Superpowered: The DC Story

Superpowered: The DC Story is a very fun documentary. It is not necessarily just for comic book, or more specifically, DC Comics fans. It tells an interesting story of modern society and social mores through the history and progression of the DC universe. This is both through the story of the characters and the company. It tells the story of the comic books, the artists, the creators, the films, and the fans. The show has great archival footage of the art, as well as the movies and television shows that supported the franchises. Rosario Dawson does a great job narrating this documentary. It is a fun watch.

Right now, the offerings on HBO Max are slim pickings due to WB's restructurings. But one thing that can always be counted on are the Leslie Iwerks documentaries. "Superpowered" is another one of those--a solid effort recounting DC's comic book history.

The first two episodes (both of which I gave 9/10 stars) are excellent. It would have been easy to just rely on WB's footage from films and other properties, but Iwerks really strives to show and tell the history of those comic books and graphic novels. These episodes are as much informative as entertaining.

The third and final episode isn't quite as compelling (7/10 stars) as the focus shifts away from comics and towards DC's focus on the big and small screens. Nothing inherently wrong with this approach--Iwerks is simply following the company history--but that installment feels more self-congratulatory than informative/interesting.

Of course, one must keep in mind that this is a doc about DC Comics from parent company Warner Media--so it's not like we're getting the unvarnished truth in all occasions. But for what it is, I can give it a solid 8/10 star rating. The clips and visuals are great as per the usual, but the real calling card here is the focus (especially early) on the history of DC comics and how that shaped where the brand is today.

Listen, origin stories have been told 1000 times and all the documentaries on DC. Marvel and their contributors have been done dozens of times.

For me, the problem is the fact that despite tipping a hat to some creators, creators and contributors have not been fairly compensated, so when I see pieces like this, no matter how moving I think, you are a billion-dollar entity and you have yet to get full credit, rights and payments to contributors.

Comics are the last real medium for storytelling, and it's obvious by the collective content by not keeping the right people employed and engaged, the quality of product has collapsed.

This series touches on that, but also gives far too much credit to Jim Lee, no doubt he's a contributor, but he, along with Geoff John are two of the biggest strike outs in DC history.

When you watch this, just keep in mind, there is a parade of people not getting their due.

There is really nothing new here that the series presents to the viewer, virtually every topic that is covered has been explored better in other documentaries in the past, some of which have been made by actual customers for little to no money at the comfort of their own homes. Too many things do not receive enough attention like the impact of the Comics Code Authority, the influence of the characters on culture, how the competition played a role in the redevelopment of the company and its properties, the rise of Milestone Media and WildStorm, the DC Animated Universe that started with Batman: The Animated Series, and the disregard of certain characters and motion pictures dedicated to these classic heroic figures.

This series is only three episodes long, and each one feels more like an ego stroke than an honest projection of passion for DC Comics, with the third and final episode dedicating a section to criticizing its own consumer base and categorizing them in what they think the only opposition represents - it was so pathetic and ignorant, it left me hoping there is a major regime change for the company in the near future.

All that being said, Rosario Dawson's narration is great.

Kind of a struggle to get through. They take the positive aspects of comic books and insert so much ridiculous overblown hyperbole into them that by the time you get to the interesting bits you're a bit exhausted.

The people interviewed are, more often than not, hack inheritors of this stuff who have nothing interesting to say, i.e. The same people ruining comic book-related media now. No one cares what these idiots have to say.

This could have been so much more interesting, so easily. Focus on what makes the characters great. Focus on the people who made the characters great. It's not hard.