What Does The 'DC' In DC Comics Stand For?
Throughout the past century, readers have seen comic book publishers come and go, with only a small handful reaching standout levels of recognition and popularity. Alongside Marvel, DC Comics has proven to be one of these few publishers. The brand hosts such legendary characters as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, to name a few, in addition to characters introduced under the Fawcett Comics and Charlton Comics banners. DC has made it onto countless pieces of merchandise, appeared at the movies, and taken over television, yet what the "DC" stands for is far from common knowledge.
The history of DC Comics dates back to the 1930s, when National Allied Publications oversaw multiple comic lines and stories, including the series "Detective Comics." Come 1937, however, National Allied Publications was in a bit of a financial bind, prompting founder Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson to strike up a deal with Harry Donenfeld. In time, Donenfeld became the sole owner of the publishing company, which had been renamed Detective Comics Inc., and in 1977, the publisher officially renamed itself to DC Comics.
So, yes, DC Comics is technically called Detective Comics Comics — a fact that fans have made their feelings known about.
The apparent redundancy in Detective Comics Comics' name doesn't seem to bother many fans
All in all, the fact that DC Comics is called Detective Comics Comics isn't a huge deal, but if there's one thing comic book fans are good at, it's fixating on the little details. A thread by u/soue13 on Reddit surveyed the DC fandom regarding its members' feelings on the publisher's seemingly redundant name. Though one might imagine many would find this repetition a bit annoying and gladly vocalize such feelings, those who chimed in mostly made it clear that they don't mind it. Some even explained why it's not as nonsensical as it's often made out to be.
"DC has become the name of the company, so Detective Comics is the full name. Detective Comics comics is not really redundant. Detective Comics (brand) comics (product)," commented u/caution-man, breaking down how, grammatically speaking, the company's full name isn't unnecessarily repetitive. u/dyboc added that perhaps DC doesn't even stand for Detective Comics anymore, rather becoming like KFC and MTV, simply being known by the letters rather than the words behind them. u/mattdupree pointed out that DC Comics is now a subdivision of DC Entertainment, further highlighting that the focus is more on the letters themselves than what they stand for.
Regardless of one's feelings on the thought process behind the DC Comics name, there's no denying that it has done little to diminish the publisher in the eyes of the public or harm its standing in the comic book sphere.