EDITOR’S NOTE: BOF received an early screener of SUPERPOWERED: THE STORY OF DC for reviewing purposes.
First and foremost, I am a Batman fan and have been for over a half-century.
But by default, I also grew up a fan of DC Comics.
So when I received a screener for SUPERPOWERED: THE STORY OF DC from MAX, I was very much interested in watching it. I’m also a history buff and love documentaries, so I figured this 3-part series would be right up my alley.
While it was cool to see people tied to DC in various fashions (Shoutout to Michael Uslan!) talk about the company and its characters, I really didn’t learn anything that I already didn’t know. It was nice to see that they covered ALL of DC and not simply the superhero stuff. Romance, horror, military (i.e. SGT. ROCK), and VERTIGO are all included.
Directed by Leslie Iwerks and Mark Catalena and narrated by Rosario Dawson (who does a fine job), I found SUPERPOWERED to be a bit of a fluff/PR piece meant to prop up Warner Bros./Discovery’s comic book company…and WBD too. Fans will probably like it because it does showcase a lot of the great “DC stuff” over the last 80ish years — comics, TV, animation, video games, and of course, film — and everything you’d expect to be in it is, well, in it. But I certainly wouldn’t say that it’s a hard-hitting, real in-depth look at DC’s history. Also, the story is told in a non-linear fashion; for example, Matt Reeves shows up in Part 1 to talk about 2022’s THE BATMAN.
If you’re a DC fan and have MAX, I’d say give it a look. But I don’t think you’ll be missing anything if skip it. – Bill “Jett” Ramey
GRADE: B
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