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 were essential in introducing three well-known superheroes to life: Superman (1938), Batman (1939) and Wonder Woman (1941).
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, which is best well known for making "superhero" comic books; with their first comic under the DC banner being published in 1937, and is very famous in the modern art subject Graphics. The majority of its publications takes place within the fictional DC Universe and feature many famous and iconic superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Cyborg. It is known for featuring fictional teams including the Justice League, the Justice Society of America, the Suicide Squad, and the Teen Titans. It also features a wide variety of well-known supervillains such as Lex Luthor, the Joker, the Cheetah, the Reverse-Flash, Black Manta, Sinestro, and Darkseid. The company has published non-DC Universe-related material, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Fables and many titles under their alternative imprint Vertigo.
Originally in Manhattan at 432 Fourth Avenue, the DC Comics offices have been located at 480 and later 575 Lexington Avenue; 909 Third Avenue; 75 Rockefeller Plaza; 666 Fifth Avenue; and 1325 Avenue of the Americas. DC had its headquarters at 1700 Broadway, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, but DC Entertainment relocated its headquarters to Burbank, California in April 2015.
Penguin Random House Publisher Services distributes DC Comics' books to the bookstore market, while Diamond Comic Distributors supplied the comics shop direct market until June 2020, where Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors, who already distributed to the direct market due to Diamond's distribution interruption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, replaced Diamond to distribute to that market. Its top rival is Marvel Comics (the publications of Hulk and Spider-Man) 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.