Curated playlist
Superhero detectives
- BatmanIn September 2024, Batman became the first fictional superhero to receive a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
- Dick GraysonDick Grayson, the DC Comics hero who first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940, has changed more often than almost any character in superhero comics. He began as a child performer in a circus family. Since then he has carried at…
- Tim DrakeTim Drake was a small boy in the audience at a circus on the night Dick Grayson's parents were murdered. His own mother and father had just asked the Flying Graysons to pose for a photograph with them. That moment gave the two boys a brief…
- Barbara GordonBarbara Gordon is a DC Comics heroine who has worn two very different identities, Batgirl and Oracle. The artist Carmine Infantino helped create her, and he summed up her beginnings with a boast. In Infantino's words, "Julie and I came up…
- Jason ToddJason Todd, the second Robin in DC Comics, had his life or death decided by a telephone poll in 1988. Readers of the Batman comics were handed two 1-900 numbers. One meant the boy would live. The other meant he would die. They had only a…
- Rorschach (character)Rorschach, whose real name is Walter Joseph Kovacs, is the masked vigilante at the center of Watchmen, the graphic novel series DC Comics published in 1986. The very first character to appear in that series is a red-haired man carrying a…
- Luke CageLuke Cage, the Marvel Comics hero born Carl Lucas, once chased the supervillain Doctor Doom over a debt of $200. That story ran in Hero for Hire #9 in 1973. Doom was one of Marvel's most imposing villains, and Cage wanted his money. Most…
- Jessica JonesJessica Jones is a Marvel Comics superhero who spends much of her story trying not to be one. She runs a detective agency called Alias Private Investigations, and she is usually its only employee. Yet Marvel eventually placed her in a high…
- Damian WayneDamian Wayne, a hero published by DC Comics, reached Batman's world through a lie. His mother, Talia, was engaged to Bruce Wayne. When she became pregnant, she broke off the engagement and told Bruce she had miscarried. He did not learn…
- The ShadowThe Shadow is a fictional crime fighter whose catchphrase has outlived most of the stories told about him. "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" Those words opened the radio adaptation and earned a lasting…
- Martian ManhunterMartian Manhunter, whose Martian name is J'onn J'onzz, first appeared in Detective Comics #225, dated November 1955. Writer Joseph Samachson and artist Joe Certa created him for DC Comics. He went on to become one of the seven founding…
- Spider-Man NoirSpider-Man Noir is a version of Peter Parker who has never seen a color. In the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, his home universe is entirely black and white, so ordinary hues leave him baffled when he travels elsewhere. That…
- Moon KnightMoon Knight is a Marvel Comics superhero who has died and come back more than once. His own stories have argued for decades about whether the god who revived him is real. He debuted in Werewolf by Night #32, published in August 1975. Since…