Curated playlist

Superheroes who are adopted

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…
Nebula (Marvel Cinematic Universe)Thanos made Nebula fight Gamora and replaced her body parts with machinery each time she lost.
SupermanThe first Superman was a homeless man tricked into taking a drug. Jerry Siegel wrote him as a villain in 1933.
She-RaFor the honor of Grayskull, I am She-Ra. Those words, spoken to a sword, turn a soldier named Adora into the superheroine of the Masters of the Universe franchise. She-Ra began as a toy line and a minicomic. She then became the star of two…
Iron ManIron Man, the armored Marvel Comics hero, first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39, released in December 1962 with a March 1963 cover date. His creator, Stan Lee, had set himself an awkward assignment during the Vietnam War. His readers…
Spider-ManMarvel's publisher told Stan Lee that Spider-Man would never work. The comic was being canceled anyway.
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…
Robin (character)Robin, the young partner of Batman in DC Comics, once had his fate decided by a telephone poll. In 1988, DC invited readers to call a 1-900 number and choose whether the second Robin, Jason Todd, should die. The count came in at 5,343…
HellboyHellboy, the comic book hero created by Mike Mignola, arrived on Earth inside a fireball on the 23rd of December 1944. He dropped into the ruins of a church in Bromwich, England, where Allied soldiers were encamped. Only moments earlier,…
Polaris (Marvel Comics)Lorna Dane, the Marvel Comics mutant known as Polaris, first appeared in The X-Men #49 in October 1968. Readers then waited decades to learn who her father was. She controls magnetism, much as the X-Men's early enemy Magneto does, and fans…
Storm (Marvel Comics)Storm, the Marvel Comics hero Ororo Munroe, appears on 97 of the 182 covers of Chris Claremont's run on the X-Men. No other character was pictured on covers as often during those years. She also fills 4,155 panels across that stretch,…
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…
Shazam (DC Comics)Shazam, the comic book hero also called Captain Marvel, headlined an issue, Whiz Comics #2, that sold over 500,000 copies. The hero at its center is a boy who becomes a towering adult by speaking a single word. Yet this same character…
Scarlet WitchJack Kirby considered at least five names before the Scarlet Witch became the Scarlet Witch. Jinx, Witch Woman, The Sorceress, Evil Eye and Miss Witch are all listed on the back of a splash page in The X-Men issue 4. Writer Stan Lee and…
Gambit (Marvel Comics)Remy LeBeau, known to readers as Gambit, is a Cajun thief from New Orleans who became one of Marvel Comics' X-Men. Writer Chris Claremont and artist Jim Lee created him. When he joined the team, few of his new colleagues trusted him, and…
Quicksilver (Marvel Comics)Quicksilver, the Marvel Comics speedster whose real name is Pietro Django Maximoff, first appeared in The X-Men #4, dated March 1964. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created him. He can move and think at extreme speeds, and that second half of the…
Rogue (Marvel Comics)Rogue, the Marvel Comics heroine best known as a member of the X-Men, cannot touch another person without taking something from them. One brush of skin lets her absorb a person's life force, abilities, memories and superpowers. The longer…
Nightcrawler (character)Nightcrawler, the indigo-furred teleporting hero of Marvel Comics, began as a sleepless sailor's idea during a typhoon. Artist Dave Cockrum was serving in the United States Navy, stationed at Guam, when the storm kept him awake. He later…