In 1934, entrepreneur Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson formed the company National Allied Publications
and released the first American comic book with original content, titled New Fun: The
Big Comic Magazine #1. Not the most memorable title, but the first of its kind nonetheless.
The company's third release, Detective Comics, would not only become one of the longest running
comic book series in the United States but also gave the company its name. Which means
DC Comics stands for Detective Comics Comics. In 1938, DC released a comic book which would
completely reinvent the medium. With the release of Action Comics #1 they introduced Superman,
and along with him the new archetype now known as "superheroes". Not long after Superman's
debut, Detective Comics #27 saw the introduction of Batman. For many decades to come DC, much
like its rival Marvel, would struggle in this very unstable comic book industry. To counteract
this decline DC decided to reimagine or simply update many of its characters, starting in
the mid 1950s. This trend proved to be very popular with fans and continues to this day.
If we skip to 2011, DC did something quite extreme. They decided to reboot it's entire
line of comics with something called The New 52. Essentially this was done to allow new
fans to more easily get up to speed (force) with these extremely long running comics but
also to fix some major continuity problems and the extreme complexity several decades
worth of comic books creates. Without getting into to much detail Superman learned how to
put on his underwear before the suit.
Comic Sans is a ubiquitous typeface more or less globally hated by everyone ever. If you
somehow don't hate it, you just haven't been exposed to it long enough. I mean, it works
for comic books. Maybe.. I guess. But if you want something to be taken seriously, you should really stay
away from using this typeface. And DC Comics is actually indirectly responsible for its
creation. You see, the font was designed based on the lettering style of the two comics The
Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. So in a sense, Batman is responsible for Comic Sans.
In The New 52 Action Comics #14, astrophysicist Niel DeGrasse Tyson appears as himself within
the story. His character determines that Krypton, Superman's long destroyed home planet, orbited
a star named LHS 2520 in the constellation of Corvus, 27 light years from Earth. This
information is actually completely accurate as Tyson worked with DC to find a suitable
real-life solar system in which a fictional planet like Krypton could potentially exist.
Before and during the so called Silver Age of Comic Books, stories involving gorillas
were for some reason really popular. Not just in comics but in movies and mainstream media
overall. Realizing this, DC wanted to cash in on this new trend and thus increased the
number of gorillas appearing in their comics. This fad continued well into the late 1980s
and it resulted in some pretty bizarre and just ridiculous covers and stories. It became
so popular that DC began placing gorillas on the cover of many comics just to see an
increase in sales. Even if the comic itself had nothing to do with gorillas. And even
when it did, it was often in the form of some short contrived sub-plot spanning just a few
short panels. Eventually it started to get out of hand so they had to enforce a rule
at the company that there could be no more than one gorilla cover per month.
In the previous video I made about Marvel, I listed some of Marvel's strangest characters.
I think the most odd character was Eye-Scream who had the unique ability to transform into
ice cream. Well, DC Comics take the strange and bizarre to a whole new level. Let's begin
with Danny the Street. He or rather it is a living sentient transvestite street.
Yep, you heard me right, a living transvestite street. That's a thing.
Then we have Dogwelder who does exactly what his name suggests. He fights
crime by welding dead dogs to peoples faces. His so called "abilities" are even listed
as dog-welding. I can't even make this shit up. A villain named the Hemo-Goblin was a
white supremacist vampire who drank AIDS-infested blood only to bite and thus infect black people.
Codpiece is a villain that was told that he wasn't big enough in high-school. The girl
who said it was referring to his height, but he took it as if she meant his penis. Due
to an ever growing inferiority complex about his size, he decided to build a robotic suit.
This suit was equipped with a weapon in the form of canon sticking out from the groin
area to show the world that he does indeed have a large and powerful dick. What the fu-
It's been known for quite a while now but in 2016 we'll finally get to see Batman and
Superman go head to head in Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice. What many people don't know
is that this could've happened back in 2002 when DC wanted to get a new Batman film off
the ground. While the script can be found online, it never got any further than that
and no actors where ever attached to the project. But it gives us a quite interesting what if
scenario. For example, it's likely that The Dark Knight trilogy wouldn't have been made
if this film had been released. Another canceled film that got much further into development
was Superman Lives. It was to be directed by Tim Burton and Nicolas Cage was supposed
to star as Superman.
One of the defining characteristics of Batman is that he doesn't kill. He always tries to
capture villains and criminals and then let the authorities deal with them. In the beginning
this was not the case. For 2 years after his introduction in Detective Comics #27, he not
only brandished a gun at times, he even killed many of the enemies he faced. In his very
first appearance he punched a guy into a tank of acid and the plan was for Batman to actually
kill The Joker as well. They eventually enforced the "do not kill" and "no guns" policies as
it was more befitting the characters traumatic past.
Stan Lee has actually written a couple of comics for DC with his "Just Imagine..." series.
In it he reimagines some of DC's most popular characters like depicting Batman as African
American, turning The Flash into a woman, and Aquaman can transform into a being made
of liquid water. He also renamed many of the characters to follow his trademark naming
practice of using first and last names that start with the same letter. So Batman became
Wayne Williams, Wonder Woman became Maria Mendoza, and Green Lantern was renamed Len Lewis.
The explanation for Superman's symbol, the S-shield, has been revised multiple times
over the years. For decades, the comics simply said it was nothing more than a stylized monogram
designed by Clark and his adoptive parents. But in the 1978 feature film Superman: The
Movie, it was said that the S was not an S but instead a Kryptonian glyph that served
as a family seal for The House of El. It wasn't until 2003 that the comics adopted this explanation
as well and also explained that it's an ancient Kryptonian symbol which means hope.
In the comic Superman/Batman.. wait is it Superman "slash" Batman or just Superman Batman.
Or maybe Superman and Batman, or versus. In this comic, issue number 50 it's revealed
that Batman's father Thomas Wayne, stumbled upon Kryptonian technology and met Superman's
father Jor-El when his consciousness was transported to Krypton. Thomas Wayne appears in a holographic
form and Jor-El wants to know what kind of world the Earth really is. Thomas convinces
Jor-El that the Earth is more or less good enough and thus Batman's father is responsible
for sending Superman to Earth. And the Kryptonian technology he found was later used to revitalize
his company Wayne Enterprises. Which means that Kryptonian technology would later serve
as the basis of much of Batman's crimefighting gadgets.