In Marvel and DC’s battle of the superheroes, can the Hulk kick Batman’s butt? (Fast Company)

In the early ’90s, the most popular monthly comic book titles might sell more than a million copies each. Now, one-tenth of that is considered a great month. However, the business has never been more important if you think of comic books, and the people who create them, as a character and storyboard lab for a movie genre that has generated tens of billions of dollars over the past decade. Marvel Comics has leveraged its characters, such as Iron man, the Hulk and X-Men, into some of the best brands out there. But don’t count out DC—Marvel’s arch nemesis—which last year began reinventing a 52-title line in which every comic book simultaneously started or restarted from issue No. 1 in the attempt to attract new readers and excite old ones.