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158-534: In most of the DC Comics media, the Multiverse is a "cosmic construct" that is composed of the many fictional universes the stories of DC media take place in. The worlds within the multiverse share a space and fate in common, and its structure has changed several times in the history of DC Comics. The concept of a universe and a multiverse in which the fictional stories take place was loosely established during
316-471: A mythical realm. Since the 1940s, when Superman, Batman, and many of the company's other heroes began appearing in stories together, DC's characters have inhabited a shared continuity that was later dubbed the " DC Universe " by fans. With the story " Flash of Two Worlds ", in Flash No. 123 (September 1961), editor Schwartz (with writer Gardner Fox and artists Infantino and Joe Giella ) presented
474-673: A "Justice Configuration", isolated from the wider Omniverse. Eventually, it would be judged, and if found to still be tainted with the violence of its beginning, it would be destroyed. As told in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, the DC Universe was a single positive matter Universe until a scientist named Krona from the planet Oa altered the very moment of the creation of the Universe, causing it to split into countless similar universes and an antimatter universe. Oa, however, had no duplicates in
632-434: A March 1937 cover date. The themed anthology that revolved originally around fictional detective stories became in modern times the longest-running ongoing comic series. A notable debut in the first issue was Slam Bradley , created in a collaboration between Wheeler-Nicholson, Siegel and Shuster. In 1937, in debt to printing-plant owner and magazine distributor Harry Donenfeld —who also published pulp magazines and operated as
790-642: A Multiverse of its own: the universe of Earth-616 in the Marvel Multiverse. The universes were rarely referred to with specific names within the stories but were named in the "Real World" (both officially and unofficially) using the name of the editorial, imprint or even an element in particular. While in the comic books the concept of a "real" Multiverse was avoided, the Multiverse played an important role in cartoon series and live-action shows. In summary, from 1986 to 1999, everything not happening in
948-508: A Saturday morning live action TV adaptation and gained a prominent position in the mainstream continuity of the DC Universe . As the popularity of superheroes faded in the late 1940s, DC Comics focused on such genres as science fiction, Westerns , humor , and romance . The company also published crime and horror titles, although relatively tame contributions that avoided the mid-1950s backlash against such comic genres. A handful of
1106-476: A conceptual mechanism for slotting the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age heroes into this continuity using the explanation that they inhabited an other-dimensional "Earth 2", whilst the modern heroes exist on "Earth 1", consequently laying the foundations of what was later called the DC Multiverse . DC's introduction of the reimagined superheroes did not go unnoticed by their competitors. In 1961, with DC's JLA as
1264-488: A copy of Superman. This extended to DC suing Fawcett Comics over Captain Marvel , who was at the time the top-selling comic character (see National Comics Publications, Inc. v. Fawcett Publications, Inc. ). Faced with declining sales and the prospect of bankruptcy if it lost the lawsuit, Fawcett capitulated in 1953 and ceased publishing comics. Years later, Fawcett sold the rights for Captain Marvel to DC Comics, and in 1972
1422-499: A declining comics market, in 1953 Fawcett Comics ceased publication of its superhero titles and settled the ongoing case (the non-comic book divisions of Fawcett continued to publish). Several of Fawcett's completed stories and artwork, as well as a few characters, were sold to Charlton Comics . Fawcett returned to publishing comics in the 1960s, mainly publishing Dennis the Menace and other such titles. In 1967 Marvel Comics gained
1580-568: A drug-fueled storyline in writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams ' Green Lantern , beginning with the story " Snowbirds Don't Fly " in the retitled Green Lantern / Green Arrow No. 85 (September 1971), which depicted Speedy , the teen sidekick of superhero archer Green Arrow , as having become a heroin addict. Jenette Kahn , a former children's magazine publisher, replaced Infantino as editorial director in January 1976. As it happened, her first task even before being formally hired,
1738-477: A few years, it yielded the popular animated series Static Shock . DC established Paradox Press to publish material such as the large-format Big Book of... series of multi-artist interpretations on individual themes, and such crime fiction as the graphic novel Road to Perdition . In 1998, DC purchased WildStorm Comics, Jim Lee 's imprint under the Image Comics banner, continuing it for many years as
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#17327834580971896-585: A fictional character. The success of this story led to the first team crossover between the new Justice League of America (JLA) and the Golden Age JSA, in the stories "Crisis on Earth-One" ( Justice League of America #21) and "Crisis on Earth-Two" ( Justice League of America #22), published in late 1963. This story arc started the tradition of a yearly crossover between the JLA and the JSA, and established firmly
2054-399: A focal point among all the worlds in every universe). Some of the heroes of Earth knew about other Earths and their own counterparts and fought side by side on many occasions. Later, a scientist from one universe named Kell Mossa (known initially only as Pariah ) created another device that would allow him to attempt the same thing Krona had attempted before. His actions accidentally awakened
2212-504: A handful of thematically-linked series he called collectively "The Fourth World" . In the existing series Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and in his own, newly-launched series New Gods , Mister Miracle , and The Forever People , Kirby introduced such enduring characters and concepts as arch-villain Darkseid and the other-dimensional realm Apokolips . Furthermore, Kirby intended their stories to be reprinted in collected editions, in
2370-456: A major slump, while manufactured " collectables " numbering in the millions replaced quality with quantity until fans and speculators alike deserted the medium in droves. DC's Piranha Press and other imprints (including the mature readers' line Vertigo , and Helix , a short-lived science fiction imprint) were introduced to facilitate compartmentalized diversification and allow for specialized marketing of individual product lines. They increased
2528-462: A new Multiverse was created. The new Multiverse consisted of 52 positive matter universes, an Antimatter Universe and a Limbo. The main continuity still occurred in New Earth (also called Earth-0), Earths 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 resembled Earths One, Two, Three, Four, S, and X of the original Multiverse respectively. Earths 13 and 50 were Vertigo and the rebooted Wildstorm Universe, while Earth-17 became
2686-528: A primer. They would get artists ... and they taught them the ABCs, which amounted to learning Jack Kirby ... Jack was like the Holy Scripture and they simply had to follow him without deviation. That's what was told to me ... It was how they taught everyone to reconcile all those opposing attitudes to one single master point of view. Given carte blanche to write and illustrate his own stories, he created
2844-416: A principal in the magazine distributorship Independent News —Wheeler-Nicholson had to enter into partnership with Donenfeld to publish Detective Comics No. 1, and Detective Comics, Inc. (which helped inspire the abbreviation DC) was formed, with Wheeler-Nicholson and Donenfeld's accountant Jack S. Liebowitz listed as owners. As the company continued to experience cash-flow problems, Wheeler-Nicholson
3002-415: A publishing format that was later called the trade paperback , which became a standard industry practice decades later. While sales were respectable, they did not meet DC management's initially high expectations, and also suffered from a lack of comprehension and internal support from Infantino. By 1973 the "Fourth World" was all cancelled, although Kirby's conceptions soon became integral to the broadening of
3160-492: A reboot of the Multiverse termed "5G", which would have fixed all of DC's publishing history into a single coherent continuity, stretching from World War II to the present day, with stories going forward focussing on new characters or aged versions of current ones. "A Brave New World", intended to be the first story set in this continuity, was published in Wonder Woman #750. This reboot was cancelled due to delays caused by
