A new rich list that ranks companies taken from comic books has given the top spot to the Caped Crusader’s conglomerate.
Batman's Wayne Enterprises finished first in Fortune's list, which is based on a mix of estimated market value, popularity and sentimental value.
Although the list is whimsical, it comes at a time when comic books are playing a dominant role in popular culture – and Fortune's attempt to find a spot on the bandwagon can be regarded as one more sign that the comic-book mania is stretched so thin that it must be close to bursting.
Rounding out the list's top five are Iron Man's Stark Industries, Lex Luthor's LexCorp, Oscorp Industries from the Spider-Man world, and InGen, a San Diego-based biotech that clones dinosaurs, but supervises them poorly, in the Jurassic World franchise, which spans books, film and comics.
InGen is the only company among the top five that is not based in New York City or a reasonable facsimile thereof, and for which the comic books are a secondary rather than the primary form of media.
The ranking also reflects the United States-centric nature of the global publishing industry: of the 27 companies on the list, the only one that is not based in the US (or, again, a facsimile thereof) is Umbrella Corp in 26th spot.
Umbrella, based "somewhere in Europe" and existing in the Resident Evil media franchise, might have been ranked higher had it not, in a clear failure of corporate governance, unleashed the T-virus, which can turn people into zombies.
A real-world list of the companies that make the most money from comic books would probably be led by Disney, which bought Marvel Comics – home of Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men and many more – in early 2010 for US$4 billion. Marvel's shares, which began the millennium at $3.66 apiece, were valued at $54.08 by the time of the takeover.
rmckenzie@thenational.ae
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