đŸ“ș Superpowered: The DC Story: Opinions, Reactions and Thoughts, Oh My đŸ“ș

@KookieSuperApe: Have to agree. You can not talk about the importance and history of the DC Golden Age and Silver Ages of Comics and not include Gardner Fox!

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It didn’t stop people from crying and saying “Why is Toys R Us going away, why?” when just a couple years prior they would have very easily said “Toys R Us? Eh, whatever.”

People are sadly fickle beyond belief at times and they really shouldn’t bemoan the lack of something when they haven’t cared about it for years and years on-end.

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I’m fully on board with this, as @KookieSuperApe pointed out initially.

I’ve only seen some big chunks of the first part and I FWD through bits of parts 2 and 3, because I was over at the friend’s who has HBO Max, after walking his dog/watering the plants and that’s all I had time for. We’re supposed to get together soon, so I’ll need to see if I can talk him into it. But my initial impression, other than significant documentary details like omitting Gardner Fox (although people do forget that Julie Schwartz had the background not only with Science Fiction but with Pulps before his career at DC, so he was a factor - just most certainly not the only person who should be credited), and Julie would likely be the first person to say so, as he was always good about wanting to pass along and share credit, not just with the writers, but with the illustrators and other employees who helped put the books together.

I have essentially the same complaint (and I will note it is essentially the same director, co-director here involved) with the WB100 of what I have seen so far, and that’s that I wanted more documentary focus on the past and on the history (e.g. that STORY part in the DC Story title of this doc), versus the attempts at cross-promotion of current or recent theatrical releases, and so forth. But I’ll chime in more when I have something intelligent to say based on actually fully watching all three episodes.

I will also add that I’m glad it exists.

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I liked it, but Secret Origins was better. I did like that Vertigo and Berger got more love in this one.

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Yes! That was definitely a highlight.

Speaking of Berger and other kick-ass women in DC’s history, I greatly enjoyed seeing Jenette Kahn once again, as she’s always a delight to bear witness to.

SN: :sparkles: :fireworks: Happy DCUIversary :fireworks: :sparkles:, @ChaoticScholar! :partying_face:

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Is there cake?

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Yes indeed, with the first slice being adjacent to your handle/name on all of your posts for today.

The Guest of Honor always gets the first slice. :slight_smile:

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Had time to watch nearly half of part 3. It starts with the normal problems like horrible transitions and generic praise. When they get to New 52 they finally start being interesting with what is currently the best part. Maybe they continue that later.

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I’ve watched the whole thing. It was enjoyable, even if it was self-promotion for DC and MAX (max?). It reminded me of many DC comics storylines and movies I need to visit (and revisit).

But given the very public drama they whitewashed over in its coverage of Josstice League and the Snyder Cut, it makes me wonder about everything else they misrepresented or left out entirely. I feel like a Starro starfish has been attached to my face, its brainwashing trying to make me forget about Peter David’s Aquaman run, Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run, Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker portrayal, and other great DC creations. Like Smallville. The OG DC Universe and DC Daily. James Wan’s Swamp Thing. Gotham and Pennyworth.

I’m sure there are other important DC properties that should have been included, but the starfish on my face is making me forget anything that isn’t running on Max!

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They skipped many more important things to DC than the Justice League movie.

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I watched part one and was pleasantly surprised. They talked about the early dumping of owner Major Wheeler-Nicholson. They delved into creators’ rights, even though that didn’t paint a favorable picture of DC. They talked about Bill Finger getting shafted. What also surprised me was the info behind Warner Brothers’ decision to purchase DC comics 50 years ago. Part one didn’t shy away from the insider baseball.

I thought all the talking heads were good - even Michael Uslan was saying things that weren’t old hat. I also thought the visuals were a good mixture of movie/TV footage with comic book panels.

I’d like to see Disney do a documentary on Marvel that’s even half this candid.

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Which youtube videos?

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Al the ones that just describe comics history (especially the ones that never use face reveals and keep all the focus on comics). There are hordes of them.

