Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? reference to one of the nicknames of Superman as the "Man of Tomorrow", and was later again used in the title of another Superman . The comic book, "Action Comics" #1, published in April 1938 by "National Allied Publications" (later renamed DC Comics), marked the first publication of the character of Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The comic quickly became a success, and its editor soon realized that it was because of the popularity of the character. In an unprecedented move at the time, National Allied Publications introduced a second comic book, "Superman", exclusively featuring the popular
Superman beyond the comic books. Superman, Inc. merged with DC Comics in October 1946. After DC Comics merged with Warner Communications in 1967, licensing for Superman was handled by the Licensing Corporation of America. The Licensing Letter (an American market research firm) estimated that Superman licensed merchandise made $722 million in sales globally in 2017. 44.7% of this revenue came from the North American market. For comparison, in the same year, Spider-Man merchandise made $1.4 billion and Star Wars merchandise made $2.4 billion globally. The earliest paraphernalia appeared in 1939: a button proclaiming membership in the Supermen of America club. The