[dramatic music]
- The very thing that makes you different
is what makes you special.
- I need you to hope,
hope that you will remember that you can all be heroes.
[heroic music]
- It's not who I am underneath
but what I do that defines me.
- Beneath this mask, there is more than flesh.
Beneath this mask, there is an idea.
And ideas are bulletproof.
[gunfire]
[men screaming]
♪ ♪
- From paper to pixels,
DC Comics has incubated new ideas
for more than 80 years.
Every generation of creators brings its own point of view
and its own vision for DC's iconic characters.
- We ask a lot, how can we take the essence of this character,
the heart of this character,
but actually render it in a way
that reflects the world we live in today?
- We're not born good or bad.
The choices you make define your destiny.
- [screaming]
- What's changing is not just the mythology
but how the stories are told and who gets
to tell those stories.
- I cannot wait to have you guys out there.
- I've never seen so many
strong, beautiful women.
This is gonna be history.
- The characters of DC have edge.
And I love the edge.
[blasting]
[explosion booms]
- The world needs stories that show us who we are
and shape who we want to become.
But will an ever-expanding DC Universe
stretch its iconic characters
past the breaking point?
- Right now, DC is at a crossroads.
We're trying to build to the future
without doing a disservice to the past.
♪ ♪
[light music]
- Comics give us a sense of what's possible.
They give us a sense of our better natures.
They give us a sense of the future.
If comics represent the future and aspirations
for a lot of people
and Black people are left out of that mix,
therefore we're not part of the future
and we're not part of anyone's aspirations.
We wanted to be a part of that.
And I realized the only way we were gonna do it
it is if we did it ourselves.
[hip-hop music]
In the '90s, there was a lot of Black consciousness,
Black awareness going on.
And all that set an atmosphere in society,
in the world
that was not being reflected in comics at all.
The idea was to get a group of Black creators,
create some characters,
the likes of which had not been seen
in comics before,
and really tell our stories.
But we have to filter it to our own experience.
- Veteran artist Denys Cowan, along with Dwayne McDuffie,
Derek Dingle, and Michael Davis
created Milestone Media in 1991.
And while they had no shortage of ideas,
they needed an investor and distributor.
- What DC represented to us at the time
was, one, a potential partner,
and as people who are probably more
open to what we were trying to do,
which is why we went to DC in the first place.
♪ ♪
- And it's extraordinarily rare for a company
that is the oldest and most corporately owned company
in a field to be the disrupter and the innovator.
And we were that.
♪ ♪
- With DC's backing, Milestone set out
to become the first successful comic book company
owned by creators of color.
Their characters turned superhero archetypes
on their heads.
- So instead of a strange being from another planet
crash landing on Earth to be found by Ma and Pa Kent,
we had a strange being from another planet crash landing
on Earth founded by slaves.
- We have African-American writers and artists creating
characters and talking about their lives and communicating
something very personal about themselves
through these superhero stories.
- We never set out to tackle issues.
We set out to tell great stories.
There was a lot of themes about police violence
and racial inequality.
People weren't even dealing with that.
And we were, like, all in it.
- There was just this range of characters,
this range of identities.
The diversity within the diversity was so, so powerful.
Always led with entertainment, but it was never
afraid to get in people's grills and be real.
- When I was growing up, I rarely ever saw
people who looked like me
in the comics that I was reading.
And when they did show up,
they were almost always either villains
or comic relief sidekicks.
They were never the hero, almost never.
I collected those early Milestone comics.
I came away with this feeling that anybody could be a hero.
- In their head-to-head battle against storied superheroes,
Milestone's characters initially held their ground.
But the founders faced ongoing resistance
in the majority White industry.
- We ran into executives at DC.
And these marketing and sales people
would get up and say they can't sell
no Black comic books.
That's the kind of stuff we had to deal with all the time.
So the people who were supposed to be helping you move
your product are the very people who
don't think your product is worthy of being moved.
- The Milestone team put more sweat equity into their work
than any human beings should ever have to do on anything.
They work with passion, with dedication.
Milestone did things that changed what comics were
and that reached people that we'd never reached before.
- As new icons drew fans to comics,
Tim Burton's Batman returned to the big screen.
