I’ve been a comic fan for 30 years (I’m 32) and I can name even some obscure characters (The Shroud!)
I was interested in this subject some years back and I asked my wife, who never read a comic.
Some of the characters you would THINK were “iconic” were not.
Just being in Superfriends was not enough.
Aquaman was “that fish guy.”
Flash was the “guy who can run fast” (she remembered the name when I said it).
She had never heard of Hawkman, The Fantastic Four or the X-Men (neither movie had been made).
Now, of course, she can name every Teen Titan from Robin to Ding Dong Daddy because our four year old is obsessed with super heroes and likes to play a game where we all name characters until someone cannot name another.
The working definition of superhero is someone with larger-than-life skills or abilities, with a distinctive costume or appearance, who fights for the common good. While comic books are the only medium built specifically around such characters (and after Batman and Superman, the list really drops off for public recognition; I doubt one random stranger in ten could identify “Diana Prince” or “Steve Rogers”), the definition covers radio characters (Lone Ranger, The Shadow), literary figures (Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond), pulp characters (Doc Savage, The Spider, Conan) and newspaper strip heroes (The Phantom, Mandrake. Flash Gordon).
Super powers aren’t necessary per se. Batman’s abilities look like something you could do, if you happened to be the world’s best martial artist, detective, athlete and Green Beret. Guys like that don’t exist in nature.
According to Jack Handey, there is one heroic legend that recurs in all cultures and eras, and that is the legend of Popeye.
I’ve never read comics but am familiar with virtually everyone mentioned in this thread and have at least a passing knowledge of them. The multiple bat people and such I didn’t know about, but the primary ones (Bruce Wayne/Batman Clark Kent/Superman etc) I do.
If you really want numbers, at one time in continuity history, there were literally thousands of Green Lanterns. They formed a sort of intergalactic police force, with members drawn from just about every sentient race in the Universe. The one or handfull one sees most often in the comics are just the ones who happen to be assigned to the Earth beat.
And I don’t read any comic books (well, aside from PS238), but I don’t think I really count for purposes of this thread, since I do follow superheroes. I probably couldn’t pick out Captain Marvel from a lineup, though, even with my passing familiarity.
Well, I say still. Numbers have gone considerably down and considerably up. I’m pretty sure it’s back in the hundreds by now. Having said that, being Green Lantern is more like, as you say, a police force than a single role in the way that Batman or Superman are.
7200+, specifically. Each of the 3600 Space Sectors have 2 Lanterns assigned to it - Earth’s sector has Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner, the other two currently living Earth-Native Corps-related Lanterns have special roles within the Corps - Guy’s part of the Honor Guard, technically assigned to Oa, and Kyle’s the Torch Bearer, the Corps’ backup plan.
The top of the non-Job Title multiple uses of a single name, that doesn’t involve going to out-of-continuity characters, has to be Starman - the new one will be the eighth 20th/21st century bearer of the name.