DC Comics began in 1935 when Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson launched National Allied Publications and the magazine New Fun, betting on original stories rather than newspaper reprints. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster introduced Dr. Occult that year. Deep in debt to distributor Harry Donenfeld, the major formed a lopsided partnership to publish Detective Comics, the source of the DC initials, and Donenfeld and accountant Jack Liebowitz forced him out and bought his company at a bankruptcy auction. Action Comics No. 1 introduced Superman in June 1938, and Detective Comics No. 27 introduced Batman in May 1939. The company then sued Fawcett for over a decade until Captain Marvel ceased publication in 1953.

Editor Julius Schwartz and artist Carmine Infantino relaunched the Flash in Showcase No. 4 in 1956, and the 1961 story Flash of Two Worlds created the multiverse. DC executives blamed Marvel’s success on red ink and cover word balloons, and Jack Kirby’s 1970 arrival brought the Fourth World and Darkseid. Publisher Jenette Kahn’s 1978 DC Explosion collapsed into the DC Implosion, but royalties lured Marv Wolfman and George Pérez to create The New Teen Titans. Crisis on Infinite Earths compressed the multiverse in 1985, followed by Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, the 1990s speculator bust, and the Vertigo, Milestone and Wildstorm imprints. After a 2026 acquisition, DC became a publishing unit of Skydance.

• Because Fawcett abandoned the name, Marvel took the Captain Marvel trademark in 1967, so DC later titled its book Shazam.
• DC also sued Fox Comics over a character called Wonder Man.
• A 1971 Green Lantern and Green Arrow story revealed that Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy had a heroin addiction.
• The 1990s boom sold killed-Superman and broken-Batman issues in sealed polybags with foil covers.
• In 2024 DC returned to the 1977 bullet logo designed by Milton Glaser.