While DC Comics may have invented the protagonists of Modern Mythology, defining their appearance (especially their tights and capes) and code of conduct, Marvel revamped them in the 1960s, making them more fragile, human, and closer to the reader and the real world, incorporating themes such as racism, drugs, and gender fluidity—decades before the priority of inclusion faded from sensibility to marketing. Although numerous publishers have created Superheroes, the symbolic power of the two industry giants remains dominant. Managing an important legacy, they are constantly updating their characters, adapting them to the passing of time, historical complexities, and the changing tastes and needs of readers.
Over the decades, the pages (and covers) of Superheroes comics have addressed extremely relevant social issues, often well ahead of other media considered, wrongly, more “elevated.” Defying censorship, bigotry, respectability, and various conventions, Marvel and DC authors were able to convey to their audience—initially adolescent—not only values, but also warnings of tangible dangers, far more hazardous than gamma rays or alien invasions. Thus, we saw the appearance of the first hero of African origin, we witnessed the emancipation of the first superheroine, we were present at the first coming out and the first unconventional wedding (between a witch and an android), we said goodbye to a hero who fell victim to cancer, and we witnessed the collapse of the Twin Towers. Comics have long since ceased to serve a function of mere entertainment and have become highly effective social indicators.