Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe?: After the Dark Legion's identities go public, Jack Griffin (The Invisible Man) is able to take advantage of the fame. He becomes a national celebrity chef and spokesman for his own food company, which features invisible microwave dinners and is successful enough for him to open a chain of restaurants.
Video Games
- Amara of Borderlands 3 is a crimefighter on her home planet known as the "Tiger of Partali" whose actions in fighting off baddies have earned her fame and fortune to the point that she has an agent and is the spokesperson for a line of hair product.
- Mortal Kombat has Johnny Cage, a Hollywood actor from action movies who entered the tournament of the first game as an excuse to get a plot for his next movie.
- Ratchet & Clank: Captain Qwark is a Fake Ultimate Hero who is narcissistically more concerned with getting as much good publicity and endorsement deals than doing what is best for the common good, even being willing to ally with villains (such as Chairman Drek) in order do some Engineered Heroics. The narrator for a vid comic in Up Your Arsenal even calls him a "A High-profile Celebrity Superhero". In the later games of the series, Ratchet and Clank themselves have become famous across the universe for their adventures.
Web Animation
- RWBY: The character Pyrrha Nikos was on a box of cereal. In-universe, hunters and huntresses are treated as celebrities and superheroes when they stop the creatures of Grimm.
Webcomics
- Arianna's purpose within ARCHON in Grrl Power is to create this kind of image for superheroes to prevent people fearing supers and making pariahs out of them. ARC-SWAT purposely has a large focus on public visibility when not out fighting and saving lives. Sydney even posts on (presumably) Instagram or some similar service.
- Any hero who works for the Hero Association in One-Punch Man must register with them by principle, so having a secret identity is only allowed under certain circumstances. However, Class-A Rank 1 hero Amai Mask makes a living as a world-famous actor and singer. He would rather spend his time promoting his new album on television than weigh in on the crisis at hand that's currently unfolding.
- In Sleepless Domain, the Magical Girls who defend the nameless City of Adventure from invading monsters every night are made into celebrities by the city's government. The girls are offered a place at an exclusive private school, often endorse products, give frequent TV interviews, and can use their fame to earn serious money if they're smart and savvy enough. All of the city's citizens love these teenage defenders! But the hard truth is that this celebrity life is just a slick PR campaign by the city government. They're out to convince the girls to risk their lives fighting the monsters while getting everyone else to overlook just how frequently their adolescent protectors are injured or even killed in action. And it works extremely well. The official propaganda is so effective that even the incredibly traumatic First-Episode Twist at the end of chapter 2 (where three of the five "main" characters are killed in a single battle, a fourth is depowered, and the fifth is left to pick up the pieces all alone) is little more than a passing news article for most of the city's citizens.
- Airstrike of Wake of the Clash frequently boasts about her own popularity(to comedic effect). Fans sporting merch with her face or colors are often seen in the crowds, and she has been seen on multiple occasions hamming it up to news cameras or taking selfies with bystanders.
Web Videos
- In Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Captain Hammer is a well-known superhero who is regularly on TV. All the fame goes to his head, and he is incredibly narcissistic and transparently only into heroing because of the attention, not because he actually cares about helping people.
Western Animation
- Atomic Puppet: Deconstructed in "Claude Returns"; In his heyday, Captain Atomic was so popular that he couldn't make appearances and protect Mega City from evil, so he made a non-powered clone of himself to sign autographs at conventions and so forth. The problem was, Claude (Pronounced like 'clone' but with a D) turned evil and tried to replace Captain Atomic fully, forcing the Captain to put in a Human Popsicle until a solution could be found.
- Ben 10: Ben becomes this after being exposed in Ultimate Alien, often signing autographs and having to run away from his Groupie Brigade.
- Dexter's Laboratory spin-off Justice Friends has Thor Expy Val Hallen, a Physical God that's also a famous rockstar. He is introduced with a supervillain he's confronted being immediately starstruck upon seeing him and pleading for an autograph.
- SheZow: SheZow has a convention dedicated to her as well as a fan club. Guy is pretty nervous about showing up and answering fan questions when he first steps into the heroine's shoes.
- In Villainous (Cartoon Network), the superheroes of the Heroes "R" Us P.E.A.C.E. have a huge celebrity presence with the big namers having social media accounts surrounding their heroic personas, tv show appearances/ads, invites to social events, and corporate sponsors. Others like El Valiente and Bicep are movie stars, while Miss Heed was a Bad Influencer.