Michael Keaton donned the cowl and cape once more,
with a feline, Michelle Pfeiffer.
- I am Catwoman.
Hear me roar.
- Inspired by the growing hunger
for the enigmatic caped crusader,
Bruce Timm designed and helmed a brand new animated series.
He envisioned a dark and gritty Gotham
unlike anything else on Saturday mornings.
- ♪ We're tiny ♪
- ♪ We're toony ♪
all: ♪ We're all a little looney ♪
- Saturday morning animation, at that time, it was,
well, they're cartoons. Don't forget they're cartoons.
And, you know, you can't beat 'em up too bad.
And don't make 'em scary.
Give them some laughs and things like that.
And we didn't have to.
There really was a sense communicated from the top
on down, "Do the Batman you want to do."
[epic music]
- We knew what we didn't want.
We didn't want the show to seem like
every other adventure show on TV.
We wanted the show to be appealing to kids
because we knew they were our primary intended audience.
But at the same time, we wanted a show that we ourselves
would watch as adults.
♪ ♪
- Once I saw what Bruce was doing with the artwork,
with the storyboards, and then the animation coming in,
and you add on that the music that Shirley Walker
was adding and the voices...
- [laughing maniacally]
- Then it really was a dream come true.
[Danny Elfman's "Batman: The Animated Series (Main Title)"]
♪ ♪
Kids liked it.
Adults liked it.
Comic book fans liked it.
It was one of those rare times when
you get to work with a team and everybody hits
the bullseye the first time out.
- The show featured Batman's classic rogues gallery
but also introduced a wild card to Gotham...
- Harley Quinn. Pleased to meet ya.
- Joker's wisecracking sidekick, Harley Quinn.
- Harley Quinn had a very modest start.
I was writing an episode called "Joker's Favor."
And then I was thinking, like, OK,
Joker's gotta have some henchmen.
Maybe there's a couple of goons.
And maybe there's a girl.
And that's all I really thought about it.
- Hear, hear!
- When I was coming up with the character, I thought,
what if she can crack jokes and she gets laughs
and the Joker doesn't?
- It's amazing what you find in people's glove compartments.
[laughter]
- To be a creator of these characters in any capacity,
you're kind of a kid playing in a sandbox
with communal toys.
Even though I created the character,
it's only mine to play with for, you know,
a brief amount of time.
- When Gothamites hear the name Harley Quinn,
I want 'em to piss themselves.
I want a taste of that. - You want to taste of--
- It's very rated R in here. [laughs]
- Here we go. Let's just play the scene once, please.
You're in the middle of a bloody gunfire fight.
- Ah! [imitating gunfire]
I [bleep] love science.
- Will you make it totally sincere?
- Ugh! I [bleep] love science. [laughter]
I should mention it is a very adult series.
[laughs] I would not recommend young children watching it.
[splat] [grunting]
If you want an adult series,
you want it to be Harley Quinn.
You don't think I'm chaotic and crazy
and make a bunch of messes?
She's as edgy as it gets.
I basically spend most of the time in the booth
screaming and cussing, which has been
really therapeutic for me.
[bleep] off. I'm busy reflecting!
[laughter] - Thank you.
As psychotic as she is, she is quite grounded.
And she really takes care of her crew.
- This whole scene... - Yes.
- You are begging her to understand you
and to believe you. - Yes.
- Oh, I love you, Ive.
- It's really about her growth as an adult and as a woman
and as someone who's in control of her own destiny
because she relied on Joker for so long.
It's very female empowerment. [laughs]
She's kind of, weirdly, a good example.
She shouldn't be killing people,
but she is actually a good example because
she wants to step out on her own.
- You gonna kill me now?
- No, I want you alive so I can see the look on your face
when I'm running this town.
♪ ♪
- Before DC's runaway success evolving its characters,
the company stumbled in the late '90s.
[blasting]
[ice cracking]
- The Iceman cometh!
- Superheroes turned into self-parody on screen.
Comics sales stagnated after comic book investors failed.
And Milestone Media shut down
after just four years,
its demise relegated to a footnote.
Faced with a midlife identity crisis,
DC sought to sign the industry's hottest talent.
They first set their sights on rock star artist Jim Lee
and his company Wildstorm.
