Marvel Comics - DC Comics - Dark Horse and Others

In June 1938 a comic came out featuring a man in a costume lifting a car over his head! This was Action Comics #1 featuring Superman, a character that had powers far beyond a normal human being. Faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap buildings in a single bound Superman was surely an apt name.

In May, 1939 Detective Comics #27 saw the first appearance of Batman, unlike Superman, Batman was grim, gritty and had no super powers. Batman relied on his skills as a detective, making his comics more of a mystery series than a superhero comic.

Superman Comic Book

During the summer of 1939, Superman was given his own comic book, based on the success of this title many other characters were given their own books dedicated entirely to themselves. Around the middle of 1939 a comic called Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly was published and in it would be Marvel Comics' first and longest running character, Prince Namor The Sub-Mariner, in an 8-page back up strip, this story would later reappear in Marvel Comics #1.

• New Avengers #40
• Mighty Avengers #12
• Angel After The Fall #3
• Fantastic Four #554

Marvel Comics

It was October 1939 when Marvel Comics #1 was published by Timely Comics, this company would eventually be known as Marvel Comics. Marvel has been the leading force in superhero comics since 1961 starting with Fantastic Four #1 and following with a number of superhero's that are now multi billion dollar properties including Spider-Man, The Hulk, The X-Men. Unlike their DC counterparts the heroes at Marvel tended to be flawed with problems that gave them a much wider appeal.

Spider-Man Debuts

Amazing Fantasy #15 was Spider-Man's debut created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko; Spider-Man man would become the most popular hero in the Marvel stable. The majority of the heroes in the Marvel Universe were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, most of which are still around today.

As well as comics about individual heroes, there were plenty of comic books about groups of superheroes coming together to right wrongs, such as The Avengers who consisted of The Mighty Thor, Ant-Man, The Wasp, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. The most popular of these super groups are The Uncanny X-Men, originally called just The X-Men the group consisted of Cyclops, The Beast, Iceman, The Angel, Marvel Girl and lead by Professor Charles Xavier.

• X-Force
• Ultimate 3 Gatefold Villains
• Angel After The Fall #3
• Buffy Series #11

Marvel Uncanny X-men Relaunched

Throughout the 60's lots of characters were created by a number of publishers that are still around today. Heading into the 70's, Marvel dominated the superhero comic book market producing more and more books for an ever growing market. Towards the end of the 70's Marvel relaunched the X-Men as The Uncanny X-men, the new team consisted of Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Cyclops and Thunderbird. This line up would become the most popular group of superheroes ever.

DC Comics Launch Watchmen

It was all change again in the 80's as people like Frank Miller took the reins and produced a new gritty style of story telling with his run on Daredevil and then again with his reinvention of Batman with The Dark Knight Returns. It was around this time that DC released a series called Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, between Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen the comics industry was given a new lease on life. DC comics launched their Vertigo line with comics like Sandman, Hellblazer, Shade the Changing Man, Animal Man and of course Alan Moore's sublime Swamp Thing. These titles were aimed at a more mature reader.

Image Comics Born

The industry changed again in the 90's, relying heavily on comics with gimmicks to try and sell multiple copies to speculators, this eventually led to the industry collapsing in on it self. Before this collapse the industry had been introduced to fan favourite artist Todd McFarlane who would eventually go on to form Image Comics along with Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Whilce Portacio and Marc Silvestri.

Today the industry has picked itself up and is producing more quality books than ever before, every genre is catered for; there is a comic book out there for everyone. Enjoy!