3318-518: A ripple effect that affected several past events, Earth-13 (Vertigo Universe) and Earth-50 (new Wildstorm Universe). Similar to the result of Crisis on Infinite Earths , a new mainstream Earth is created from the former three, with a whole new history. Most of the stories have been retold anew but certain events of New Earth remain (such as Batgirl being crippled by the Joker). Since it was established after Infinite Crisis that if something ever happened to
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#17327834580973476-658: A romantic interest for Batman named Julie Madison , as well as the Batarang weapon that Batman commonly uses, and the fictional aircraft called the Batplane . The story of Batman's origin was first shown in Detective Comics No. 33 (November 1939), which depicted the death of Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne by a mugger . The origin story remained crucial for the fictional character after its inception. The Daily Planet (a common setting of Superman)
3634-518: A special publishing deal with Milestone Media , DC Comics published a new series of comic books that told the stories of the heroes living in Dakota City , formed mostly by African American superheroes and other minorities. These characters lived in a universe separated from the DC Universe (known as the Dakotaverse or Milestone Universe). The event known as Worlds Collide presented one of
3792-523: A subsidiary of Time Warner. In June, the first Tim Burton-directed Batman film was released, and DC began publishing its hardcover series of DC Archive Editions ; these were collections of many of their early, key comics series, featuring rare and expensive stories previously unseen by the majority of modern fans. Much of the restoration work was handled by Rick Keene, with colour restoration performed by DC's long-time resident colourist Bob LeRose . The Archive Editions attempted to retroactively credit many of
3950-469: A superhero origin story with the reveal of an unnamed planet, later known as Krypton , where he is said to have originated . The issue also contained the first essential supporting character and one of the earliest female characters in any comic, with Lois Lane as Superman's first depicted romantic interest . The Green Hornet -inspired character known as the Crimson Avenger by Jim Chamber
4108-569: A supporting character called James Gordon , the police commissioner of what would later become Gotham City Police Department . Despite being a parody, All-American Publications introduced the earliest female character who became the female superhero Red Tornado (though disguised as a male) in Ma Hunkel who first appeared in the "Scribbly" stories in All-American Comics No. 3 (June 1939). Another important Batman debut
4266-491: A twin world existing alongside Earth with duplicates of everyone but with a different development. The concept of different versions of the world and its heroes was revisited in the pages of Wonder Woman a few times later. Led by editor Julius Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox, DC Comics' superheroes were given a "reboot" with the publication of Showcase #4 in 1956, where a new version of the Flash made his first appearance. This
4424-651: A very important ingredient within DC Comics' publications. It helped (among other things) to explain continuity errors, to retell and retcon stories, and to incorporate foreign elements that could actively interact with everything else and allow them to have an "existence". Continuity flaws between the established Earth-Two and several stories from the Golden Age were given separate Earths. "Imaginary" stories and sometime divergences of Earth-One were given also separate realities (such as Earth-B and Earth-A). In addition to
4582-501: A wholly separate imprint (and fictional universe) with its own unique style and audience. As part of this purchase, DC also began to publish titles under the fledgling WildStorm sub-imprint America's Best Comics (ABC), a series of titles created by Alan Moore which included The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen , Tom Strong , and Promethea . Moore strongly opposed this move, and DC eventually stopped publishing ABC. In March 2003, DC acquired publishing and merchandising rights to
4740-460: Is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment , a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery . DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book series first published in 1937. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, the first comic under the DC banner being published in 1937. The majority of its publications are set in
4898-516: Is considered the beginning period of the Silver Age of Comic Books . The success of this new Flash led to the creation of new incarnations of the Golden Age characters who only shared the names and powers but had different secret identities, origins and stories. Later, new versions of other heroes, Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman, were also restarted by retelling their origins but keeping their secret identities. Gardner Fox, who worked before in
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5056-737: Is defeated, but the Source Wall at the boundary of the Multiverse is cracked and the Batman Who Laughs manages to escape into the main DC Universe. The story is continued in Justice League . In Snyder's run on Justice League , the crack in the Source Wall allows the Totality, a small meteorite bearing immense power, to enter the Multiverse from the Source beyond. Lex Luthor retrieves the Totality and eventually frees Perpetua,
5214-480: Is destroyed except for five Earths (the Silver Age 's Earth-One, the Golden Age 's Earth-Two, Charlton Comics ' Earth-Four, Fawcett Comics ' Earth-S and Quality Comics ' Freedom Fighters' Earth-X). Later, the universe is recreated as one single universe from those five. The crossover event Convergence (2015) officially retconned the events of Crisis after heroes in that series went back in time to prevent
5372-457: Is once again recreated by higher beings from the Source, with Wonder Woman ascending alongside them to protect it. The New 52/Rebirth multiverse is restored largely as it was prior to the events of Dark Nights: Death Metal . As well as this, a new infinite web of multiverses appears, the Multiverse developing into an Omniverse. It is established that all events in DC's publishing history have occurred within this new Omniverse, with characters gaining
5530-516: Is still being used. The company created a second recurring title called New Comics , first released in December 1935, which was the start of the long-running Adventure Comics series that also featured many anthology titles. By 1936, the group had became Nicholson Publishing. Wheeler-Nicholson's next and final title, Detective Comics , was advertised with a cover illustration dated December 1936 but eventually premiered three months late with
5688-522: Is the second largest publisher of comic books, after Viz Media ; and Marvel is third. In 1934, entrepreneur Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications , intended as an American comic book publishing company. Its debut publication was the tabloid -sized New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine #1 (the first of a comic series later called More Fun Comics ) with a February 1935 cover date . An anthology title, essentially for original stories not reprinted from newspaper strips , it
5846-539: The Infinite Crisis limited series. Immediately after this event, DC's ongoing series jumped forward a full year in their in-story continuity, as DC launched a weekly series, 52 , to gradually fill in the missing time. Concurrently, DC lost the copyright to "Superboy" (while retaining the trademark) when the heirs of Jerry Siegel used a provision of the 1976 revision to the copyright law to regain ownership. In 2005, DC launched its " All-Star " line (evoking
6004-532: The COVID-19 pandemic and the firing of publisher Dan DiDio, who was the main architect of 5G. The original plans for 5G were recycled into the Future State event, which followed Dark Nights: Death Metal . Dark Nights: Death Metal and its companion comics act as a conclusion to Dark Nights: Metal , Flash Forward and Scott Snyder's run on Justice League . Perpetua destroys much of the Multiverse while
6162-596: The Elseworlds imprint. None of these stories were ever intended to be included in the "real" continuity of the DC Universe. Certain characters were reinvented in a mature context and were published under the Vertigo imprint. Most of the times, the characters depicted within the Vertigo imprint had no relation to the original DC Universe's versions, nor did the events have influence over the new Universe. Later, under
6320-522: The Golden Age of Comic Books (1938–1956). With the publication of All-Star Comics #3 in 1940, the first crossover between characters occurred with the creation of the Justice Society of America (JSA), which presented the first superhero team with characters appearing in other publications (comic strips and anthology titles) to bring attention to less-known characters. This established the first shared "universe", as all these heroes now lived in
