Are superhero pictures copyrighted?

[bcnu]

Not all images are copyrighted. Each one is different, depending upon when it was made and possibly who made it and whether it was published in the USA prior to 1989, etc. The link below lists the rules for when copyright expires in the USA.

Only works that were published prior to 1923 are certain to be without copyright, as are works created by the US government. You must assume EVERY other photo is copyrighted unless it falls under one or more of the listed rules for "public domain".

Note that works of foreign authorship can also be enforced under the foreign copyright laws of their country, which are guaranteed to have COMPLETELY different rules from those of the USA, at least for anything created prior to 1978.

http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm USA public domain