Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics (2010)

I was a comic book kid, from Marvel to DC to obscure companies I can't remember the name of, I was one of those kids who grew up with these superhero tales and have watched them evolve over the years.Secret Origin is a feature length documentary that looks back on DC's storied past from humble beginnings to the monster it has become today.It looks at the fluctuations in comic book popularity, the trends that molded it and the every increasing popularity of it's most popular characters such as Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman.This is a fantastic little documentary that I would say is a must for comic book fans and one of those films that may well prove enlightening even to those who aren't.Personally I think it was a bit short, it was as if it were taking you on a tour of a wondrous place but repeatedly shooeing you into the next room before you were done. Another 30-60 minutes would have done wonders to really tell the story properly.Well constructed full of great interviews and background nuggets that I found very entertaining, good job.The Good:Ryan Reynolds narrationVery insightful stuffThe Bad:Too shortThings I Learnt From This Documentary:Watchmen was inspired by Tory Thatcher Britain

I am a big fan of DC comics. I love their characters. I love Superman, Batman,Wonder Woman,Green Lantern, etc. Now as a comic book fan, I am pleased with this and I can show this to people who are not comic book fans. I'm surrounded by people who are not comic book fans, who think Marvel is better than DC. Which pisses me off to no end. I'm not dissing Marvel, I just hate how the general public thinks of it.With this we get the history of DC comics. Where it started with one title to franchises. We get to see how Superman and Batman became part of the pop culture. We see how comics evolved. We get to see how comic books came into other media such as movies and cartoons. I know a lot people have this complaint, but they skip over major events such Crisis on Infinite Earths and Zero Hour and the New Teen Titans comics were also a big part of DC comics history since it was one of the most popular comics of the 1980s.Overall some things are not mentioned, but then again most comic book documentaries are like that. I could show this to people who aren't comic book fans or Marvel fanboys, is that without DC comics, we wouldn't have the first Superman movie, we wouldn't have Christopher Nolan's Batman films and without DC we wouldn't have companies such as Marvel,Image,Darkhorse and many more.

This is an excellent documentary that highlights the uniqueness of the mythology behind DC comics and its ever growing universe.It contains numerous interviews with big names from the industry that explain the origins of the company( thus resulting the name of the documentary )and its evolution throughout history.With the expansion of the mythology to TV,movies and video games it's important to see the extent at which the story evolved through the comics and the importance of this medium in general in providing great stories.Therefore this is a great example of documentaries being attractive to a core audience (of comic readers) as well as to the general public who just want to find out more about the mythology of their favorite character(s).

This is an excellent documentary for both comics fans and non-fans. It omitted mention of Crisis on Infinite Earths, which I feel is a milestone in DC's history, but perhaps this is too arcane for casual viewers. Otherwise, it is a thorough examination of the writers and artists who created some of the most famous characters in the world. Loaded with interviews of the creators and clips from movie and TV incarnations, the documentary shows the evolution of the company, the creators, and the characters. As an in-house production, it probably omits some of the less savory aspects of the company, but this is not an expose, after all. It is a celebration of an American art form.