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Finished the series. Waste of three hours. Carlin is now on my no list, and I now have a no list. At least Jim Lee, Dan Didio, and Andy Kubert were good, or this would have been way worse.

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I didn’t think part two was as good as part one, but was candid enough to go through the DC implosion and DC falling behind Image Comics, neither of which you’d delve into in a promotional puff piece.

The normal way that similar “documentaries” on DC handle the passage of time is along the lines of “And then came the Kennedy Administration. And DC comics was an integral part of that. And then came the counter culture movement. And DC comics was an integral part of that.” So not holding rigidly to chronological order was a great choice.

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Watched the first three episodes and the series plays out very much indeed like DC For Dummies. Now, I’m not saying that the subject matter should’ve been completely pointed at the experienced collector audience, but wow- couldn’t we at least get a little bit of content tailored toward us?

My takes:

  • How is it that Jim Aparo, Dick Giordano, Brian Bolland, JosĂ© Luis GarcĂ­a-LĂłpez, and Darwin Cooke don’t even get a mention in this series? :astonished: :unamused:

  • I know that Sandman was popular and that the title had solid sales during the early 90s when Vertigo hit (I was there- I saw them on the shelves at the LCS) but how they just gonna’ completely gloss over the brilliant work by Grant Morrison and Rachel Pollack on Doom Patrol during that same era?

  • Nothing
 NOTHING on the death/resurrection of Jason Todd? :eyes:

This.^^^ :+1: :fist_right: :fist_left:

Supes’ writing team seemed to be phoning it in pre Death Of Superman. At least that was the impression I was getting from conversations with the knowledgeable peeps at my LCS back in 1991. The stories were said to be bland and predictable and that many of the readers were taking a break from the series.

Also- it’s not cool how this show tries to blame the speculator boom of the early 90s purely on the fans/outside sources. DC and Marvel both had a significant hand in helping to inflate artificial speculation pricing of that era with the foils and other marketing aspects that were being employed to drive sales.

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Agree to disagree with those folks.

I’m not sure what people were expecting from Superman in the pre-DOS days, but as a party that’s actually read those books, I’ve always enjoyed them and am thankful beyond words that they didn’t mimic Image or other trends of the time, like many other titles and publishers did.

Of course, that came later with the long hair (Its not a mullet! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:), costume change, variant covers (Get those embossed covers now, there’s only a jillion of them to go around! :laughing:) and the like. :smile:

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In their defense they were Supes’ readers. :+1:

I can respect this. :+1:

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I see your point.

However, publishers make what fans buy and a lot of fans were buying that stuff of their own free will and in droves.

From a pure business standpoint, can you blame DC for carrying on with trends that kept the lights on and the money coming in?

Fans need to stop playing the pity parade card and just accept their responsibilities in situations like those, instead of acting like they were forced to spend their money on a publisher’s product when the only person(s) that made them part with their money was themselves.

Nobody made the decision to buy that product but them. DC just put it out there and said “Whoever wants it, here you go.”

“Moving on.”

I’d be curious to see how many converts this mini-series brings into the fold.

If I wasn’t already a fan of 34 years, it would have perked up my interest in comics and made me check some stuff out.

I’m betting people who actually are new to comics because of this series will say the same thing in time.

The best-darn readers there are in comicdom! :wink:

They’re welcome to their opinions of course.

Its just that in decades of DC fandom, I’ve never seen a valid argument for what should have been done with the Superman line pre-DOS
especially from those who weren’t reading the line, but also from its most ardent supporters.

I mean, sure, Superman eventually got useless pouches added to his suit, but at least it wasn’t his main suit.

Take that, Cable and 99.99% of the original X-Force team! :nerd_face:

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I expect good Superman. After my hit comics in the late 80s they expected a Superman version of it, so something like Batman Year One.

Since that is a Gordon story that probably translates to a storyline where Perry is the supporting protagonist.

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