- I started at DC in 1998.
That's when they bought Wildstorm.
One of the reasons I sold the company
was so that I could hand the business functions
off to the people that worked at DC.
And then that would allow me to get back and draw
and create comic books, you know,
which is the reason why I got into the business
in the first place.
- Jim Lee coming to DC after the work he did at Marvel
and Founding Image Comics is about as seismic
as Jack Kirby coming to DC from Marvel
in the early 1970s.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
This is somebody who redefined comic book storytelling
for an entire generation.
Nobody would have expected him to end up at DC,
and not just at DC, but as somebody stewarding
the future of the company.
- As the millennium dawned, Jim Lee's dynamic
and detailed artwork revitalized DC's image
and defined its roster of characters
for the 21st century.
- As creatives, we tell these stories
'cause we love these characters
and we love storytelling.
[light piano music]
But we also know that storytelling is a great way
of dealing with our own personal anxieties or fears,
and certainly during tumultuous periods of crisis
that has been proven over and over.
♪ ♪
- I was working on a Wonder Woman story
where the Joker had taken control of Air Force One
and crashed it into Times Square.
As that book was going to print,
the events of 9/11 occurred.
We very quickly had to pull the book back.
We had to alter that story.
Wonder Woman saved Times Square.
But more importantly, there was a big fight
at the end between Superman and Wonder Woman.
And it ended on a page--
[sighs] and it ended on a page where Superman
sort of crumpled in Wonder Woman's arms
as he reflected on the people that he couldn't save.
[solemn music]
And she comforted him and said that
we're gonna make it through.
And I remember having a big fight
with the editor in chief about this.
His belief was that Superman should be heroic and powerful
and that that was what the nation needed.
And I tried to explain that this one moment would not take
anything away from Superman.
And also, it was a Wonder Woman moment.
This is what she does.
To this day...
I'm so glad I fought for it.
And I think DC made the right decision to keep it.
- When the nation fell victim to an act of terrorism,
superheroes gave way to real-life heroes,
ordinary citizens who risked everything to restore
people's faith in humanity.
- Most of the comic book companies
wanted to do something to benefit the victims,
the first responders.
DC decided we wanted to do a book.
The cover's an homage to a classic DC cover,
"The Big All-American Comic Book,"
sort of one of the first annuals
ever done in comics.
And we managed to raise a few hundred thousand dollars
for the good cause and do some stories
that I think have some real power and some impact.
- The more complex our world gets
and whether it's an external force or an internal strife
that we're having as a country,
the more we rely on these characters.
They're the perfect stories by which to, I think,
question things and challenge these things but also
remind us that, at the end of the day,
you can overcome these challenges
and be better for it.
♪ ♪
- An uneasy post-9/11 world called for a superhero
to conquer fear itself.
- Action.
- A British director with no background in comics
harkened the Dark Knight's return.
[dramatic music]
- Along comes Christopher Nolan
with a movie called "Batman Begins"
back when reboot wasn't really a word that was
so commonly associated with movies and franchises
and everything else.
And the idea that they were gonna tell Batman's
origin story again and tell it in a really granular way
felt kind of revolutionary.
[thrilling music] [bats chirping]
♪ ♪
[gunshot]
♪ ♪
- My interest was in taking on a superhero story
but treating it in a realistic fashion,
grounding the film in reality,
admittedly a heightened reality,
but never looking at it as a comic book movie
or just a comic book movie.
Roll cameras, please.
Good luck, everyone.
Action.
- [screams]
Ahh!
- The second installment of Nolan's trilogy
expanded on the psychology of the characters
and transformed the Caped Crusader's arch nemesis
into a full-fledged terrorist.
[gunshot]
- Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
- I think the Joker is the logical response
to a character like Batman.
- Why so serious?
- Partly because Batman raised the sort of extremity
of behavior in Gotham.
You know, he's putting on a mask,
jumping off buildings, and fighting crime.
[tires screeching]
- [laughs]
I don't wanna kill you.
What would I do without you?
You complete me.
♪ ♪
- Heath Ledger's performance earned him
a posthumous Academy Award,
the first for a cinematic portrayal
of a comic book character.
- People say to me, which one did you like the most?
I said, Christopher Nolan, in my opinion,
only made one movie in three acts.
