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The Themes Of Marvel Comics And DC Comics

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Marvel Comics and DC Comics were both founded in the 1930’s as, naturally, comic book publishers. Today they form 70% of the comic book market. By 2016, that market as a whole had hit a record high of $1.085B in both physical and digital comic book sales (Johnston, 2016) (Comichron, 2016). Some of the highest selling comic series currently in print have strong NCC themes. These include DC’s Batman and Marvel’s The Punisher series.

Batman or Bruce Wayne, is a bat-themed vigilante that carries out what he considers to be justice within the corrupt, crime-infested Gotham City. (Halevy and Cooper, 2016) (DC Comics, 2017). Bruce Wayne is the billionaire owner of Wayne Enterprises and inherited his wealth and desire to fight crime after witnessing his parents being mugged and then murdered. DC describes him as “both a leader and a hero.” (DC Comics, 2017). In the typical Batman comic however, Batman is being hunted by the police, mostly due to his violent solutions to crime. “[He] distrusts the police and willingly breaks the law in order to enforce his own values of what he considers justice.” An interesting example occurs in the very first Batman comic: Batman No.1 1940, in which Batman executes a mental patient by hanging him from his Batplane. Using a toxic serum, an evil scientist had mutated the mental patient into a very strong, enraged monster, locked him in a truck, and was planning to use him to rob a bank. Batman kills the truck driver with the Batplane’s mounted machine gun, then makes a noose with his Batrope, lowers it down, and hangs the monster while he’s attempting to crawl out of the truck wreckage. The monster’s corpse is casually dragged along behind the Batplane, and Batman remarks, "He's probably better off this way." (Cracked, 2012). Interestingly enough, Batman had created and used an antidote to this serum just a few pages earlier, but did not attempt, or even think to use the antidote on the monster. Despite this, Batman is considered a superhero and is often compared to Superman, who by stark contrast, “is willing to fight alongside the law,” and has “faith in the American criminal justice system.” (Halevy and Cooper, 2016)

Somewhat similar to Batman is the Punisher. Also known as

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