7-Year-Old Breaks World Record For Naming DC Characters in One Minute

Over the better part of the past decade, DC Comics' arsenal of characters have entertained and captivated the hearts of generations of fans. The iconography of characters like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have become iconic across the world — and one young fan just proved that in a record-breaking way. Nidhish VB, a seven-year-old child actor from Tamil Nadu, India, recently broke the Guiness World Record for the most DC characters identified within one minute. VB was able to name 60 characters in exactly 60 seconds, which he reportedly did on February 19th of this year. This breaks the previous record of 52 characters in one minute.

"I actually wanted to try on Marvel because I like Spider-Man, but everyone preferred DC, so, I too, agreed," Nidhish explained in an interview with India Times. "It took around a month for me to prepare. Initially it was all confusing, but as I started to learn, I began remembering the names. When I managed to set the record, I was elated. It was a great experience. I hope to break this record, too, sometime, soon."

"He likes to watch cartoons and pastes pictures of his favorite comic characters on the wall," his mother, S Vijayalakshmi, explained. "When we discovered his interest, we thought why not try a record on it. It was during the coaching that we realized that he had great memory power."

The record for most Marvel characters identified in a minute is held by Lara Nunan of Sydney Australia, who identified 88 total characters in one minute.

In 2022, DC's roster of characters is only continuing to grow, as the company publishes more and more new titles. While rumors had swirled last year that DC would phase out of or stop publishing comics altogether, that has proved to not be the case. 

"Occasionally you will run across that article or tweet and I have to bite my tongue to not jump into the conversations," DC chief creative officer Jim Lee shared with The Hollywood Reporter last year. "It's the furthest thing from the truth. If anything, it's the exact opposite. The comics that we publish, the core canon we establish in comics, is driving everything that we do across DC in media. We are constantly referring to the characters as we build DC beyond the publishing world."

He continued, "Having publishing is vital to our future. You can't rest on our laurels and having an influx of new voices, new characters, new points of view is vital to keeping the industry healthy and representative of current times. It's mission one for us to make sure that universe we create and champion is reflective of the fanbase that loves our characters. So yes, it is the cornerstone of everything we do."

What do you think of Nidhish breaking the record for the most characters identified in one minute? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!