DC Comics is a company with a lot of firsts. They introduced the first superhero, were the first of the “pulp magazine” publishers to produce original material, started the Silver Age of comics, and were the first publisher to put their popular heroes together into a team, a move that many other publishers followed suit. DC Comics has continued to pave the way with their iconic characters and remarkable talent of their writers and artists.

DC stands for Detective Comics. The company now known as DC is really just the evolution of many companies being bought and sold, renamed and revitalized. DC started out as National Allied Publications and went through various owners as they sold and started new companies such as Detective Comics, All-American Publications, National Comics, and National Periodical Publications. The banner for most of the comics published by these companies however was “Superman-DC”.

The slump of superhero comics in the forties and fifties didn’t slow DC down. They diversified and still created comic books. During the late fifties however, they took an older character, The Flash, and gave him a new modern look and story. This paved the way for the Silver Age of comics, heralded by many as the greatest time in comics. It was during this time that the Justice Society was born, the first superhero team and the Justice League soon followed. Marvel comics saw the popularity of this trend and that helped them to start their own super team, the Fantastic Four.

Later, during the eighties, DC had another milestone with the release of many mature and adult themed comics. Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, and Sandman were all geared toward an older crowd and paved the way for many of the dark and gritty superheroes we have today such as Spawn, Punisher, Hellboy, and many others. They even launched their own mature comic book line, called Vertigo.
DC continues to break new ground and pave the way for future comic book lovers.

Here's a listing of the major comic book heroes that DC created over the years.

Batman	Superman	Wonder Woman	Green Lanter
The Flash	Shazam	Justice League of America