weird... I guess it's probably due to merchandising.
Can anyone still answer this?
Gangerbuster has listed some examples of how Supes has obtained/maintained a higher position on the list non-storyline wise. Does anyone have their own reasons as to how he has also managed to do the same, but storyline-wise (especially compared to other characters)- includings aspects of his story that appeals to the world population, and if he IS at the top of the list?
Not really sure if I understand you correctly, but I don't think the "public at large" (by which I mean people who don't read comics or watch the films, etc.) think of Superman in terms of storylines. Most of the elements of the Superman story (comes from another planet, lots of powers, good guy, double identity) have sort of seeped into the collective consciousness, so that everybody gets the joke about the guy with glasses entering a phone booth; Superman has become an archetype, almost in the Jungian sense: you know who he is even if you never consciously read a Superman story.
As an archetype, he is also invulnerable to continuity, by the way; one of the elements of the story that everybody knows is the Lois-Clark-Superman love triangle, which is why I hate the marriage of Lois and Clark so much: it detracts from the archetype. Sooner or later, someone's going to retcon that back to the Phantom Zone*, right where it belongs.
*Because I still can't say H-E-L-L on this forum.