Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. We all grew up with these heroes around. Their comic books entertained us many a day during our childhoods. These films and television series fed our imaginations, and we played super heroes, or maybe even played a villain. Since the 1930’s, every generation had the same characters to look up to. And recently these characters have grown up into he kind of heroes that we all want to be in our current day and age. We know their stories and origins, but most of us know nothing about the company that publishes them. We may know most of the facts about the creations of the heroes, but all of the facts and how they relate are known only to the few who are practically historians on the subject. Now DC Comics has authorized, and released through Warner Brothers, a documentary on their seventy five year history, Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics.
Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics is exactly what the name suggests. It is a documentary about the history of the company. It starts way back when, before detective comics, when the company wasn’t the company, and it was publishing pulp magazines; and tells the story right up to now. We start with the founding of DC Comics, and the creation of the big three: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Then the documentary moves into “The Golden Age” of comics. Folowed by going through the anti-comic era of the fifties, and then into “The Silver Age” with the Batman TV show. Next, it’s onto “The Bronze Age” and the “Hard Hitting Heroes” era of the Green Lantern and the Green Arrow, and the Superman films. After that, it’s “The Modern Era” with Frank Miller, Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman. This takes us up to what we are doing now, with all of the comics and graphic novels being turned into films. They do all of this through interviews with the writers, artists, and editors of DC – and historians for the pieces that they don’t know. The documentary also uses footage, comics, and anything else they obtain from the archives of DC, which has never been allowed before.
Generally, there is an expectation of special features on a DVD, but this release doesn’t have them. There doesn’t seem to be anything that would really serve as a companion piece to the documentary. Since it is a documentary, it would seem an awkward choice if they were to add a ‘making-of’ segment.
Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics is a captivating film. It tells its story with a sense of reverence that you don’t expect in documentaries, especially if the subject has anything to do with comics. They spend adequate amounts of time with each smaller topic, and have the writers and creators tell the important stories, anecdotes, and just basically talk about people, events, and comics. This gives it a sense of authenticity throughout the film. The whole documentary is narrated by the Green Lantern himself, Mr. Ryan Reynolds, giving the film a nice, even pace. The whole thing is a wonderful film to watch – An interesting and intriguing documentary; and there really are no boring parts. It captivates the viewer, making them want to learn the story of one of the two giants of comic books.
ComicsOnline gives Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics – 4 superheroes out of 5.
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