DC Comics traces its roots back to 1934, and over the following decade introduced the characters who would go on to define the entire superhero genre: Superman in 1938, Batman in 1939, and Wonder Woman in 1941. Unlike franchises built around a single creator or story, DC’s screen output spans nearly a century of adaptation, reinvention, and reboot, from Christopher Reeve’s Superman in 1978 through Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy in the 2000s, and beyond, making it one of the longest continuously reinvented properties in entertainment history. Very few characters anywhere in fiction have been portrayed on screen as many times, by as many different actors, as Superman and Batman have across the decades.
Alongside its live-action films, DC built one of the most acclaimed animated universes in television history, beginning with Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, still regarded by many critics as one of the finest superhero adaptations in any medium. Its 1999 follow-up, Batman Beyond, took a bold creative swing by ageing Bruce Wayne into retirement and introducing Terry McGinnis as a new, teenage Batman operating in a futuristic Gotham, expanding the character’s mythology rather than simply repeating it.
On the live-action side, the shared DC Extended Universe ran from 2013 to 2023, before James Gunn relaunched the franchise entirely with 2025’s Superman, kicking off a new DC Universe now unfolding across both film and television. DC’s screen history has passed through an unusually large number of hands even by superhero standards: Christopher Reeve and Henry Cavill as Superman, Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, and Robert Pattinson as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and Margot Robbie’s widely praised Harley Quinn. On the animation side, Kevin Conroy’s Batman is often cited as the definitive voice performance of the character, while Will Friedle voiced Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond, carrying the cowl forward for an entirely new generation of viewers and proving the character could evolve well beyond its original creators’ vision.
Few franchises can claim the sheer breadth of DC’s footprint across comics, film, television, and animation, and its convention presence and collector culture reflect that scale, spanning everything from vintage comics to modern props and animated character memorabilia. With Superman relaunching the DC Universe in 2025 and Peacemaker’s second season following directly on from it later that year, the franchise is once again in an active, closely followed rebuild phase, and interest in both its new and legacy characters continues to grow in step. Older eras of the franchise, particularly its beloved 1990s animated shows, have also seen a renewed wave of nostalgia-driven collecting as viewers who grew up with them reach an age where signed memorabilia becomes a genuine priority.
At Pioneer Signings, our DC archive currently features a Batman Beyond Funko Pop 415 signed by Will Friedle, tied to one of the more inventive corners of the wider Batman mythology. Given how much ground DC covers across comics, live-action, and animation, this is a franchise with enormous room to grow, and we’re looking to bring in further signings from across its many eras as our archive develops.
