Drawn together: The love affair between comics and games

Growing up in the 1980s, video games and comic books were part of the regular media diet for America's youth. Despite the fact that comics and games often featured similar storylines and protagonists, there was very limited overlap between the two industries; games weren't yet advanced enough to compete with the rich art of the comic world. Witness: a Wolverine game in 2D, where the titular hero's main attack was a kick.

While comic and game companies had worked together sporadically, they started joining forces more often during our teen years, usually with mixed results that left both gamers and comic fans largely indifferent. But over the past ten years, thanks to a couple of major successes, things have really taken off between the two camps, and the masses have responded with an enthusiasm that has made publishers of both industries sit up and take notice.

Enlarge / Just how intertwined are the worlds of comics and video games? Closer than you think...DC Comics Bringing comic characters into video games must have seemed like a no-brainer from the start. After all, what comic fan wouldn’t salivate at the chance to take on the roles of their favorite superheroes? Comics and video games have been intertwined since the late 1970s, though games based on comics didn’t really start to have a presence until the 80s. In the beginning, only major characters like Batman and Superman were considered viable candidates for appearing in video games. Superman made his first video game appearance on the Atari 2600 in 1979; he and Batman would go on to appear on early PCs and home consoles throughout the following decade.

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