It is beautifully structured that way.
What Christopher Nolan did was elevate the genre from people
just saying, "Oh, that was a great comic book movie,"
to at last they just say, "That was a great film."
- Christopher Nolan's trilogy dominated
the box office, earning nearly $2.5 billion worldwide.
But the success put pressure
on newly appointed copublishers
Jim Lee and Dan DiDio to save the slumping
comic book business.
- People used to say to me,
"Who do you consider competition?"
And I would say, Marvel's not my competition.
I said, TV and film, that's my competition.
If they become the arbiters and the voices of the characters,
then what we do becomes irrelevant.
- For inventive ideas, DC turned to fan favorite writer
Geoff Johns for his bold take on a classic character
from the '50s, Barry Allen as the Flash.
- I thought, I needed to rethink his origin
'cause literally he'd never had a modern-day origin.
And so I went into, like, time travel and, like,
having someone who is a crime scientist.
Their mother was killed.
Their father went to prison for it.
He was obsessed with trying to find out who did it.
And because of that, his life had
just stood still emotionally.
And then becoming the Flash is all about just you've
gotta keep moving forward.
No matter what tragedy happens,
you gotta keep moving forward.
Right when I settled on that story,
I knew that I wanted to tell a two-year arc for Barry Allen.
And the last story I wanted to tell
was "Flashpoint," with him going back in time
and saving his mom and changing history.
♪ ♪
And it was gonna be this crazy version
of the DC Universe that was overly violent.
And it looked different because of this change
that Barry made.
- Taking a page from Johns' "Flashpoint,"
Lee and DiDio seized the chance to upend
every single DC storyline.
- They came to me and said, "We're gonna reboot
"the DC Universe, and we wanna use this to do it.
The truth is that "Flashpoint" was never designed to do that.
They kinda, like, hopped onto it
because there was an opportunity that time was open
and we wanna change everything.
♪ ♪
- DC relaunched the universe with 52 new titles,
a nod to the number of earths in the multiverse.
The company released new issues
in print and digital formats
simultaneously for the first time ever.
- "New 52" was basically an opportunity to reach
a new fanbase, to find an entry point for everyone
to find our characters, to contemporize them,
to bring them down in age so they weren't our fathers'
and grandfathers' superheroes.
In order to make the level of impact,
we had to do something of a scale
that we hadn't seen before.
♪ ♪
- Head upstairs. Thank you, sir.
- Here in Midtown Manhattan, fans are
anticipating the release of the new number one issue
of "The Justice League."
- I came as the "New 52" Supergirl.
- And Black Canary.
- Because of "New 52," people were really excited
about this reboot, this fresh chance
to hop onto this new universe and read
about these characters with fresh perspective,
with none of the baggage that came before.
- It's cool.
- There you go.
Just go around that way.
- Fairly or unfairly, DC does have
a reputation with fans of constantly
trying to reset things.
♪ ♪
When the biggest headline grabbers are things
like, "We've just restarted the entire line,
"and not just with new first issues
but with brand-new continuity," it worked.
It got readers into comic shops.
But there was a certain segment of the audience that felt
a little betrayed by that, too.
- I think the people in charge know what they're doing,
and I hope that everything goes great.
But it's a huge risk.
- Normally, when you're a fan, you go like,
oh, if I were in charge, this is what I would do
with the characters, these are the kinds of stories
I would chart.
And you find yourself in that position.
You go, like, oh crap, like,
what can we do with this?
We wanted to be respectful of the past.
But at the same time, we wanted to forge
a new future going forward.
- Part of my goal was to bring a little bit of a swagger
to DC.
We've gotta get people excited about what
we're doing now than what they read when they were kids.
And that was the mission, and "New 52"
was the realization of that mission.
And it set fire to the business.
♪ ♪
- As it sought to expand its fan base,
DC showed a willingness to take even more risks
with its characters
by evolving the universe in video games.
- I'd played video games all my life.
But I hadn't really done the nuts and bolts of it.
Writing a video game on the scope of "Arkham Asylum"
was extremely challenging.
♪ ♪
- [grunts]
An engaging experience for a passive viewer
is not the same thing at all for a gamer.
