oh internet

Comic company that competes with Marvel

Summary

DC Comics is an American comic company known as being one of the largest in the world, next to Marvel Comics, as well as being one of the foundations of modern comic companies now, along with Marvel. Of the two, DC is usually considered the one with the better storytelling, but less iconic characters, with the only ones outside of comics anyone cares about are Batman, Wonder Women, Superman, and maybe Robin/Nightwing/Teen Titans. Story-wise, DC Comics has what are considered some of the best comics ever made with Alan Moore's Watchmen series and Batman: The Killing Joke one-shot, Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series, Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Night Returns series and Batman: Year One series, and the cross-over event Crisis on Infinite Earths series. At the same time, DC comics also made some of the worst with Amazons Attack, Countdown to Final Crisis, Genesis, Cry for Justice, and All Star Batman and Robin. Though in the internet, there is only one character comic book fans really care about.

Batman

It's f**king Batman. Do I really need to tell who who Batman, Bruce Wayne, The Dark Knight of Gotham, is? If I do, seriously, actually go on the internet or go outside, anything to get out from under your rock.

Batman is perhaps the most famous of all comic book characters, next to Superman or Spider-Man. On the internet, it's next to impossible to find someone who doesn't like Batman, either in movie, comic, or video game form, and is the source of several memes. Starting out as millionaire heir to a family company after his parent's murder, Bruce Wayne fights crime to avenge his parents as Batman, along with his sidekicks Robin, Batgirl, Batwoman, Nightwing, and police help from Police Commissioner Gordon. They fight crime in the dirty streets of Gotham City against murderous psychopaths like The Joker and Harley Quinn, The Penguin, Two-Face, The Ventriloquist, Mr. Freeze, Bane, The Riddler, Poison Ivy, The Mad Hatter, Viktor Zsasz, Ra's Al Ghul, Clayface, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, Hugo Strange, Black Mask, and Deadshot.

Batman has been reproduced countless times in the form of television and movies and are either famously or infamously talked about to this day, with some examples being Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Batman & Robin, and The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight movie series

The Dark Knight trilogy (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises) directed by Christopher Nolan, have garnered endless love from the internet and IRL for both being a great movies, and for the media coverage over Heath Ledger's death before release. This is especially true on the IMDb boards for the The Dark Knight movie, where the movie is still discussed (usually by 13 year-olds) to this day, and were a major source of trolling when the movie first came out. Coupled with the massive viral campaign they pulled for The Dark Knight of having fans search for clues and websites showing bits of the movie, the nerds of the internet rejoiced for the movie's existence. Recently, The Dark Knight Rises has launched some viral campaigning of it's own, by showing the picture of Bane composed of avatar pictures of those who twitted of The Dark Knight Rises on an ominous website. Even more recently, when The Dark Knight Rises trailer premiered, fans of the internet needlessly analyzed the trailer, much to the shock of no one and the dismay of everyone, trying to explain every tiny detail.

Memes

Currently there is only one major meme from the comic, and it originates from the All Star Batman & Robin comics in which Batman infamously kidnaps Robin, and Robin asks who Batman is, with which Batman replies:

This made comic book fans laugh, as Batman would never actually say something like that, and soon turned it into a meme over the ridiculous nature of the line. It is now used nearly every time Batman is mentioned.

The Dark Knight movie even produced two memes of it's own, with Why So Serious? and Why So Exploitable? The former one just simply being an overused quote from The Joker in the movie that people on the internet use to show they are trolling, and the latter being an image macro of Batman annoying The Joker in the interrogation scene of The Dark Knight

Origins

Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson began National Allied Publications, launching with New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine, New Comics, and Detective Comics. In debt to the printing plant, he had to take the plant owner, Harry Donenfeild, as a partner, then becoming Detective Comics, Inc. Wheeler-Nicholson was eventually forced out, due to cash problems, shortly before the premiere of Action Comics #1 in June 1938, which featured Superman and began the superhero genre and archetype. Later, they also launched Batman in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. Both Superman and Batman became widely successful and have served to keep the company afloat for years

Current status

As of recent, DC has been making some of larger duds, but the future of DC is completely uncertain for one specific reason.

The DC relaunch

On June 1, 2011 DC announced a complete relaunch of all it's on-going comic series, relaunching all of them with 52 new #1 issues, along with launching digital comics. After hearing of this relaunch, fans flew into a wild frenzy and the comic world lit on fire, fearing the worst for their favorite characters. After all, DC was essentially saying that 40+ years of continuity was being erased by relaunching with new #1 issues. The idea behind this relaunch was that DC needed a fresh and uncomplicated start for new readers to jump, which seems to be both working and not working, as new fans are interested in the changes while fans that have been vaguely following are disgusted by the history being wiped out, as well as the old fans being disgusted. And after the recent Wonder Women costume change debacle, fans feared all their favorite heroes will get a more "urban" reboot, as what was to happen to Wonder Women. This became true and false depending on which character you were following as the new costumes were being released and certain details being leaked regarding what was being re-written, with Batman seeming to get the least change. The reboot came when the final issue of the 5-part Flashpoint is released on August 31st, with the first #1 of the Justice League released along with it.

What followed essentially disappointed everyone, since it became a "soft" reboot, resetting some things but leaving everything the same really. What resulted was new fans being left in the dark, and old fans being pissed. What comics people liked is pretty subjective, but everyone agreed Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Batman, and Batwoman were easily the top. The New 52 was a financial success for DC for a few months, so... horray?

Facts

Images

		Slowpoke	Y SO EXPLOITABLE?
That's right.	Batman

Videos

Related Pages

IMDb

Linkara

Marvel

TV Tropes

United States

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