DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. (or simply DC) is an American comic book company. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery., which itself is owned by Time Warner. Its first well-known comics were such as Action Comics, Detective Comics, All Star Comics, and Sensation Comics. They introduced three well-known superheroes: Superman (1938), Batman (1939), and Wonder Woman (1941). DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies. It is best well-known for making "superhero" comic books. Their first comic under the DC banner was published in 1937, and is very famous in the modern art subject Graphics.

Most of its publications take place within the fictional DC Universe and feature iconic superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Shazam, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Cyborg, Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Supergirl, the Atom, and Blue Beetle; as well as fictional teams including the Justice League, the Justice League Dark, the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Suicide Squad, the Justice Society of America, the Young Justice, and the Teen Titans. The universe also features well-known supervillains such as Lex Luthor, the Joker, Catwoman, the Scarecrow, the Penguin, Cheetah, Black Adam, the Riddler, Captain Cold, Brainiac, Bizarro, Gorilla Grodd, General Zod, Sinestro, Black Manta, Darkseid, Ra's al Ghul, Doomsday, Harley Quinn, and Bane. The company has published non-DC Universe-related material, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Fables and many titles under their alternative imprint Vertigo and now DC Black Label.

The initials "DC" came from the company's popular series Detective Comics, which featured Batman. DC had its headquarters at 1700 Broadway, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. DC Entertainment moved its headquarters to Burbank, California in April 2015.

Its top rival is Marvel Comics (the publisher of Spider-Man and Hulk) which was acquired in 2009 by The Walt Disney Company, WarnerMedia's main competitor. They shared approximately 70% of the American comic book market in 2017, though this number may give a distorted view since graphic novels are excluded. With the sales of all books included, DC is the second biggest publisher, after Viz Media, and Marvel is third.

DC Comics has adapted its characters to different forms of media, including action figures, animated and live-action movies, animated and live-action television series, and video games, which have made them even more popular.