- The Batman "Arkham" series merged superhero fantasy
with action adventure.
Players experienced the freedom
to explore a vast, open world.
That immersion pushed role-playing games
to the next level.
[grunting]
Upping the ante, DC teamed up with one of
the most successful and controversial video game
franchises, Mortal Kombat."
- "Mortal Kombat" is this hyperviolent universe.
And DC isn't.
♪ ♪
A big part of my childhood was comic books and video games.
I never wanted to cut Batman's head off.
I felt that was just kind of crossing a line.
- [grunts]
- But we really wanted to do something
that was kind of really pushing that envelope
with DC characters.
That coupled with the head not covering it
and you'll totally see his hand.
- Ed Boon persuaded executives to let him create
a violent DC Universe inside
a "Mortal Kombat"-style fighting game
called "Injustice."
- Up until that point, the DC stories
had Superman as a boy scout.
And we really wanted to kind ask the question,
what if Superman went bad?
What if Superman actually killed?
- [grunting]
- The last thing you wanna do is just constantly just create
the same thing over again.
There's a pretense that these characters are porcelain,
meaning you can't touch 'em.
Gotta put 'em on shelf. Don't touch.
They're breakable. You could destroy them.
You could destroy this, destroy that.
And the truth is they're not. They're rock-hard diamonds.
So that means you've gotta take risks.
You've gotta try.
- [grunts] - We felt like we were
carving out our own piece of the pie
of the multiverse.
We really helped solidify video games as a form of telling
these amazing stories.
- To cultivate players of all ages...
- Is that a new spacesuit?
- DC LEGO games took characters
in the opposite direction.
The interactive adventures gave fans a chance
to embody any character, regardless
of race, gender, or fashion.
- Now, children are playing video games
as their first entrance into that imaginative world,
their first exposure to these characters.
[inspirational music]
Reading a story means living the story
with those characters in your imagination.
But playing the story gives players,
and particularly young players, the opportunity
to create their own story.
- DC's video games seeded ideas
that flourished elsewhere.
- [gasp] Batman! Whoa!
- You're darn right, whoa.
[upbeat electronic music]
- With President Diane Nelson at the helm,
DC Comics changed its name to DC Entertainment
and sought to exploit the characters
more aggressively across all media.
- I love these characters and these stories enough.
For me, they should be adapted in everything
they can be adapted in 'cause I wanna see them everywhere.
- With superhero fandom reaching an all-time high,
Marvel and DC battled for supremacy at the cinema.
But neither rival had yet to fully conquer television
when DC approached Greg Berlanti,
a prolific drama producer and lifelong comic book fan.
- You had these characters who were
of the world but different.
♪ ♪
And their difference was the thing that ultimately
kept them distant from everyone but also
was part of their heroism.
And I was a closeted gay kid.
And they were, you know, my friends.
I remember connecting with them in that way
and feeling like, oh, these were people that had a secret.
I was very often as interested in their alias
as I was their superhero character.
- Berlanti's first series premiered in 2012
and centered on billionaire Oliver Queen, who fights crime
as the alias Green Arrow--
part Robin Hood, part Batman.
- Action! [gunfire]
- There was a sense of a man getting
vengeance for an entire community
that felt left behind.
[dramatic music]
[gunfire]
We pitched that at the end of act one of the pilot,
we would see the Green Arrow kill a character.
- Nobody can know my secret.
- [grunts]
- And I think it was so shocking for the audience
at that time that it immediately
made people realize, narratively, they didn't
know what we were gonna do.
Hopefully he becomes a hero.
- I used to think the vigilante was a criminal, too.
But it seems to me whoever he is,
he's willing to sacrifice an awful lot to help
the people of this city.
It kinda makes him a hero, doesn't it?
- By using a character that isn't one of the big three,
you can have a lot more fun and be a lot more experimental
without being bogged down by the expectations
that come with being a much bigger character.
- "Arrow" attracted a sizable following.
And after just two seasons,
Berlanti was tasked with taking on another superhero,
expanding the DC TV Universe in a flash.
♪ ♪
- They had tried a Flash show 20 years before.
They couldn't render the spirit of the character's powers
for--you know, with the technology they had
on a network television basis.
- 3, 2, 1. Action.
