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Comic book companies horde thousands of characters for future use : Planet Money Marvel has 7,000 characters, many of them forgotten. We want to buy one from their vault and launch our own little Planet Money franchise. | Find the full Planet Money Superhero series here.

Planet Money

We Buy A Superhero 1: Origins

We Buy A Superhero 1: Origins

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Planet Money tries to buy a superhero. Siena Mae/NPR hide caption

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Siena Mae/NPR

Planet Money tries to buy a superhero.

Siena Mae/NPR

Comic book publishers like Marvel and DC sit on a treasure trove: thousands and thousands of comic book characters. Pieces of intellectual property. You know the big ones--Superman, Ironman, Captain America. They each make millions off of movies and merchandise. But for every marquee character, there are hundreds of others sitting unused.

We can't abide by that. Superheroes are meant to save the day, not be stowed away. So we thought: why not convince Marvel to sell us one?

Miss any of the Micro-Face madness? Listen to the whole series here.

Music: "Larger Than Life," "Nemesis," and "Heroes Legacy."

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