6478-657: The Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s. Its most popular character was Captain Marvel , the alter ego of radio reporter Billy Batson, who transformed into the hero whenever he said the magic word "Shazam!". Other characters published by Fawcett include Captain Video , Hopalong Cassidy , Ibis the Invincible , Bulletman and Bulletgirl , Spy Smasher , Captain Midnight , Phantom Eagle , Mister Scarlet and Pinky , Minute-Man , Commando Yank and Golden Arrow . Aside from
Multiverse (DC Comics) - Misplaced Pages Continue
6636-609: The Green Lantern character, the introduction of the modern all-star team Justice League of America (JLA), and many more superheroes, heralding what historians and fans call the Silver Age of Comic Books . National radically overhauled its continuing characters—primarily Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman—rather than just reimagining them. The Superman family of titles, under editor Mort Weisinger , introduced such enduring characters as Supergirl , Bizarro , and Brainiac . The Batman titles, under editor Jack Schiff , introduced
6794-690: The Joker , Lex Luthor , Deathstroke , the Reverse-Flash , Brainiac , and Darkseid . The company has published non-DC Universe-related material, including Watchmen , V for Vendetta , Fables , and many other titles, under the alternative imprint Vertigo and DC Black Label . Originally at 432 Fourth Avenue in Manhattan , New York City, the company offices have been located at 480 and later 575 Lexington Avenue , 909 Third Avenue , 75 Rockefeller Plaza , 666 Fifth Avenue , and 1325 Avenue of
6952-711: The Marvel Family (which included Captain Marvel, Jr. , Mary Marvel , the Lieutenants Marvel , etc.) eventually outsold those of Superman . National Comics (as DC Comics was then known) sued Fawcett, claiming that the Captain infringed on the copyright of their original costumed superhero. National Comics' 1941 copyright hearing against Fawcett was dismissed on a technicality; the McClure Newspaper Syndicate had failed to include
7110-483: The Phantom Stranger ) rose from art director to become DC's editorial director. With the growing popularity of upstart rival Marvel Comics threatening to topple DC from its longtime number-one position in the comics industry, he tried to direct DC's focus towards marketing new and existing titles and characters with more adult sensibilities, aimed at an emerging older age group of superhero comic book fans; this
7268-795: The Silver Age , the comics of the 1970s and 1980s became known as the Bronze Age, as fantasy gave way to more naturalistic and sometimes darker themes. Illegal drug use, banned by the Comics Code Authority , explicitly appeared in comics for the first time in Marvel Comics' story " Green Goblin Reborn! " in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 96 (May 1971), and after the Code's updating in response, DC offered
7426-525: The Spirit which it then used, along with some DC heroes, as part of the First Wave comics line launched in 2010 and lasting through fall 2011. In May 2011, DC announced it would begin releasing digital versions of their comics on the same day as paper versions. Fawcett Comics Fawcett Comics , a division of Fawcett Publications , was one of several successful comic book publishers during
7584-557: The line further, increasing the number of titles and story pages, and raising the price from 35 cents to 50 cents. Most series received eight-page back-up features while some had full-length twenty-five-page stories. This was a move the company called the "DC Explosion". The move was not successful, however, and corporate parent Warner dramatically cut back on these largely unsuccessful titles, firing many staffers in what industry watchers dubbed "the DC Implosion ". In September 1978,
7742-468: The trademark "Captain Marvel" with the publication of an unrelated character's series. In 1972 DC licensed — and in 1994, purchased — Captain Marvel and his related characters. Because of Marvel's trademark, DC has instead used the trademark Shazam! as the title of their Captain Marvel-related comic books and thus the name under which they market and promote the character. In 1973, Shazam and
7900-558: The "mainstream" continuity appearing in DC comics was either a non-canonical story or happened in a completely different and separate reality/universe/multiverse. In 1999, the unexpected and overwhelming success of Elseworlds' Kingdom Come and other stories, led to the creation of the concept known as Hypertime in order to publish crossovers with those characters and the mainstream continuity. This structure gave "existence" to alternate timelines, stories in Elseworlds , appearances in other media and any other appearance of DC characters in
8058-412: The 1970s, everything that was published or related officially to DC Comics' titles could become part of the Multiverse, although much of it remained largely uncatalogued. The names of the worlds were usually in the format Earth, hyphen, spelled numeral/letter/name . In the case of worlds with numerals, the "rule" of spelling the number was not always followed, even within the pages of the same issue. As
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#17327834580978216-439: The 50th anniversary of DC Comics drew near, major events were proposed for the celebration: an encyclopedia ( Who's Who in the DC Universe ) and a crossover of the ages, characters, and worlds appearing in DC's comics. As told in the letter section of Crisis on Infinite Earths #1, as the research started in the late 1970s, it became evident that there were many flaws in continuity. The way used to circumvent some of these errors
8374-706: The Americas . DC Comics was located at 1700 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan until April 2015, when DC Entertainment transferred its headquarters to Burbank, California . DC Comics books are distributed to the bookstore market by Penguin Random House Publisher Services . The comics shop direct market was supplied by Diamond Comic Distributors until June 2020, when Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors (who were by then dominating direct market distribution on account of
8532-528: The Anti-Monitor, who then devoured Pariah's entire universe (aside from Pariah himself) and began to do the same to other universes (Pariah originally believes that the opposite is true; that his experiment destroyed the universes, which awakened the Anti-Monitor, until the truth is revealed to him). The time period of Earth when this takes place or the name of this Earth are never revealed. DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (later simply known as DC )
8690-607: The Batman Who Laughs reshapes Earth-0 according to his whims, creating the Metalverse. The Batman Who Laughs successfully steals Wally's new power, becoming a godlike being known as the Darkest Knight. He kills Perpetua and creates his own Multiverse of twisted worlds called "The Last 52". Wonder Woman gains the power necessary to fight him and eventually destroys him in the Death Sun at the end of time. The Multiverse
8848-490: The Bible as the foundation of his own new company, EC Comics . At that point, "Liebowitz promptly orchestrated the merger of All-American and Detective Comics into National Comics... Next he took charge of organizing National Comics, [the self-distributorship] Independent News, and their affiliated firms into a single corporate entity, National Periodical Publications ". National Periodical Publications became publicly traded on
9006-472: The Changing Man , as well as an increasing array of non-superhero titles, in an attempt to recapture the pre- Wertham days of post-War comicdom. In 1977, the company officially changed its name to DC Comics . It had used the brand "Superman-DC" since the 1950s, and was colloquially known as DC Comics for years. In June 1978, five months before the release of the first Superman film , Kahn expanded
9164-484: The DC Universe, especially after the major toy-company, Kenner Products , judged them ideal for their action-figure adaptation of the DC Universe , the Super Powers Collection . Obligated by his contract, Kirby created other unrelated series for DC, including Kamandi , The Demon , and OMAC , before ultimately returning to Marvel Comics in 1976. Following the science-fiction innovations of
9322-480: The DCU. This miniseries brought back several heroes from the ages of DC Comics that were obliterated by the crisis events. They were trapped by a godlike incarnation of Brainiac outside of time (or Vanishing Point as this "place" is called). At the end of the crossover, Brainiac sent these heroes back to their own timelines, and also successfully sent Zero Hour Hal Jordan, pre- Flashpoint Superman and other heroes back to
9480-661: The Dark Multiverse. At the end of the series, Wally sits in the Mobius Chair, gaining omniscience and residual power from Dr. Manhattan. In an epilogue published in The Flash #750, Wally surveys the timestream and notices multiple contradictions and inconsistencies within history, the result of Manhattan's reckless tampering with time. This was originally intended to lead into the Generations miniseries and
9638-521: The Jungle Girl ). The entire line was dropped in 1953, when Fawcett closed down their comics publishing wing (though many titles were picked up by Charlton Comics ). Fawcett Publications was founded by Wilford Fawcett in 1919 with the magazine Captain Billy's Whiz Bang and eventually expanded into a line of periodicals with a combined circulation of ten million a month. The company joined in
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#17327834580979796-486: The Marvel family became an additional Earth (to the Pre-Crisis DC continuity), known for a period of time as Earth-S . Fawcett also published several comic book adaptations of Hollywood films under the banner Fawcett Movie Comic . The publications ranged from 1949 to 1952 and were released bi-monthly. Early issues were simply labeled with A Fawcett Publication on the covers with no numbering nor date (other than
9954-688: The Modern Age still happening. In parallel, Captain Atom: Armageddon tells the story of how Captain Atom of the DC Universe causes the recreation of the Wildstorm Universe upon its destruction (and possibly its Multiverse as well). The recreated universe became part of the newly recreated DC Universe. The aftermath of Infinite Crisis and Captain Atom: Armageddon ( 52 , Countdown to Final Crisis and Final Crisis ) showed that
10112-530: The Modern Age was still being the main continuity, younger readers could not follow the stories of the mainstream versions of the DC heroes, just as had happened prior to the original Crisis on Infinite Earths . In order to overcome these new problems, a new event was created to restart the DC Comics' Universe. In the Flashpoint miniseries (May–September 2011), the Flash alters the timeline of Earth-0 creating
10270-655: The Multiverse but did have a twin in the antimatter universe: Qward. A satellite on each of these planets was created in the cataclysm and it was there where the embodiments of the Multiverse were born: the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor . The two battled to a standstill and eventually rendered one another comatose. The Multiverse had countless duplicates of planet Earth. Every Earth had a different history from one another but they always developed heroes and inspired heroic ages (which, according to Harbinger, it somehow made them
10428-490: The Multiverse for the first time, but it also presented key features of the Multiverse: all the universes vibrate at a specific frequency which keeps them separated; these "barriers" could be trespassed by "tuning" to that vibration. Because people could also "tune-in" these worlds in dreams, some people wrote comic books with the stories from those worlds they dreamed, which explained why Barry Allen knew about Jay Garrick as
10586-694: The Omniverse and Hypertime exist alongside each other as parts of a larger Divine Continuum, with the Omniverse corresponding to Space and Hypertime corresponding to Time. It also organizes previous Crisis events into Omniversal Crises and Hypertime Crises, with the "Crisis on Infinite Earths", "Infinite Crisis", "Final Crisis", "Multiversity", "Dark Nights", and "Dark Crisis" being Omniversal Crises while "Zero Hour", "the Kingdom", "Flashpoint/New 52", "Convergence", "DC Rebirth/Doomsday Clock", and "Flashpoint Beyond/New Golden Age" were Hypertime Crises. The Multiverse
10744-418: The Silver Age Teen Titans led DC's editors to seek the same for the wider DC Universe . The result, the Wolfman/Pérez 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths , gave the company an opportunity to realign and jettison some of the characters' complicated backstory and continuity discrepancies. A companion publication, two volumes entitled The History of the DC Universe , set out the revised history of
10902-445: The Silver Age version ( Katar Hol ) in the same continuity without a good explanation. The interaction of "possible timelines" also created continuity holes. This led to a new crisis to address the problem: the Zero Hour . The resulting universe had a slightly re-written story with no continuity errors even though it was acknowledged that reality-shattering events did happen (including the Crisis on Infinite Earths ). This Universe kept
11060-592: The TV series. This change in tone coincided with the prominent "Go-Go Checks" cover-dress that featured a black-and-white checkered strip at the top of each DC comic (all cover dates between February 1966 and August 1967), a misguided attempt by then-managing editor Irwin Donenfeld to make DC's output "stand out on the newsracks". In particular, DC artist Carmine Infantino complained that the distinctive cover made it easier for readers to spot DC's titles and avoid them in favor of Marvel's titles. In 1967, Infantino (who had designed popular Silver Age characters Batgirl and
11218-440: The Universe was "splintered" and the original Multiverse was restored briefly, showing that the entire Hypertime and many other appearances of the DC characters were part of the original Multiverse, including Tangent Comics which were published 12 years after the Multiverse was no more. In the end of Infinite Crisis , the multiverse is merged back as a New Earth with a new continuity with many stories re-written and many others from
11376-587: The antihero. These titles helped pave the way for comics to be more widely accepted in literary-criticism circles and to make inroads into the book industry, with collected editions of these series as commercially successful trade paperbacks . The mid-1980s also saw the end of many long-running DC war comics , including series that had been in print since the 1960s. These titles, all with over 100 issues, included Sgt. Rock , G.I. Combat , The Unknown Soldier , and Weird War Tales . In March 1989, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. , making DC Comics
11534-659: The better known superhero books, Fawcett also published a short-lived line of horror comics during the early 1950s, a string of titles which included This Magazine Is Haunted , Beware! Terror Tales , Worlds of Fear , Strange Suspense Stories , and Unknown World . Other genres included teenage humor (Ozzie and Babs), cartoon animal (Hoppy the Marvel Bunny), romance (Sweethearts), war (Soldier Comics) and Western (Six Gun Heroes). Fawcett also produced comics based on contemporary movie stars ( Tom Mix , Lash LaRue , Monte Hale ) and matinee serials ( Nyoka
11692-413: The brand's popularity, like the presence of the color red or word balloons on the cover, or that the perceived crudeness of the interior art was somehow more appealing to readers. When Lee learned about DC's subsequent experimental attempts to imitate these perceived details, he amused himself by arranging direct defiance of those assumptions in Marvel's publications as sales strengthened further to frustrate
11850-424: The character was revived in DC's new title Shazam! , which featured artwork by Captain Marvel's creator C. C. Beck . In the meantime, the abandoned 'Marvel' trademark had been seized by Marvel Comics in 1967, with the creation of their Captain Marvel , preventing DC from using the name in the title of their own comic series. While DC's Captain Marvel failed to recapture his earlier popularity, he later appeared in
12008-403: The collapse of the Multiverse. After the conclusion of Crisis on Infinite Earths , the concept of a single Universe containing most elements of the "surviving Earths" was established and heavily enforced to avoid the continuity problems of the Multiverse. However, alternate realities that affected the new DC Universe appeared very quickly. In Superman (vol. 2) #8, a Universe inside the Universe
12166-429: The comic book limited series . This publishing format allowed for the deliberate creation of finite storylines within a more flexible publishing format that could showcase creations without forcing the talent into unsustainable open-ended commitments. The first such title was World of Krypton in 1979, and its positive results led to subsequent similar titles and later more ambitious productions like Camelot 3000 for
12324-428: The company. The resulting influx of sophisticated horror-fantasy material led to DC in 1993 establishing the Vertigo mature-readers imprint, which did not subscribe to the Comics Code Authority . Two DC limited series, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Watchmen by Moore and artist Dave Gibbons , drew attention in the mainstream press for their dark psychological complexity and promotion of
12482-488: The competition. However, this ignorance of Marvel's true appeal did not extend to some of the writing talent during this period, and attempts were made to emulate Marvel's narrative approach. For instance, there was the Doom Patrol series by Arnold Drake (who had previously warned DC's management about Marvel's strength), a superhero team of outsiders who resented their freakish powers, which Drake later speculated
12640-450: The concept of a Multiverse and the designation of names, Earth-One being the JLA reality and Earth-Two the JSA reality. The success of these crossovers spawned publications telling the further stories of the Golden Age heroes in the present-day parting from many of the stories told, thus establishing a more defined continuity for every universe. This concept of parallel Earths with differences in locations, persons and historical events became
12798-446: The concept of one universe, one timeline. Such a timeline was "mapped" from the beginning to the present (1994) at the back cover of Zero Hour #0 that also included certain key dates in the future. The need to publish stories outside the strict DC Universe continuity led to the creation of certain DC imprints . Stories that set DC characters in different situations after the Crisis on Infinite Earths , were published by DC Comics under
12956-509: The copyright year inside). It was not until issue No. 7 (actually the eighth adaptation) that the series started numbering each comic book and using the Fawcett Movie Comic series title. Starting with issue No. 9, the series also printed the month of publication on the covers. The majority of the comic books were adapted from westerns , with few known exceptions; Ten Tall Men was a French Foreign Legion story taking place in
13114-459: The creation of the JSA, where other heroes met for the first time, created the story " Flash of Two Worlds " in The Flash #123 (1961), where Barry Allen, the new Flash, is transported to the Earth where the original Flash, Jay Garrick, existed. To Allen, Jay Garrick's world was a work of fiction as it was in the real world. This story not only presented the encounter of two worlds and the existence of
13272-489: The creator of the Multiverse. Despite the heroes' best efforts they are ultimately defeated. At the end of Justice League #39, the defeated League are saved from destruction by the Quintessence, who grant them the power necessary to fight Perpetua. The team run into a portal for the final battle, but this conflict is not shown and from there Justice League follows the team on other adventures, written by new writers. In
13430-547: The direct market in 1982. These changes in policy shaped the future of the medium as a whole, and in the short term allowed DC to entice creators away from rival Marvel, and encourage stability on individual titles. In November 1980 DC launched the ongoing series The New Teen Titans , by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez , two popular talents with a history of success. Their superhero-team comic, superficially similar to Marvel's ensemble series X-Men , but rooted in DC history, earned significant sales in part due to
13588-528: The disruption to Diamond caused by the COVID-19 pandemic ) replaced Diamond as the direct market distributor. In 2017, approximately 70% of the American comic book market was shared by DC Comics and its long-time major competitor Marvel Comics (acquired in 2009 by Warner Bros. Discovery's main competitor, The Walt Disney Company ), though this figure may be distorted by the fact that sales of graphic novels are excluded. When all book sales are included, DC
13746-512: The distribution of NPP's shows. A 1966 Batman TV show on the ABC network sparked a temporary spike in comic book sales and a brief fad for superheroes in Saturday morning animation ( Filmation produced most of DC's initial cartoons) and other media. DC significantly lightened the tone of many of its comics—particularly Batman and Detective Comics —to better complement the "camp" tone of
13904-723: The end of 2009. By 2007, DC was licensing characters from the Archie Comics imprint Red Circle Comics . They appeared in the Red Circle line, based in the DC Universe, with a series of one-shots followed by a miniseries that led into two ongoing titles that each lasted for ten issues. In 2011, DC rebooted all of its running titles following the Flashpoint storyline. The reboot called The New 52 gave new origin stories and costume designs to many of DC's characters. DC licensed pulp characters including Doc Savage and
14062-511: The entire Superman timeline. Where there had been two Superman, their realities have now been fused into one timeline with just one of them". It is revealed in Doomsday Clock that the New 52 was created by Doctor Manhattan as he experimented with reality, manipulating events to prevent many Golden Age heroes from gaining their powers and continually moving Superman to different points in
14220-499: The established New 52 Multiverse continuity, as well as to revisit other characters and concepts from DC's history as the conclusion of Convergence suggested that although the core 52 universe that now exists is the evolution of the multiverse, all the worlds still exist in some form. This was confirmed by Convergence writer Jeff King, as he stated that the reconstituted DC Multiverse is now infinite and there might be more than one Multiverse. The 2016 DC Rebirth initiative returned
14378-573: The events of Crisis on Infinite Earths so that the collapse of the Multiverse could be averted. From July 2015 onwards, The New 52 marking ended with the continuation of several publications and new others that did not necessarily take place within The New 52 multiverse. Advertised as DC YOU (a pun of DCU or DC Universe and the phrase "it's about you, the fans" appearing in the advertisements), DC now has an "open doors" policy to continuity, granting writers greater freedom to explore stories set outside
14536-450: The example of Atlas/Seaboard Comics and such independent companies as Eclipse Comics —DC began to offer royalties in place of the industry-standard work-for-hire agreement in which creators worked for a flat fee and signed away all rights, giving talent a financial incentive tied to the success of their work. As it happened, the implementation of these incentives proved opportune considering Marvel Comics' Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter ,
14694-638: The explosion of comic book publications in the United States in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Its initial entry, developed by writer Bill Parker and artist C. C. Beck , was Thrill Comics #1 (January 1940), a single issue of which was published only as an ashcan copy . The content was then reworked (for example, the lead character of Captain Thunder was renamed to Captain Marvel) and published as Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940). In addition to Beck,
14852-436: The fact that many of these universes were mostly unchronicled or merely glimpsed and that Final Crisis also changed the Multiverse slightly, many stories featuring alternate worlds and their interactions were published, which led certain inconsistencies and retcons to appear, such as Earth-1 being originally a "mirror" of Earth-One and later being the reality of J. Michael Straczynski 's Superman: Earth One or Earth-16 being
15010-529: The fictional DC Universe and feature numerous culturally iconic heroic characters , such as Superman , Batman , Wonder Woman , Green Lantern , the Flash , Cyborg , and Aquaman ; as well as famous fictional teams, including the Justice League , the Justice Society of America , the Teen Titans , and the Suicide Squad . The universe contains an assortment of well-known supervillains , such as
15168-463: The first comic book to feature the character archetype later known as the "superhero", Action Comics was a sales hit that brought to life a new age of comic books, now affectionately termed the "Golden Age" . Action Comics #1 is credited as featuring the first appearance of Superman, both on the cover illustration and inside the issue, and is now one of the most valuable and sought-after comic book issues of all time. The first Superman tale included
15326-686: The first mention of Batman's utility belt by Gardner Fox . Outside of DC's publishing, a character later integrated as DC was introduced by Fox Feature Syndicate named the Blue Beetle released in August 1939. Fictional cities were a common theme of DC; the first revealed city was Superman's home city of Metropolis , originally named in Action Comics No. 16 (September 1939). Detective Comics No. 31 (September 1939) by Gardner Fox, Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff introduced
15484-468: The first modern intercompany crossovers within the established continuity of the Universes instead of being "imaginary" and showed that there could be other universes or even multiverses outside the new DC Universe. In a similar way to Worlds Collide , the crossover event DC vs. Marvel showed another in-continuity crossover with another reality completely separated from the DC Universe and that has
15642-639: The first recurring Superman enemy referred to as the Ultra-Humanite ; created by Siegel and Shuster, this is commonly cited as one of the earliest supervillains in comic books. The Superman character had another breakthrough when he was given his own comic book series , which was previously unheard of. The first issue, published in June 1939, helped directly introduce Superman's adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent , also created by Siegel and Shuster. Detective Comics No. 29 (July 1939) included
15800-503: The groundwork for a full continuity-reshuffling sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths , promising substantial changes to the DC Universe (and side-stepping the 1994 Zero Hour event which similarly tried to ret-con the history of the DCU). In 2005, the critically lauded Batman Begins film was released; also, the company published several limited series establishing increasingly escalating conflicts among DC's heroes, with events climaxing in
15958-463: The higher beings within the Source who contained the aberrant Multiverse within the Source Wall, imprisoned Perpetua within the Wall and remade the original positive matter multiverse into a single positive matter Universe, which Krona , the rogue Maltusian, would eventually splinter into another infinite Multiverse. The beings within the Source decided to give the Multiverse a chance to achieve perfection,
16116-553: The home of an alternate Superman/ Christopher Kent , the home of the Super-Sons , and later the reality of the Young Justice TV series. Also, some universes appearing in the new continuity were never given a proper place within the 52 Universe, such as Prime-Earth. The new restored universe with only 52 worlds opened myriad possibilities for new stories and crossovers with different versions of heroes interacting with
16274-446: The line was dramatically reduced and standard-size books returned to 17-page stories but for a still increased 40 cents. By 1980, the books returned to 50 cents with a 25-page story count but the story pages replaced house ads in the books. Seeking new ways to boost market share , the new team of publisher Kahn, vice president Paul Levitz , and managing editor Giordano addressed the issue of talent instability. To that end—and following
16432-803: The line-up of artists who contributed to Fawcett Comics include Al Allard, Harry Anderson, Ken Bald , Phil Bard, Al Bare , Dan Barry , John Belfi , Dave Berg , Jack Binder , Alex Blum , Bob Boyajian, Bob Butts, Al Carreno , Joe Certa , Nat Champlin , Pete Costanza , Greg Duncan, Leonard Frank, Bob Fujitani , Till Goodson, Ray Harford, Bob Hebberd, John Jordan, H. C. Kiefer, Jack Kirby , Andre Le Blanc, Charles Nicholas , Carl Pfeufer , Mac Raboy , Pete Riss, Ed Robbins, John Rosenberger , Kurt Schaffenberger , Joe Simon , Jon Small, Ed Smalle, Jack Sparling , John Spranger, Chic Stone , Charles Sultan , Marc Swayze , Ben Thompson, George Tuska , Bill Ward , Clem Weisbecker, Burt Whitman, Reuben Zubofsky and Nick Zuraw. The whimsical adventures of Captain Marvel and
16590-516: The logo THE NEW 52! would only appear in publications with stories occurring in the new continuity, while those taking place outside of this new continuity (such as Smallville Season Eleven or the Batman Beyond universe) would not bear this distinction. At first it seemed that there was not going to be a naming convention for the Earths as it happened with the 52. The mainstream continuity
16748-547: The long-running fantasy series Elfquest , previously self-published by creators Wendy and Richard Pini under their WaRP Graphics publication banner. This series then followed another non-DC title, Tower Comics ' series T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents , in collection into DC Archive Editions. In 2004, DC temporarily acquired the North American publishing rights to graphic novels from European publishers 2000 AD and Humanoids . It also rebranded its younger-audience titles with
16906-474: The main Universe, the whole Multiverse could be affected as well, thus a new Multiverse of 52 worlds was also recreated. This new Multiverse is called The New 52 . This time, not all universes were revealed right away, only a couple were revealed in the first two years of The New 52 . In addition, in a similar fashion as the Elseworlds logo would appear in comics that did not occur in the "real" continuity,
17064-407: The main versions of heroes as well as the stories resulting from the new integrated characters from Milestone and Wildstorm. However, it became chaotic in just five years. Many stories and situations of other Universes were not followed well. The number designations could be completely disregarded from story to story and some universes were recreated over and over. In addition, as most of the history of
17222-562: The major DC characters. Crisis featured many key deaths that shaped the DC Universe for the following decades, and it separated the timeline of DC publications into pre- and post-"Crisis". Meanwhile, a parallel update had started in the non-superhero and horror titles. Since early 1984, the work of British writer Alan Moore had revitalized the horror series The Saga of the Swamp Thing , and soon numerous British writers, including Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison , began freelancing for
17380-449: The mascot Johnny DC and established the CMX imprint to reprint translated manga . In 2006, CMX took over from Dark Horse Comics ' publication of the webcomic Megatokyo in print form. DC also took advantage of the demise of Kitchen Sink Press and acquired the rights to much of the work of Will Eisner , such as his The Spirit series and his graphic novels. In 2004, DC began laying
17538-511: The memories of all their prior incarnations. Infinite Frontier reveals that awareness of prior incarnations is widespread but not ubiquitous. It also identifies Multiverse 2 as the "corpse" of the pre-Crisis Multiverse. Dark Crisis calls the Omniverse into question, and adds infinite Earths taken from Multiverse 2 into the Orrery of Worlds, expanding it to contain infinite Earths. Concurrently with Dark Crisis , Flashpoint Beyond reveals that
17696-429: The most notable event being Armageddon 2001 in 1991. An Antimatter Universe existed as well, which had some "reversed" events in a similar way as the former Earth-Three. The Earth within this Universe was called "Earth 2". In addition, there was a Limbo, where some heroes and characters that could not be brought back to "existence" after the Crisis on Infinite Earths lived outside the Universe. An important rule in
17854-465: The most popular superhero titles continued publication, including Action Comics and Detective Comics , the medium's two longest-running titles. In the mid-1950s, editorial director Irwin Donenfeld and publisher Liebowitz directed editor Julius Schwartz (whose roots lay in the science-fiction book market) to produce a one-shot Flash story in the try-out title Showcase . Instead of reviving
18012-420: The new DC Universe was that there could only be one timeline, so any change caused by time travelers caused the destruction of their timelines of origin. Changes in the past were often "fixed" or have to comply with the present to prevent continuity errors. Nevertheless, continuity errors appeared. The retold origin of Hawkman presented errors regarding the existence of the Golden Age version ( Carter Hall ) and
18170-402: The new DC Universe, which were still separated just like Milestone and Marvel. In 2005, a new universal crisis story arc was published as a way to update once more the superheroes of DC Comics, bring together other "realities" (namely, Milestone and Wildstorm) and bring back the Multiverse, this time with a limited number of Earths instead of an infinite one. During the event Infinite Crisis ,
18328-474: The old character, Schwartz had writers Robert Kanigher and John Broome , penciler Carmine Infantino , and inker Joe Kubert create an entirely new super-speedster, updating and modernizing the Flash's civilian identity, costume, and origin with a science-fiction bent. The Flash's reimagining in Showcase No. 4 (October 1956) proved sufficiently popular that it soon led to a similar revamping of
18486-552: The original Wally West to Earth from the Speed Force and reveals that time has been stolen from his friends' memories, and the Superman of the pre- Flashpoint world, stranded in the new timeline following Convergence , assumes the role of that Earth's Superman. In Action Comics #976, the pre- Flashpoint and New 52 Supermen's histories are merged. Peter J. Tomasi explained that "the events of Action #976 reset and reshape
18644-469: The other imprints was Impact Comics from 1991 to 1992 in which the Archie Comics superheroes were licensed and revamped. The stories in the line were part of its own shared universe. DC entered into a publishing agreement with Milestone Media that gave DC a line of comics featuring a culturally and racially diverse range of superhero characters. Although the Milestone line ceased publication after
18802-419: The past. The main timeline or "Central Timeline" was like a river and all of the alternate stories were branches of it. Hypertime was similar to the former Multiverse as it allowed each and every reality ever published to co-exist and interact as most branches tend to return to the original stream (explaining some retcons as well as crossovers). However, all realities existed within only one Universe. Originally,
18960-505: The people not noticing that some of the characters in those comic books existed in "real life". In addition, many universes had multiple alternate timelines, such as Kamandi and the Legion of Super-Heroes both being from Earth-One. Writer Marv Wolfman took this crossover event as an opportunity to reform all the fictional universe of DC Comics to avoid further continuity errors and update the DC characters to modern times. The whole Multiverse
19118-436: The positive matter multiverse or destroyed; and an antimatter multiverse ruled over by the Anti-Monitor to shield the Multiverse from danger in the wider Omniverse. Perpetua was supposed to move on to create new Multiverses, leaving her creation in the hands of her children, but instead she remained, creating ever more aggressive forms of life to forge the Multiverse into a weapon to be used against her own kind. Her sons contacted
19276-550: The proper copyright notice on many of the Superman daily newspaper strips . On appeal, however, Judge Learned Hand ruled that this was not an indication of intent to abandon the Superman property, and since it had been revealed that certain Captain Marvel stories were copies of certain Superman stories, National Comics would be able to seek damages for the violation of the copyrights of those specific stories. Facing
19434-448: The same world. Prior to this publication, characters from the different comic books seemingly existed in different worlds. Later, Wonder Woman #59 (May 1953) presented DC Comics' first story depicting a parallel "mirror" world. Wonder Woman is transported to a twin Earth where she meets Tara Terruna, who is exactly like her. Tara Terruna means "Wonder Woman" in the native language of that world. Wonder Woman describes this world as being
19592-580: The special event comic Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen , the Batman Who Laughs joins with Perpetua. The resolution to the Perpetua story arc was advertised in Justice League #39 as "The Encore", which would eventually be published as Dark Nights: Death Metal . Published roughly contemporaneously, a six-issue miniseries titled Flash Forward follows Wally West being enlisted by a cosmic being known as Tempus Fuginaut to stop an incursion of
19750-449: The specific inducement, Marvel Comics' writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby ushered in the sub-Silver Age "Marvel Age" of comics with the debut issue of The Fantastic Four . Reportedly, DC dismissed the initial success of Marvel's editorial change until its consistently strengthening sales—albeit also benefiting DC's parent company Independent News, as Marvel's distributor—made it impossible to ignore. This commercial situation
19908-511: The stability of the creative team, who both continued with the title for six full years. In addition, Wolfman and Pérez took advantage of the limited-series option to create a spin-off title, Tales of the New Teen Titans , to present origin stories of their original characters without having to break the narrative flow of the main series or oblige them to double their work load with another ongoing title. This successful revitalization of
20066-490: The stock market in 1961. Despite the official names "National Comics" and "National Periodical Publications", the company began branding itself as "Superman-DC" as early as 1940 and became known colloquially as DC Comics for years before the official adoption of that name in 1977. DC Comics began to move aggressively against what it saw as copyright-violating imitations from other companies, such as Fox Comics ' Wonder Man , which (according to court testimony) Fox started as
20224-551: The stories appearing in WildStorm Productions ' comic books occurred in a universe that was part of the Image Universe along with other characters appearing in Image Comics publications. It was separated from it during the event called "Shattered Image" consolidating the separate WildStorm Universe which had its own multiversal structure. After the purchase of WildStorm by DC Comics, crossovers occurred with
20382-536: The stories appearing mainly in the pages of JLA that created new Earths, the acquisition of other comic book companies and characters by DC Comics incorporated these new properties as Earths in the Multiverse which would interact several times with the "main" Earths, One and Two; two of the most notable being Earth-S for the Fawcett Comics characters, and Earth-X for the Quality Comics characters. By
20540-514: The stories that were told in Milestone Comics publications now occurred in New Earth and the Dakotaverse ceased to exist as a separated Universe. A naming convention was established and followed this time in the format Earth, hyphen, numeral , from Earth-0 to Earth-51. Even with a new Multiverse, not every published or related work had an "Earth" within the 52 and there were no in-continuity intercompany crossovers. Taking advantage of
20698-498: The successful Batwoman , Bat-Girl , Ace the Bat-Hound , and Bat-Mite in an attempt to modernize the strip with non-science-fiction elements. Schwartz and Infantino then revitalized Batman in what the company promoted as the "New Look", with relatively down-to-earth stories re-emphasizing Batman as a detective. Meanwhile, editor Kanigher successfully introduced a whole family of Wonder Woman characters having fantastic adventures in
20856-593: The three previous "crises" did not occur in this new continuity, but other events such as Zero Hour still happened, without ending in a crisis/reboot. However, writers continued to make references to the crises, and the full history of the structure of the DC Multiverse, detailing previous crisis events, was given in Grant Morrison 's The Multiversity (2014–2015) limited series. The Convergence (2015) crossover event later explored this concept within
21014-477: The timeline, resulting in superheroes emerging later in history. After a confrontation with Superman, Manhattan attempts to erase his tampering and restore the Pre-Flashpoint and Pre-Crisis multiverses, as well as elements he had previously removed from the history of Earth-0 such as the Justice Society of America and Legion of Superheroes . It is later revealed that he failed, only managing to destabilise
21172-482: The timestream further as it attempted to accommodate events from previous versions of reality. Meanwhile, Dark Nights: Metal , written by Scott Snyder , introduced the concept of the Dark Multiverse, a multiverse below the main DC Multiverse of nightmare worlds created from heroes' deepest fears. A being named Barbatos launches an attack from the Dark Multiverse on reality, spearheaded by a force of villainous versions of Batman led by The Batman Who Laughs . The invasion
21330-471: The title of the 1940s publication ), designed to feature some of the company's best-known characters in stories that eschewed the long and convoluted continuity of the DC Universe. The line began with All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder and All-Star Superman , and All-Star Wonder Woman and All-Star Batgirl was announced in 2006, but neither of these stories had been released or scheduled as of
21488-490: The underlying structure for the multiverse was revealed in a detailed map in the back of several comic books, for which an interactive online version was maintained and updated on the DC Comics website. In addition, the sixth issue of The Multiversity constituted a 'guidebook' to the worlds of the current DC multiverse and was published in January 2015. In October 2011, Dan DiDio posted on his Facebook page that in The New 52,
21646-422: The use of non-traditional contractual arrangements, including the dramatic rise of creator-owned projects, leading to a significant increase in critically lauded work (much of it for Vertigo) and the licensing of material from other companies. DC also increased publication of book-store friendly formats, including trade paperback collections of individual serial comics, as well as original graphic novels . One of
21804-437: The world of a revived post-apocalypse Atomic Knights after a mid-80s World War III once more. Many important stories from the Elseworlds imprint were later also given their own alternate Earths within this new Multiverse. In the miniseries, Milestone Forever , in a similar fashion as Captain Atom: Armageddon , the events that led to the end of the Dakotaverse and its integration to the new DC continuity are revealed. Most of
21962-401: The writers and artists who had worked for DC without receiving much recognition during the early age of comic books when individual credits were rare. The comics industry experienced a brief boom in the early 1990s, thanks to a combination of speculative purchasing—mass purchase of the books as collectible items, with the intention to resell at a higher value (as the rising value of older issues
22120-412: Was alienating much of his company's creative staff with his authoritarian manner and major talents there went to DC like Roy Thomas , Gene Colan , Marv Wolfman , and George Pérez . In addition, emulating the era's new television form, the miniseries while addressing the matter of an excessive number of ongoing titles fizzling out within a few issues of their start, DC created the industry concept of
22278-444: Was charging fifteen cents. At this time, the senior DC staff were reportedly unable to explain how this small publishing house was achieving its increasingly threatening commercial strength. For instance, when Marvel's product was examined in a meeting, the emphasis on more sophisticated character-based narrative and artist-driven visual storytelling was apparently overlooked. Instead, superficial reasons were put forward to account for
22436-628: Was featured in Detective Comics No. 20 (October 1938). This character is known to be the first masked vigilante published by DC. An unnamed "office boy", retconned as Jimmy Olsen 's first appearance, was revealed in a Superman story by Siegel and Shuster in Action Comics No. 6 (November 1938). Starting in 1939, Siegel and Shuster's Superman was the first comic-derived character to appear in other formats, later featuring in his own newspaper comic strip , which first introduced his biological parents Jor-El and Lara . All-American Publications' debut comic series, All-American Comics ,
22594-740: Was first named in a Superman newspaper strip around November 1939. Doll Man was the first superhero to be produced by Quality Comics , which DC now owns. Fawcett Comics was formed around 1939 and became DC's original competitor company over the next decade. At the end of 1944, All-American titles began using its own logo to distinguish it from the National comics. All-American Publications , an affiliate concern co-owned by Gaines and Liebowitz, merged with Detective Comics, Inc. on September 30, 1946, forming National Comics Publications . The previous year, in June 1945, Gaines had allowed Liebowitz to buy him out and had retained only Picture Stories from
22752-573: Was first published in April 1939. The series Detective Comics made history as being the first to feature Batman —a Bob Kane and Bill Finger creation—in issue No.27 (March 1939) with the request of more superhero titles. Batman was depicted as a masked vigilante who wore a caped suit known as the Batsuit and drove a car that was later referred to as the Batmobile . The Batman story also included
22910-581: Was forced out after the first year. Shortly afterwards, Detective Comics, Inc. purchased the remains of National Allied (also known as Nicholson Publishing) at a bankruptcy auction and absorbed it. Meanwhile, Max Gaines formed the sister company All-American Publications in 1939. Detective Comics, Inc. soon launched a new anthology title called Action Comics ; the first issue , cover dated June 1938, featured new characters such as Superman by Siegel and Shuster, Zatara by Fred Guardineer , and Tex Thompson by Ken Finch and Bernard Baily . Considered as
23068-418: Was highlighted by Marvel's superior sell-through percentage numbers which were typically 70% to DC's roughly 50%, meaning that DC's publications were barely making a profit after returns from the distributors were factored in, while Marvel was making a healthy profit by comparison. Also in 1961, both DC and Marvel increased their cover price from ten cents to twelve cents, while the rival publisher Dell Comics
23226-457: Was in response to Marvel's efforts to market their superhero line to college-aged adults. Infantino also recruited major talents such as ex-Marvel artist and Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko , and promising newcomers Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil , and he replaced some existing DC editors with artist-editors, including Joe Kubert and Dick Giordano , to give DC's output a more artistic critical eye. In 1967, National Periodical Publications
23384-510: Was known as Prime Earth, although it was not a similar world to the real world as Earth-Prime was. J. Michael Straczynski 's re-envisioning of Superman and Geoff Johns ' reimagining of Batman were released as part of a series called Earth One . In Grant Morrison's The Multiversity (2014–2015), the Earths are named in the same format as in the former 52 Multiverse (Earth-6, Earth-7, Earth-8 etc.). Morrison intended for The Multiversity to reveal remaining universes of The New 52 multiverse, and
23542-491: Was originally created by Perpetua, a member of a race of cosmic beings known as "Hands", referencing the common imagery in DC of a giant Hand creating the Universe. She also created the Monitor, Anti-Monitor and World Forger. The original Multiverse consisted of an infinite positive matter multiverse to be overseen by the Monitor; a dark matter Multiverse where the World Forger would create new universes to be either added to
23700-470: Was plagiarized by Stan Lee to create The X-Men . There was also the young Jim Shooter who purposely emulated Marvel's writing when he wrote for DC after studying both companies' styles, such as for the Legion of Super-Heroes feature. In 1966, National Periodical Publications established its own television arm, led by Allen Ducovny, to develop and produce TV projects, with Superman TV Corporation handling
23858-456: Was purchased by Kinney National Company , which purchased Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in 1969. Kinney National spun off its non-entertainment assets in 1972 (as National Kinney Corporation ) and changed its name to Warner Communications Inc. In 1970, Jack Kirby moved from Marvel Comics to DC, at the end of the Silver Age of Comics , in which Kirby's contributions to Marvel played a large, integral role. As artist Gil Kane described: Jack
24016-522: Was revealed to have been created to preserve the Legion of Super Heroes' 30th century in New Earth. This world was used to allow crossovers with certain characters of the Legion of Super-Heroes and recreate characters that otherwise could not exist in the new continuity (such as Kryptonians , as in the New Earth Superman was the only survivor of Krypton). Alternate timelines were also used,
24174-484: Was the "Multiple Earths", which also showed a chaotic nature that brought even more continuity problems that were not easily explained or were simply left unexplained. Examples of this included: 1) the Black Canary of Earth-One being the daughter of the original Black Canary of World War II even though the original Black Canary was a resident of Earth-Two, and 2) the existence of Golden Age comic books on Earth-One and
24332-475: Was the introduction of the fictional mansion known as Wayne Manor first seen in Detective Comics No. 28 (June 1939). The series Adventure Comics followed in the footsteps of Action Comics and Detective Comics by featuring a new recurring superhero called Sandman who first appeared in Adventure Comics No. 40 (July 1939). Action Comics No. 13 (June 1939) introduced
24490-417: Was the single most influential figure in the turnaround in Marvel's fortunes from the time he rejoined the company ... It wasn't merely that Jack conceived most of the characters that are being done, but ... Jack's point of view and philosophy of drawing became the governing philosophy of the entire publishing company and, beyond the publishing company, of the entire field ... [Marvel took] Jack and use[d] him as
24648-464: Was thought to imply that all comics would rise dramatically in price)—and several storylines gaining attention from the mainstream media. DC's extended storylines in which Superman was killed , Batman was crippled , and Green Lantern turned into the supervillain Parallax , resulted in dramatically increased sales. However, the increases were temporary, and sales dropped off as the industry went into
24806-421: Was to convince Bill Sarnoff, the head of Warner Publishing, to keep DC as a publishing concern, as opposed to simply managing their licensing of their properties. With that established, DC had attempted to compete with the now-surging Marvel by dramatically increasing its output and attempting to win the market by flooding it. This included launching series featuring such new characters as Firestorm and Shade,
24964-449: Was unlike many comic book series before it. While DC Comics is now primarily associated with superhero comics , the genres in the first anthology titles consisted of funnies , Western comics , and adventure-related stories. The character Doctor Occult —created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in December 1935 and included in issue No. 6 of New Fun Comics —is considered to be the earliest recurring superhero created by DC that
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