What is the impact of Comic Books/Movies on History?

Marvel movies have become the highest revenue making films thus far. What kind of cultural impacts do the Avengers/X-men/Spiderman, etc... have in your life and the people around you? As We can see, some people like to represent themselves with Marvel characters. Why? I ask this, because I've written more than a few Marvel scripts and would like to see your opinions and do market research.