Let us
tackle the history of the other major publishing house of American comics and
competitor of Marvel Comics, DC Comics!
You might have seen at the cinema in the last few years Green Lantern or the seventh Batman movie, and you might also know that the seventh Superman movie is coming up in 2017. Well, DC Comics is the company behind all those names!
DC Comics was officially born few years before Marvel, in 1935 from the merger of three companies including “Detective Comics” of which the initial letters “DC” are used for the final brand. But it is only ten years later that these three companies really became one.
DC Universe is a world partly real, partly imaginary. Actually, things are happening in a nearly real world (Earth is just bigger in order to add fictional countries) except that there are superheroes, supervilains and more planets!
Marvel’s heroes and publications might be more well known than DC Comics’ ones, but the heavyweights of DC Comics can compete with Marvel’s most known superheroes. Superman and Batman are its iconic heroes, they appeared for the first time in 1938. This first appearance of Superman marked the history of superheroes and this specific character has been for years a big source of income!
In 1940, Flash appeared in DC Comics and one year later the Justice Society of America was created.
It is only in January 1942 that the iconic Wonder Woman debuted in All Star Comics #8. She was not the first superheroine to be created - because Marvel and other publishing houses were quicker - but she is now the first widely recognizable female superhero.
Like Marvel’s, the business was prosperous but superheroes almost disappeared during the Second World War. After WWII, DC Comics heroes came back with new versions of Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman… The “Golden Age” starting in 1938 lasted 18 years.
In 1958, the Legion of Superheroes had seen the light: it is a group coming from thousand years from the future. Three members of the Legion met Superboy, who is actually Superman when he was teenager. Two years later, the Justice League of America succeeded the actual Justice Society of America. In 1963, DC Comics decided to unite the Society and the League against common enemies. As it was a real success, the publishing house chose to reproduce the event every year.
In 1972, DC Comics won the trial against Marvel for the strong similarity between Captain Marvel and Superman, and bought the famous Marvel hero. A strategic choice in order to be the only publisher to have such a hero.
Thirteen years later, the lack of consistency between the publications was annoying for the public; for example new versions of Flash, Green Lantern or Hawkman had been created but with other names and personality. That is why DC Comics published Crisis on Infinite Earth, a mix of their characters in one story in order to make it clearer, by reorganizing and making useless characters die.
In 2011, DC Comics changed again the chronology and some stories in order to simplify the universe for the new readers. Actually, since 1969 the brand is own by Time Warner but it is only since the day Walt Disney Company bought Marvel in 2009 that Warner really took control of DC Comics’ strategies. Warner restructured their superheroes branch and renamed it DC Entertainment (DC Comics is now only the publishing branch). Nowadays, the aim of Warner is to make all their heroes work together just as the Justice League of America in a future movie and to think less about the individuality of their heroes.
You might have seen at the cinema in the last few years Green Lantern or the seventh Batman movie, and you might also know that the seventh Superman movie is coming up in 2017. Well, DC Comics is the company behind all those names!
DC Comics was officially born few years before Marvel, in 1935 from the merger of three companies including “Detective Comics” of which the initial letters “DC” are used for the final brand. But it is only ten years later that these three companies really became one.
DC Universe is a world partly real, partly imaginary. Actually, things are happening in a nearly real world (Earth is just bigger in order to add fictional countries) except that there are superheroes, supervilains and more planets!
Marvel’s heroes and publications might be more well known than DC Comics’ ones, but the heavyweights of DC Comics can compete with Marvel’s most known superheroes. Superman and Batman are its iconic heroes, they appeared for the first time in 1938. This first appearance of Superman marked the history of superheroes and this specific character has been for years a big source of income!
In 1940, Flash appeared in DC Comics and one year later the Justice Society of America was created.
It is only in January 1942 that the iconic Wonder Woman debuted in All Star Comics #8. She was not the first superheroine to be created - because Marvel and other publishing houses were quicker - but she is now the first widely recognizable female superhero.
Like Marvel’s, the business was prosperous but superheroes almost disappeared during the Second World War. After WWII, DC Comics heroes came back with new versions of Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman… The “Golden Age” starting in 1938 lasted 18 years.
In 1958, the Legion of Superheroes had seen the light: it is a group coming from thousand years from the future. Three members of the Legion met Superboy, who is actually Superman when he was teenager. Two years later, the Justice League of America succeeded the actual Justice Society of America. In 1963, DC Comics decided to unite the Society and the League against common enemies. As it was a real success, the publishing house chose to reproduce the event every year.
In 1972, DC Comics won the trial against Marvel for the strong similarity between Captain Marvel and Superman, and bought the famous Marvel hero. A strategic choice in order to be the only publisher to have such a hero.
Thirteen years later, the lack of consistency between the publications was annoying for the public; for example new versions of Flash, Green Lantern or Hawkman had been created but with other names and personality. That is why DC Comics published Crisis on Infinite Earth, a mix of their characters in one story in order to make it clearer, by reorganizing and making useless characters die.
In 2011, DC Comics changed again the chronology and some stories in order to simplify the universe for the new readers. Actually, since 1969 the brand is own by Time Warner but it is only since the day Walt Disney Company bought Marvel in 2009 that Warner really took control of DC Comics’ strategies. Warner restructured their superheroes branch and renamed it DC Entertainment (DC Comics is now only the publishing branch). Nowadays, the aim of Warner is to make all their heroes work together just as the Justice League of America in a future movie and to think less about the individuality of their heroes.
By Super Morgane
Sources:
http://dcuo.univers-virtuels.net/article/2568/Guide-de-l-univers-DC.html
Picture from:
http://ifanboy.com/articles/dc-histories-justice-league/
