DC and Marvel comics that have been adapted to feature films

From the Newsstand to the Big Screen

DC Comics

• Founded in 1934 as National Allied Publications by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson

• Name was changed to DC to represent the popular line of Detective Comics

• DC launched the Action Comics title in 1938 which featured the first superhero…Superman

• Due to the popularity of Superman, DC went on to introduce other characters such as Batman in 1939

• 1938-1950 was known as the Golden Age of comics and many superheroes were introduced such as The Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman

• Superhero comics lost popularity in the late 1940s and DC began to publish western, mystery, and horror comics

• Detective Comics and Action Comics continued to be published and sold during this period

• Previously popular superheroes were reimagined for the Silver Age of comics which began with the appearance of the new Flash character in Showcase #4 Oct 1956

History of DC Comics

• The sale of DC’s comic books jumped drastically in the mid-1980s

• DC sold 3.5 million comics in Sept 2014

• DC currently has 61 different titles on the newsstand with more to come in late 2014 early 2015

• 40% of readers are women

• An Action Comics #1 sold for $1,000,000 in Feb 2010 and another for $3,207,852 in 2014

• 2013 was the 75th Anniversary of Superman’s first appearance in comics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebXB0lBoaQ0

• In February 2010, A Detective Comics #27 featuring the first appearance of Batman, sold for $1 million at auction

• 2014 was the 75th Anniversary of Batman’s first apperance

Popularity

• DC made the transition to the big

screen in 1978 with Superman The

movie and its sequels

• After a period of no big screen

superhero presence, Tim Burton

revived the genre in 1989 with

Batman which led to several sequels

• The Batman story was rebooted in

2005 with Christopher Nolan’s Batman

Begins

• The Nolan trilogy is now considered to

be the best Batman films of all time

The New Media

• Superman The Movie: 1978 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grO4OcJ6cgY (Trailer)

• Superman II: 1980

• Superman III: 1983

• Superman IV: 1987

• Superman Returns: 2006

• Man of Steel: 2013

• Batman: 1989

• Batman Returns: 1992

• Batman Forever: 1995

• Batman & Robin: 1997

• Batman Begins: 2005

• The Dark Knight: 2008

• The Dark Knight Rises: 2012

• Green Lantern: 2011

DC Films

Marvel Comics

• Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin Goodman under the original name Timely Comics

• Timely’s first publication was Marvel #1 in Oct 1939 and featured the android Human Torch and Namor The Sub-Mariner

• By the 1950s Timely Comics had become known as Atlas Comics

• The modern incarnation of the company began in 1961 with the launch of the Fantastic Four title and other hero comics which resulted in the name change from Atlas Comics to Marvel Comics in honor of Marvel #1

• Marvel features popular heroes such as Spider-man, Wolverine, Iron-man, and The Hulk

History of Marvel Comics

• Marvel began to increase it’s popularity in the 1960s when Stan Lee took over as editor-in-chief https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqijirc45vU (Stan Lee Interview)

• Marvel’s characters are not the typical heroes like the ones in the pages of DC comics because Stan Lee prefers to write about the anti-hero

• Most Marvel characters are either mutants, outsiders, damaged, or deeply troubled in some way

• These characters are so popular with readers because they are different and many of the readers can relate

• 79 different Marvel titles were shipped to comics retailers in Sept 2014

Popularity

• Marvel had made previous attempts to get

on the big screen

• There was a poorly done Fantastic Four film

by Roger Corman in 1994 that was never

released and a Captain America film that

went straight to video in 1990

• Marvel found success with its films

beginning in 2000 with X-Men and 2002

with Sam Raimi’s Spider-man series

• The new wave hit in 2008 when Iron-Man

was released

Marvel’s Jump to Film

• X-Men - 2000

• X-Men 2 -2003

• X-Men: The Last Stand – 2006

• X-Men Origins: Wolverine – 2009

• X-Men: First Class – 2011

• The Wolverine – 2013

• X-Men: Days of Future Past – 2014

• Fantastic Four – 2005

• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer – 2007

• Captain America: The First Avenger – 2011

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier – 2014

• Iron Man – 2008 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYrxSQ_Y2Iw (Clip)

• Iron Man 2 – 2010

• Iron Man 3 – 2013

Marvel Films

• The Hulk – 2003

• The Incredible Hulk – 2008 after a reboot of the series

• Spider-Man – 2002

• Spider-Man 2 – 2004

• Spider-Man 3 – 2007

• Amazing Spider-Man – 2012

• Amazing Spider-Man 2 – 2014

• The Avengers – 2012

• Guardians Of The Galaxy - 2014

• Blade – 1998

• Blade II – 2002

• Blade: Trinity – 2004

• The Punisher - 2004

Cont.

• Superhero films are popular because superheroes come in all shapes and sizes – there is something for everyone

• People look for an escape from their everyday lives

• With the fear of terrorism, epidemics, and financial instability, superhero movies provide viewers with hope and allow them a few hours to forget what is going on in the real world

• New technology gives comics fans a chance to see their favorite superheroes in live action in a way they never could before

• The ongoing “war” between DC and Marvel means only good news for the fans as both companies continue to release film adaptations of their properties

The Superhero Genre

• The films tend to draw large crowds and a huge box office take

• The Dark Knight grossed domestically $448,139,099

• The 3 Iron Man films grossed $1,039,859,426

• Guardians of the Galaxy was based on a little known comic and many didn’t expect the film to do well –Domestic gross is $331,062,044

• Based on the success of the previous films, DC and Marvel have released the lineups for each company’s future films

The Numbers

The Future of Superhero Films

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Comics_1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=ironmanfranchise.htm

http://marvel.com/

http://www.dccomics.com/

https://www.wikipedia.org/

References