The simple good versus evil narratives and depictions of America under foreign attack presented in films such as Marvel’s The Avengers (Joss Whedon, 2012) and DC’s Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, 2013) remind us that the post-9/11 cultural affect that undoubtedly led to the resurgence of the comic book superhero figure continues to permeate the American cinematic landscape. However, socio-cultural analysis alone seems insufficient to account for the widespread industrial and commercial success of Marvel over DC – a trend that can be traced back well before 9/111. Within the last two decades, Marvel’s continued success in its film adaptations can be linked not only to how its texts have responded to broader socio-cultural events, but can also be read as a product of the company’s drastic corporate overhauls and its utilization of blockbuster filmmaking practices, generic conventions, and familiar narrative structures. In the mid 2000s, Marvel developed its own independent film studio, Marvel Studios, which marked their transition from the licensors to controlling producers of Marvel properties (Johnson 1). Marvel’s newfound success during this time was also bolstered by its adherence to universally-appealing blockbuster narratives and its use of aggressive cross-promotional marketing strategies. Conversely, after the acquisition of Time Warner by AOL in 2001, DC’s once tightly controlled corporate structure struggled to exploit its new synergistic opportunities. Most of the recent scholarly and historical studies of the comic book superhero have taken one of two critical approaches: they either trace the socio-cultural resonance of the comic book throughout history or they produce historical overviews of the industrial development of the comic book medium. This study intends to demonstrate how the success or failure of a particular superhero adaptation is also a product of each company’s corporate structure and industrially constructed brand of heroism.