- We wanted to sort of go into his speed
and make the audience feel what that would feel like.
[whooshing]
And that was the most connectivity I had
to that rush I had as a kid.
- As more series spun off, like "Supergirl,"
each one delivered a signature mix of heart,
humor, and spectacle.
- By far, my most favorite bit about "Supergirl"
really comes from her motto that's
been there throughout the comics up till now,
is hope, help, and compassion for all.
I just love her kindness.
And I love how much she cares about really helping people
and making a difference.
- Earth doesn't have just one hero anymore.
Now it has me.
- The interconnected television world became
known as the Arrowverse.
- That's what they would do with the comic books.
We were building the world the way
that they probably built the world initially
and expanding the universes that way.
I always felt like comic books in general
lent themselves much more to television than to film
because they were episodic in nature.
It just felt like the art form really fit.
[dramatic music]
- We were just really impressed
by the ambitions that they had
and how they brought the DC Universe to life.
[explosion booms]
They started building off the foundation of the comics
and doing their own storytelling.
We kind of lamented the fact that, in a way,
they kinda replaced some of the audience that
was following comic books because they could get,
essentially, their fix through watching these TV shows.
- As DC characters flooded the entertainment landscape,
the company decided to relocate.
After eight decades, DC publishing
closed its New York offices.
For some, it marked the end of an era.
- The comics come and go. The people change.
But the heart that's been felt here
from everybody that's been here from day one
has been spectacular.
And I want to thank you all for being here
and being part of this final day.
So-- - Hear, hear.
all: Cheers!
- It was heart wrenching, you know?
And it was physically challenging.
But the staff was exceptional.
We're trying to still put out books
'cause we're a monthly business.
That's something you gotta remind yourself
on a regular basis when you work in comics,
you know, it's a business.
At the end of the day, it's a business.
The president of DC Entertainment, Diane Nelson,
called the decision and resulting layoffs
the most difficult of her career.
DC's move West made it clear.
America's first comics company
now had its heart set on Hollywood.
Epic action director Zack Snyder
presented an ambitious crossover vision
for an extended universe
in "Batman v Superman, Dawn of Justice."
- Bruce Wayne meets Clark Kent.
Ha! I love it.
- Snyder also reintroduced a character
who'd been sidelined since the '70s.
- She with you?
- I thought she was with you.
- The film's 2016 release coincided
with Wonder Woman's 75th anniversary.
That fall, the United Nations named her
honorary ambassador for the empowerment
of women and girls.
- We are working with new and unconventional partners
and forming creative alliances so that
we can reach the widest possible global audience.
[applause]
- But the distinction sparked backlash.
[somber music]
- We don't think that a fictitious comic book
character wearing basically what looks like
a Playboy Bunny outfit is really the right message
we need to send to girls, or even boys for that matter,
about what strong women are in the world.
We think that is a toxic message to be sending.
- The controversy didn't deter director
Patty Jenkins, who blazed a trail
to Wonder Woman's solo film debut.
- In the process of making a Wonder Woman film,
you're facing resistance at every step from the world.
- Stay here. I'll go ahead.
- I struggle all the time with my faith in mankind,
as I'm sure we all do,
going through the social crisis
in every way on our planet
and watching the vitriol and hatred
online and amongst people.
And yet, what would Wonder Woman do?
- Be careful in the world of men, Diana.
They do not deserve you.
- I came into a situation where everyone
was very afraid to make her incredibly attractive at all.
- What are you doing?
- You can't do that because you're not wearing any--
you're not wearing any clothes.
- And I kept saying, well, you wouldn't do that to Superman.
Like, you wouldn't do that to any of these other characters.
Why are you doing that to my character?
- Is this what passes for armor in your country?
- It's not about sleeping with her.
It's not about that.
It's about making her my dream...
of if I could have it all in this kind of way,
I would look great too, just like the men would.
I'd be bigger and stronger and cooler and taller
and all the--you know, like, all these things
that we all have.
Get at them, and then get down, looking around,
looking at what you're doing, getting in position.
Keep the electricity of, am I lined up?
Is it gonna hit? Is that a good target?
Yes, it is. Eyes on the prize of what you're doing.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Patty and I actually had many,
many creative conversation about this character.
Her vision for Diana was in line with mine.
Wonder Woman, she's everything.
She can be vulnerable and sensitive and being strong
and being badass and fight.
♪ ♪
[crowd shouting]
- Wonder Woman shattered the cinematic ceiling,
making history as the first superhero blockbuster
directed by and starring women.
- All the critics kind of point to that one scene
in the no man's land where she rises up out of the trenches.
It was literally the physical act of empowerment of agency,
of standing up for yourself.
I think that that came at the right cultural moment
and just really resonated with audiences worldwide.
- Wonder Woman came out right before a global uprising
against sexual violence,
the #MeToo Movement.
all: Hey, hey, ho, ho, sexual violence has got to go.
- Me too. all: Me too.
- She's forever relevant.
♪ ♪
She will be relevant in the 2040s, in the 2090s.
She'll be relevant because she's us.
[glass shattering]
- An all-star team up soon followed in November 2017.
From the Flash to Aquaman, even more superheroes
joined the same universe in "Justice League."
- I'm putting together a team of people
with special abilities.
- But after an underwhelming box office run and the promise
of streaming, filmmaker Zack Snyder got the chance
to realize his original vision
with a four-hour director's recut.
- Part of the reason why DC is such a global phenomenon
today is, obviously, the media--
the movies and the TV shows.
But I think the storytelling obviously
needs to change to stay relevant and contemporary.
Our storytelling is sort of the tip
of the spear in making social change at the end of the day.
- When I originally pitched "The Other History
of the DC Universe," I had no idea how they would feel
about a reassessment, a deconstruction of
the DC Universe, looking at it with regard to race
and representation and really taking moments that,
to be kind, haven't aged well.
- In his five-part series released in 2020,
Oscar-winning writer John Ridley corrected problematic
storylines from DC's past and gave voice
to marginalized characters.
- If we're not doing everything we can to make sure
that the storytelling space is more reflective when we leave
than when we arrive, we're really not building
on the real legacy of companies like DC.
- If you look at the folks that are telling stories
within the universe today, I would argue that it's probably
the most diverse set of creators
that the universe has ever seen.
- When acclaimed graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang
joined DC, he traveled back in time
to tell a contemporary story about race in America.
- Faster than a speeding bullet.
- In 1946, the Superman radio show aired
"The Klan of the Fiery Cross,"
a story where the Man of Steel defends
a Chinese-American family against
a group of hooded racists.
[dark music]
♪ ♪
- In "Superman Smashes the Klan,"
Yang reinterpreted the radio classic
through the modern lens of an Asian family
who had moved to Metropolis.
- The themes that they were talking about in 1946
on the Superman radio show still resonated so deeply.
We wanted to use the story as a way
of examining things that were happening in our world today.
all: You will not replace us.
[somber music]
[uplifting music]
♪ ♪
- I do think, though, that that's one
of the powers of DC Comics.
You can talk about the present by reflecting
on the past, all within this one universe
that's decades old.
- Looking at my kids who are half Korean growing up,
I would hate for them to feel embarrassed or--
or wanting to distance themselves
from who they literally are.
And I think that's why it's paramount that the content
we create, the storytelling we do really elevates
and showcases the importance of being different,
why that is something to be celebrated
and how that is a superpower.
♪ ♪
- That hunger for diverse points of view
led to the relaunch of Milestone Media
in 2021, nearly three decades after its
groundbreaking debut.
- You have to constantly reinvent what you're doing.
You have to constantly pump new life into these characters.
But you know what? Let's try this.
Let's try that. Let's try this.
Let's keep it fresh.
♪ ♪
- Alongside two of the original founders,
Hollywood heavyweight Reginald Hudlin
signed on to help resurrect the company.
- We knew we didn't want it to be a nostalgia company.
If we're gonna remain true to the spirit of Milestone,
we can't be stuck in the past.
We had to take those characters and move them
into the 21st century and go,
well, what's cutting edge now?
We're gonna do classic characters.
We're gonna create original characters.
And we're gonna be true to the name Milestone Media.
- Milestone is undeniably the most important
Black superhero universe.
I think had there been more of a push to get those characters
into the collective consciousness
of the mainstream, maybe it never would have went away.
- We were way ahead of our time.
