Cory Massimino

Review: Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics (2010)

October 19, 2020 by Cory

★★★★

This documentary lovingly chronicles the history of DC Comics, but more importantly the characters — particularly Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman — and the imaginative genre to which they belong that the company introduced and built upon for the subsequent 75+ years; characters and storytelling tropes whose widespread and iconic influence no one could’ve predicted.

“Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics” is packed with both original and archival interviews with legends of the comic medium such as Julius Schwartz, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, Neil Gaiman, Dwayne McDuffie, Grant Morrison, Len Wein, Jim Lee, Marv Wolfman, Joe Kubert, and others, along with plenty of delightful gems plucked from the history of radio, animation, television, and film — such as Christopher Reeve’s screen test. It’s a charming, exciting journey through over seven decades of artistic expression and creation.

Perhaps most enjoyable are the rare audio and video footage of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in which they articulate the origins of both Superman and the entire fictional genre he spawned as an eclectic pastiche of carnie strong-men, adolescent wish fulfillment, and escapist optimism in the face of rising worldwide fascism.

This is ultimately a powerfully crafted narrative about the origins of a whole fictional genre that went on to inspire millions of artists and millions more readers. This rich, imaginative world ultimately spawned from the collective mental efforts of some poor first-generation Americans in the 1930s and 40s; from dynamic urban centers whose lower classes were victimized by the relatively new phenomenon of both street crime, muggers, and burglars on the one hand and the institutions that were meant to protect them from those criminals on the other.

The socially minded beginnings of the superhero genre are — refreshingly — front and center here. As Neal Adams explains, “a whole genre was created by two sons of poor Jewish immigrants.” The whole basic idea behind Superman was the dream of someone who had not only power but wisdom; the wisdom to use his power to stand up to bullies, criminals, wife beaters, corrupt politicians, and yes, even dictators, on behalf of the powerless, marginalized, and oppressed. Also mentioned is the Superman radio’s show airing KKK secret passwords in an effort to frustrate the terrorist organization. Superman was originally the “Champion of the Oppressed” and this documentary doesn’t shy away from that fact but embraces it — as they should.

Also chronicled is the storied histories of these characters through various forms of media and even more artistic visions. There is a creative malleability unique to the superhero genre that permits these characters to be endlessly recreated by new artists during new times in new places. Superheroes do not exist as one single instantiation of one single artistic vision like other fictional characters — such as Harry Potter — but as a strange and almost inexplicable amalgam of (sometimes wildly) different interpretations over years, decades, and perhaps one day, centuries.

Unlike any other fictional character, this is embodied in Batman, whose Platonic Ideal somehow permits Bill Finger’s pulpy avenger of the night, Dick Sprang’s whimsical sci-fi adventurer, Adam West’s campy caped crusader, Neal Adams’s driven crime-fighter, Frank Miller’s obsessive vigilante, Tim Burton’s unbalanced recluse, Joel Schumacher’s loving father figure, and Paul Dini’s masterful composite of all of the above to simultaneously exist all at the same time.

Schumacher’s Batman is insultingly ignored, while Sprang is never mentioned by name. But much of the major history of the character is lovingly told. Despite being a few years before the Finger family rightfully won a creator credit for Bill Finger, this documentary gives him a decent amount of creative due in telling the origins of Batman. Not enough, however. The cultural resonance of both the Batman of West and Keaton are mentioned while the creative influence of Frank Miller is given lots of exploration, more of which actually should’ve gone to the character’s reimagining a decade earlier by O’Neil and Adams — though they are given tons of credit in radically shifting the culture and tone of comics and the industry that made them with their more anti-authoritarian and counter-culture attitudes.

Wonder Woman’s origins in a bondage obsessed polyamorous feminist scientist are hilariously conveyed and her tumultuous history is honestly engaged with — including Denny O’Neil totally owning up to his misguided and insulting de-powering of the character at the height of the women’s liberation movement. Other characters that have played important roles in DC’s history, such as Shazam, Flash, Green Lantern, are also talked about some and it’s nice to see DC occasionally remember the characters outside the Trinity. Also appreciated is the nod to Marvel’s bold reimagining of the genre in the 1960s that prompted DC to change course as well.

The absolutely groundbreaking and cinematic Fleischer Superman cartoons are — totally rightfully — talked about at length. And I wish its main creative heir, Batman: The Animated Series (along with the entire DC Animated Universe it spawned), got more exploration but of course there’s not time for everything. Still, the DCAU includes some of the most successful and loved iterations of a whole host of DC characters and its creative legacy has only been more appreciated in hindsight.

The one constant through all of these times, places, artists, and mediums is the fundamental social function of the superhero archetype: an ideal to aspire toward. That’s what’s made the superhero the everlasting feature of pop culture it’s become.

What is the secret origin of comics? It’s a whole mix of factors: comic books were ultimately mere pulpy rags but they were pulpy rags that provided cheap, escapist entertainment in the face of new human challenges such as the social alienation of modernity, the crime of city life, the material deprivation of economic depression, the mechanical cruelty of modern nation-states, and the unimaginable suffering of world war. In a world where man was far, far from super, the most revolutionary, most vitally important idea of all was a super man.

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