Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Superpowered: The DC Story’ On Max, A Docuseries About The History And Impact Of The Home Of Superman And Batman

Superpowered: The DC Story is a three-part docuseries, narrated by Rosario Dawson, that examines the history and cultural impact of DC Comics, founded in 1934 as National Comics Publications. The docuseries, now streaming on Max, interviews a number of writers, artists, and creative executives at DC; it also interviews DECU and Arrowverse directors and producers like Patty Jenkins, James Gunn and Greg Berlanti, as well as actors who have played DC superheroes, like Gal Gadot, Robert Pattinson, Henry Cavill and Lynda Carter.

SUPERPOWERED: THE DC STORY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of a pencil drawing on a blank page, dramatic superhero music in the background.

The Gist: The first episode takes a quick look at DC’s founding as well as the origins of the publisher’s “holy trinity” of superheroes: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. It discusses how Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman out of their experiences being bullied as kids, and how he was the first big comics superhero. Then discussion turns to Batman, and how its credited creator, Bob Kane, got a lot of help fleshing out the character from another comic writer, Bill Finger; however, Kane’s contract gave him sole creator credit and royalties. Batman, of course, was the dark, human crimefighter, vs. the superpowered, alien Superman. William Moulton Marston and H.G. Peter created Wonder Woman during an era where women were going to work during World War II.

The timeline moves through the label’s first peak superhero era, the 1930s and ’40s, then discusses the horror and noir era in the ’50s. With the early-’60s ascension of Marvel and its flawed, humanistic superheroes, DC needed to reinvent its characters, which led to a new version of The Flash and the creation of Parallel Earths. But it was also the era when Batman became the center of the classic-but-campy late-’60s TV series.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Superpowered: The DC Story is reminiscent of the Disney docuseries The Imagineering Story. Both were directed by Leslie Iwerks.

Our Take: Much of Superpowered could be considered promotional eyewash for DC; given the nine decades of history that the company has, during which some of the most enduring and endearing characters in current pop culture have been created, it feels that the show sometimes skips over pieces of the company’s history a bit too blithely.

By concentrating on the “holy trinity” of the company’s characters, the first episode seems to compress a lot of other iconic characters into a monolith of secondary players that had little impact. Sure, characters like The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and others don’t reach the heights of the Big 3, but they weren’t one-off characters that didn’t stand the test of time. Also, it seemed that the creation of the Justice League and other iconic series are considered an afterthought. The Flash does get some exposure, due to the character’s connection to the creation of the multiverse concept, but certainly doesn’t get the treatment the Big 3 does.

But we do give the first episode credit for acknowledging Bill Finger’s massive contributions to shaping the character of Batman, and how the character went away from its dark origins by the time the Adam West-led TV series bowed. It also more than subtly slams pop artist Roy Lichtenstein for essentially “blowing up” frames from the label’s romance comic series to create his famous paintings. And it does seem that the publisher’s “wandering in the woods” years in the ’70s under Warner Communications’ ownership is touched on in a pretty honest manner, which is interesting given how Warner Bros. Discovery still owns the label and Max.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Setting up the second episode, Rosario says, “If America could land a man on the moon, how hard could it be to make superheroes relevant again? This looks like a job for… fans!” We see shots of fans at various Comic-cons.

Sleeper Star: We wanted to see more of Lynda Carter talk about Wonder Woman, especially the ’70s series she starred in. Maybe we’ll see more in the other two episodes.

Most Pilot-y Line: Matt Reeves, director of The Batman, talks about pushing the franchise into a noir-centric direction, as if that’s never been done. Wasn’t Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film pretty noirish?

Our Call: STREAM IT. While it could have been a bit more informative, it does seem that Superpowered: The DC Story touches upon some aspects of the company’s history that aren’t their proudest moments, which is always welcome in projects like this.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.2