DC Comics

About

DC Comics is the comic book publishing division DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., known for several comic series and characters, including Justice League, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

History

In February 1935, National Allied Publications debuted their first comic New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine #1 (shown below, left), followed by the series New Comics that December (shown below, right).

In March 1937, the Detective Comics series was released (shown below, left). In November 1938, New Comics was renamed to Adventure Comics. That year, the company changed its name to Detective Comics, Inc. In May 1939, Detective Comics introduced the character Batman, who would become one of the company's most popular superheroes. In June 1938, a fourth title Action Comics was released, which introduced the superhero Superman (shown below, right).

In 1940, the company began marketing itself with the brand name "Superman-DC," which led to it being colloquially referred to as "DC Comics." Throughout the 1950s, DC Comics introduced the Justice League of America, including the superheroes Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and The Flash. In the 1960s, a Batman television show was broadcast on the ABC network, leading to a significant increase in the character's popularity. In 1977, the company officially adopted the name DC Comics. During the 1970s and 1980s, also known as the "Bronze Age" of comics, DC Comics began publishing comics with dark themes, including illegal drug use. In the mid 1980s, DC Comics released two limited series Watchmen and the The Dark Knight Returns, which deviated from other superhero stories with gritty plotlines and antihero characters.

In the 1990s, DC Comics ran several dramatic storylines, including the murder of Superman, Greenlantern's supervillain transformation and Batman's crippling injury. In the 2000s, several Batman films were released, DC Comics became a subsidiary of Warner Bros. DC Entertainment and relaunched the Justice League series.

Online Presence

On August 28th, 2006, the DC Comics Wiki^[18] was launched, gathering over 80,750 entries in the next eight years. On August 19th, 2011, the DC Entertainment YouTube channel was created, which received more than 28 million video views and 172,000 subscribers within three years. As of March 2014, the DC Comics Facebook^[19] page has gained upwards of 1.4 million likes and the @DCComics Twitter^[20] feed has accumulated more than 586,000 followers.

Fandom

On Tumblr, several DC Comics blogs have been created, including Fuck Yeah DC Comics Forever,^[21] DC Comics Confessions^[22] and DC Women Kicking Ass.^[23] The website Faux DC serves as a database for fanfiction set in the DC Comics universe. The online fan fiction database FanFiction.net^[25] has accumulated over 2000 DC Comic submissions. As of March 2014, there are upwards of 256,000 submissions under the tag "dc comics" on the art-sharing website DeviantArt.^[26]

Batman

Batman is a superhero who fights crime in the fictional city of Gotham. His secret identity is Bruce Wayne, a play-boy billionaire who uses his money to finance gadgets, vehicles and other crime-fighting technology. Wayne’s motivation for becoming Batman stems from witnessing his parent’s murder at the hands of the criminal Joe Chill when he was eight years old.

Superman

Superman is a superhero who has appeared in a variety of fictional works, from radio serials, television shows and films to newspaper comics and video games. As the sole survivor of the planet Krypton, Superman is capable of using the sun’s solar energy to render himself invulnerable with superhuman strength, speed, intelligence and senses, such as flight, x-ray vision, eidetic memory and heat vision.

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman, also known as Princess Diana of Themyscira, is a superheroine from a tribe of women called The Amazons. Her powers include super strength, super speed, Telepathy, ESP and acrobatic fighting skills. She is armed with a magical lasso called the "Lasso of Truth" and pair of bulletproof bracelets.

Green Lantern

The Green Lantern is the title of several superheroes who have equipped a "power ring" which allows the wearer to make weapons, grab objects, become invisible and fly.

Flash

The Flash is a superhero who gained the powers of super speed when he was exposed to chemicals that were stuck by lightning. His super power is super speed, quick reactions and human endurance. Flashes villains are The Fiddler, Shade, and The Thinker.^[16][17]

Power Girl

Power Girl is a superheroine who is the alternate reality version of Superman's cousin, Supergirl.

Related Memes

My Eyes Are Up Here

“My Eyes Are Up Here” is an expression typically used by women to remind men that they should maintain eye contact with the female speaker, instead of staring at her breasts. Online, the phrase is commonly used in feminist commentaries, images of scantily clothed female superhero characters, such as DC Comic’s Power Girl.

Handsome Face

Handsome Face is an exploitable cartoon character based on a still-shot of an effeminate-looking Superman from the 2010 animated film Superman/Batman: Apocalypse.

Batman Slapping Robin

Batman Slapping Robin, also known as “My Parents Are Dead,” is an exploitable image of Batman slapping his protégé Robin in mid-conversation. Taken from a comic book published in 1965, the single-panel illustration has inspired a series of parodies featuring custom-captioned speech bubbles.

Some Days You Just Can't Get Rid of the Bomb

"Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb" is a memorable quote taken from a scene in the 1966 film Batman: The Movie in which the Batman runs around the shore boardwalk to look for a place to dispose a ticking bomb. Most notable for its campy, slapstick comedy, the bomb scene from the classic Batman film has since become a popular subject of parodies and captioned image macros on the web.

Search Interest

External References: