When you think DC Comics, you think of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and many other A-List superheroes, but some of you more familiar with the publisher may remember other names floating around: Shazam, Captain Atom, Static, Swamp Thing and many others. So why don't these characters get as much attention or have as much history behind them as the DC superstars? Well, that's because none of those characters were DC Comics heroes to start with!
In 1935, Nation Allied Publication's Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson published "New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine", unsuspected by him and everyone else in the USA, this simple kid's book would be the very first step for what is now DC Comics/DC Entertainment. It was actually when the company launched their mystery series-Detective Comics-that they changed their name to DC Comics. But we're not here to talk about the company's various names, no we are here to analyze the many cases of DC Comics absorbing and retooling rival comic book characters. First and foremost was Fawcett Comic's icon, Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel was actually a boy named Billy Batson who was given superpowers by a wise wizard. When Billy called the wizard's name-Shazam-he'd gain godlike powers and become the hero known as Captain Marvel. In the 1950's, DC Comics sued Fawcett Comics on the grounds that Cap was a copy of Superman and when DC won the court case, Fawcett was forced to cancel the book and five years later go out of business. However, because Captain Marvel's popularity had exceeded Superman's at that time, in 1974 DC Comics bought the rights to Captain Marvel from his creator C.C. Beck and integrated the character into The DC Universe. However, because Marvel Comics had started their own title called "Captain Marvel", DC Comics gave their Captain Marvel the book title of "Shazam" to avoid lawsuits.
In 1945, a comic book publisher called Charlton Comics was established by an Italian immigrant named John Santangelo Jr and an attorney named Ed Levy. The company had many early names, but the men eventually settled on Charlton because both of their respective sons were named Charles. Like other publishers they put out books about horror, westerns, romance and mystery, even early American manga, but they also had their fair share of superheroes like Yellowjacket and E-Man. In 1967, Charlton decided to focus on non-superhero titles and a majority of their characters were sold to DC Comics. This included both versions of The Blue Beetle, The Question, Captain Atom, Peacemaker, Judomaster, Peter Cannon, and Nightshade. After these characters were sold to DC Comics, writer Alan Moore wanted to use them for an epic and hardcore superhero story, but DC Comics had safer plans for them. So, when Alan Moore wrote Watchmen, he created similar characters to those bought by DC Comics. The Blue Beetle became Night-Owl, The Question became Rorschach, Captain Atom became Doctor Manhattan, Peacemaker became The Comedian, Peter Cannon became Ozymandias, and Nightshade became The Silk Spectre. Meanwhile, the actual characters became integrated into the DC Universe.
In 1984 the Comics Code Authority still kept comic book publishers from using drugs, sex and obsessive violence in their main titles, so DC Comics created another imprint called Vertigo Comics to feature characters Swamp Thing, John Constantine, Animal Man and The Sandman without the CCA. By doing this, they could establish that these characters exist in the DCU with guys like Superman and Batman, but could use more mature content for these more risky characters. After 2011, these characters more prominently integrated into the DCU.
A coalition of African-American comic book writers went to DC Comics with a proposal for another imprint starring more racially diverse comic book characters. DC Comics and these writers established Milestone Comics with three rules: The writers would have total control, all characters created by the writers would be left out of the DCU and kept exclusive to the writers and their "Milestone Universe", and the writers would have the final say on all merchandising and advertisements. The most prominent characters from Milestone include Icon, Hardware, Blood Syndicate and Static-the last character would become notable for having an animated series titled "Static Shock". In 1994, Milestone had begun to sink and the runners of the imprint agreed on an event called "World's Collide" between Milestone and DC Comics, which resulted in the characters from Milestone joining the DCU and the Milestone imprint being cancelled.
Similar to this, artist Jim Lee established the Wildstorm Comics imprint in 1992 with DC Comics. Wildstorm Comics featured characters who's rights were under their respective creators rather than DC Comics. These characters included Wildcats, Stormwatch, Gen 13, and The Authority. Many of these characters were clearly indicative of the 90's, with many having exaggerated muscles and the overuse of pouches, metal armor and feral facial features. Additionally, these characters were clear rip-offs of established characters: Apollo was like Superman, Midnighter was like Batman, Maul was like Hulk and Gen 13 were like The X-Men. Wildstorm writers were hand-in-hand with Image Comics, an independent comic book publisher featuring creator-owned characters and was the most popular publisher of the 1990's. In 2011, the Wildstorm Universe was folded into the DCU.
After the 2011 event "Flashpoint", Vertigo Comics and Wildstorm Comics were fully folded into the DCU, which also featured characters from Milestone, Fawcett, and Charlton Comics, making the universe a lot more crowded. With so many comic publishers in their control, DC Comics has succeeded at making a mixed, but cohesive universe. I understand that some people find DC's ownership battles and overall control of the characters created by artists and writers to be unfair, but the reality is that after Superman became an American icon, DC Comics couldn't do business like any other publisher, they had to act like a business. That's why they're more likely to use the name "DC Entertainment"these days. I hope this gave you readers a proper education of DC's company history.
Thanks for reading!
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