I’m a long time DC Comics fan, so when I heard there would be a DC Universe streaming service with movies, TV series, and comics, I was all in to find out more. When they announced the service, I was first to sign up for the newsletter, and the Beta program, and I even pre-ordered a year of the service (saves you about 20 bucks a year). But then I didn’t hear anything. No Beta invite. No newsletters. About two weeks before the launch date, Sep 15, I sent them a polite note, expressing my disappointment, and I promptly got the Beta invite. (Sometimes it pays to be a whiner. And no, I’m not affiliated with them in any way.)

So, you’re on the fence and want to know whether it’s going to be worth your coin? What, exactly, is going to be behind that paywall? I’ve got your answers.

Now keep in mind, that in addition to the following list, DCU says they’ll be adding in more Batman stuff for the launch on Sep 15, since it’ll be ‘Batman Day’ (and yes, apparently that’s a thing). They have also stated that they’ll be dumping more content into the site on a regular basis. I noticed one thing removed in the week leading up to launch, also. 2010’s All-Star Superman was there yesterday, but is gone as I write this. But at the time of the writing, here’s what the site has:

Movies

  • 1978 Superman
  • 1980 Superman II
  • 1983 Superman III
  • 1987 Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Animated Movies

  • 1993 Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
  • 2000 Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
  • 2003 Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman
  • 2007 Superman: Doomsday
  • 2008 Batman: Gotham Knight
  • 2009 Wonder Woman
  • 2009 Green Lantern: First Flight
  • 2010 Batman: Under the Red Hood
  • 2011 Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
  • 2011 Batman: Year One
  • 2012 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1
  • 2012 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2
  • 2013 Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
  • 2013 Justice League: War
  • 2014 Son of Batman
  • 2014 Batman: Assault on Arkham
  • 2014 Batman vs. Robin
  • 2014 Justice League: The Throne of Atlantis
  • 2015 Batman: Bad Blood
  • 2016 Justice League vs. Teen Titans
  • 2017 Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
  • 2018 The Death of Superman

*A word about the season counts on the TV Series: DCU counts their seasons a little differently than other sources. So for instance, they list 3 seasons for Teen Titans, but it’s actually all 5 of the seasons listed on Wiki.

Live Action TV Series

  • 1952–1958 The Adventures of Superman (6 Seasons)
  • 1975–1979 Wonder Woman (3 Seasons)
  • 1988–1992 Superboy (4 Seasons)
  • 1990–1991 The Flash (1 Season)
  • 1993–1997 Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (4 Seasons)
  • 2002 – 2003 Birds of Prey (1 Season)
  • 2010–2011 Human Target (2 Seasons)
  • 2014–2015 Constantine (1 Season)

Animated TV Series

  • Superman Max Fleischer Cartoons (all 17)
  • 1973–1985 Super Friends (9 seasons)
  • 1992–1995 Batman: The Animated Series (3 Seasons)
  • 1996–2000 Superman: The Animated Series (3 Seasons)
  • 1999–2001 Batman Beyond (3 Seasons)
  • 2000–2004 Static Shock (4 Seasons)
  • 2001–2004 Justice League: The Animated Series (2 Seasons)
  • 2003–2006 Teen Titans (3 Seasons)
  • 2004–2006 Justice League Unlimited (2 Seasons)
  • 2006–2008 Legion of Super-Heroes (2 Seasons)
  • 2008–2011 Batman: The Brave & The Bold (3 Seasons)
  • 2010–present Young Justice (2 Seasons)

TV Movies

  • 1974 Wonder Woman (Pilot for the unproduced TV series)
  • 1979 Legends of the Superheroes
  • 1987 The Spirit (at the time of writing inaccurately labelled as the 2008 film)

Serials

  • Superman (15 Chapters)

Documentaries

  • 2006 Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman
  • 2006 The Science of Superman
  • 2008 Batman Tech
  • 2008 Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of the Dark Knight
  • 2009 Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics

Shorts

Nearly all of the 150-ish DC Nation shorts, grouped by characters into ‘seasons’. Missing from these are the LEGO and Mad Magazine shorts. All the rest are there. You’ll also find the DC Showcase 2010 Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam Direct-to-DVD film. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, nine of the other shorts that were packaged with DVD animated films from 2003–2015 are available yet.

Comics

So what about the Comics? They have 2500 comics. I wasn’t really that impressed with the selection. It’s a cross section of tales from across their history. Some of the story arcs that you would think would be there in their entirety—like, say, The Dark Knight Returns. Instead there’s just Issue #1. They just give you a few issues, as a tasty sampler. Presumably they still want you to buy comics, so shorter story arcs and mini-series are incomplete. Other series like James Robinson and Tony Harris’s Starman might have 35 issues (out of 80 total) and all the specials. So the ‘curation’ is really a thing that will bother people, I suspect. It seems pretty random, and only a few series are there in their entireties. That said, DCU plans to dump more comics on the site regularly, and the actual comic-reader software is pretty great, allowing you to view a comic page by height or width, or even panel by panel. There’s even an automated function that will move the panels for you, so you can sit back on the sofa and read Batman comics on your 55-inch screen without touching your remote. My feeling, though, is that the comics section will be appreciated more by people new to comics and not long time readers. Veterans will want to stick with Comixology or buying the printed copies.

The Rest

There’s more. Of course, there is. The site also has a nifty Encyclopedia section, where folks with OCD will enjoy reading about every little detail of a character’s history, and DCU has cleverly linked their content up so that if you just discovered The Ray and you want to read or view more about him, it’s a click away. There’s going to be a merchandise Shop, which wasn’t open at the time of this review. There’s also a Community (read: forum) where you can chat with other DC fanpeople and discuss the merits of Hal Jordan or Kyle Rayner as the best GL of all time. So far, there are no threads on it.

 

SUMMARY (TL; DR)

So is it worth the 7.99 a month or the pre-ordered price of 75 bucks? My answer would be yes—if you are interested in watching older DC TV shows and films. Even though there’s a lot of content missing right now, they still have a ton of content, and a lot of it is really good stuff. Batman: TAS in high def? Worth the price of admission alone. The charming 1940s cartoons and 1950s tv shows? Yep. 22 animated films? Yes. Heck, just watching the content on there now would probably take you until next year, and they will have added new content by then. The service is pretty affordable, and they tried to pimp it out with other goodies. If you’re interested in the TV and movies, this is your bag. But if you were hoping to have access to all of DC’s hundreds of thousands of comic books that you can’t find in trade paperbacks at your local book store? You’re going to be disappointed. So, instead, look at the site for its video content. Give it a try for a month. My guess is you’ll be charmed by the older content, and you’ll be happy with the new stuff once it starts filtering in. And let’s not kid ourselves, in five years or so, all the CW shows like Flash and Arrow will probably be on there exclusively, along with the recent films. Plus they’ll be doing original programming. Titans might look like a flush waiting to happen (to many of you) but the other shows (Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, and Stargirl) sound promising.