Each July, comics fans, professionals and scholars descend on San Diego, California, for Comic-Con International – a celebration of the art and business of the comics industry. Comic books used to be a niche genre of interest to a narrow subset of popular culture enthusiasts. Since the 1970s, however, they increasingly have supplied the characters and stories on which film, television and streaming media empires are founded.
Marvel, home of the Avengers, turned an almost broke comics and toy company into one of the most lucrative movie franchises in history and became one pillar of Disney’s streaming media empire. Sony continues to make money from its share of the Spider-Man franchise. DC Comics originated fan favorites Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Although their transition to film did not match Marvel’s success, WarnerMedia has doubled down on its investment in DC superheroes.
