10 Most Important Moments In Comics History

1. Action Comics #1 Introduces The Superhero

That said, Marvel wouldn't even have had a superhero comics industry to dominate if DC hadn't single-handedly built it from the ground up. There had been characters with superpowers, and stories about aliens coming and living amongst humans, and even comics about strong men in their underwear, but it was with all those combined that Superman was created as the first superhero that's still recognisable as such today. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's 1938 invention was a sensation in its age, and their prototypical superhero is still used as the starting point for all similar characters created since. Action Comics #1 saw not only the invention of the superhero, but also every important part of those characters: there was the costume, with its pants-over-tights configuration, cape, and logo on the chest; there was the hero's dedication to protecting those who couldn't protect themselves, and upholding justice; there was the secret identity; there was even an inkling of the alliterative names of people like Peter Parker, Bruce Banner and their ilk with the oh-so-close Clark Kent. This single issue is, without a doubt, the most important even in the history of comic books. Without this number one entry, none of the other entries on this list would even exist to be written about. Marvel would have never jumped on the superhero bandwagon, meaning there couldn't possibly be any superhero movies adapted from them, and its possible that comic books would have stayed a curio for kids, publishing horror stories and luvvy-duvvy stuff. We may not have even seen the rise of literary works like Maus and the Vertigo output, as they wouldn't have the likes of superhero comics to play off of. Superman has saved people, planets, even whole universes over the course of his career, but he also saved the comic book genre from a fate worse than death. That's pretty historic, if you ask us.