5 non-wrestling business ventures WWE has given a try

#3. WWE comics

AJ Styles and Brock Lesnar by BOOM! Comics

In a lot of ways, WWE (and pro wrestling in general) is sort of like a superhero comic come to life. They both have very distinct characters with special abilities/finishing moves, and the narratives of both are constantly changing. Plus, they both have fanbases that are just never satisfied, dang it! Can't you just enjoy something for on... sorry. Lost my train of thought there for a second.

So, it makes sense that there have been numerous comic book/graphic novels published that involve WWE Superstars. But first, let's take a look at one of the original wrestling comics - Marvel Comics' WCW series.

In 1992, Marvel wasn't the entertainment powerhouse they are now. In fact, they were five years away from filing for bankruptcy. So, they didn't have the resources to license the biggest wrestling company at the time, WWF. But they did have enough for the second biggest - WCW. So, they did. And it was gloriously ridiculous.

However, WWF had beaten WCW to the comics game a year earlier, as Valiant Comics - the studio behind Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Bloodshot - released WWF Battlemania. It only lasted 5 issues, but it had some seriously good talent at the time. In fact, a majority of the comics were drawn by none other than Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man.

In 1996, WWE helped produce Ultimate Warrior's comic, 'Warrior', and another absolutely bonkers title called "Kozor" that never made it to actual publication. We'll let our friends at Den of Geek (who's article on WWE comics was invaluable to this entry) explain the plot

The story is this: there’s an alternate dimension where native beings have evolved in reverse. The dimension is crumbling and the survivors are making their way to our world in what will eventually lead to WWF guys fighting them. The Undertaker gets visions of what’s to come and alerts everyone else by screaming, “THEY’RE COMING!” I promise you, what I described is a dozen times more coherent than how it’s shown in the comic.

There have been a number of other comics based on WWF/WWE over the years - check out the link to the Den of Geek article above - that we simply can't go over them all. Currently, BOOM! Comics are the studio behind the latest crop of books and, from what I've seen, they're not half bad.

Edited by Daniel Wood