When we first started doing that material,
the things we were talking about is stuff that people
are starting to talk about now.
It's a good time for us to come back,
to keep raising these questions and keep
exploring these topics, especially in light
of what's going on today.
- There's been a movement in our fandom in recent years
to strip the politics from the comics that we produce.
The funny thing is that so many of these DC Comics characters
were inherently political from their inception.
- It is no secret DC Comics has ruined superheroes,
quite possibly for good, folks.
It removed Superman's patriotic slogan, "the American way."
- Instead, it will be replaced with, "and a better tomorrow."
Wow.
Why do you have to mess with something that's already
been there for so long?
If you want to create a woke superhero, create a new one.
- I woke up this morning to find out
the new Superman, bisexual. [laughter]
Finally!
- Whatever you don't like about comics today, take a breath.
It will change tomorrow because it always does.
You have to change with society.
People are freaking out
because Superman's son is bisexual?
Are you alive today?
It's reflecting who we are today.
You can't write stories like it's 1966 forever
or like it's 1986 'cause it's not anymore.
And the world is really, really different.
- Comic book fandom is complicated.
There is no fandom more passionate.
And there is no fandom harder to please.
When I think about "Watchmen," I think about how skeptical
I was, because with "Watchmen,"
you're dealing with a fandom that thinks
it shouldn't be touched.
- Skepticism among fans ran deep
when DC announced plans for a Watchmen television series.
Creator Damon Lindelof, known for the sci-fi series "Lost,"
sought to update the beloved comic for a modern audience.
- When I was 13 years old and I first read "Watchmen,"
it was a religious experience.
It taught me everything that I know about storytelling.
♪ ♪
- The original "Watchmen" took place
in the '80s, the Reagan years.
Nuclear anxiety was the defining fear of that time.
So Damon said, OK, well, if I do it,
what am I gonna talk about?
- Rather than retell the "Watchmen" comics
beat for beat, as the 2009 film did,
Lindelof and his team created an all-new
nine-episode story arc, as well as new characters.
- Hello, detective. - Angela, right?
Oh, am I not supposed to know who you are?
- I started feeling like I might have an interesting way
to do this that would honor the original without
ripping off the original.
- One of the questions that Watchmen asks,
both the original and our version,
is why do you put on a mask?
Why would you do that?
Where is the line between a superhero
and a vigilante and a cop?
- Masks save lives.
- Masks make men cruel.
- I don't think HBO or DC or Warner's or anybody thought,
we're gonna take the Holy Grail of comic books
that isn't necessarily known for its Blackness,
and we're gonna turn this into the most
profound discussion of race in the superhero medium.
- Sir, I'm with the FBI.
Are your civil rights being violated?
- They didn't read me my rights--
- OK, sorry. I was just kidding.
I don't care.
- We want the America of "Watchmen"
to feel familiar to people.
- Roll them out!
[crowd clamoring]
- So if it was an issue in our 2019,
those things have to be issues in their 2019,
because if it weren't, it wouldn't be relatable.
- The story revolves around Angela Abar, a detective who
battles police corruption and White terrorists
as the masked hero Sister Night.
- I got a nose for White supremacy,
and he smells like bleach.
- She's a superhero without superpowers
but super skills and a brain.
You don't have superpowers and you save the day,
aren't you just, like, even more super?
[laughs]
[upbeat music] [fireworks booming]
- The year after Sister Night, a starkly different kind
of heroine stormed back on screen,
devoid of both superpowers and sanity.
- Hi, boys.
[booms] - [groans]
- Harley is a catalyst of chaos.
I always think of her that way.
And I actually think it's better when she doesn't have
to be your moral center or even your emotional center
all the time because it just gives
her more leeway to behave, I think,
more authentically like her.
- [screams]
- What?
- Guided by director Cathy Yan,
Robbie's performance in "Birds of Prey"
cemented Harley Quinn as one of DC's hottest
and most unhinged characters.
- I love Harley because she is pure madness.
And isn't there really a part of us
that wants to just do whatever we want to do in the moment
no matter what that is?
- Harley's meteoric rise underscored the appeal
of anti-heroes and helped pave the way
for James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad."
- So the first little sequence I have completely worked out.
We open up in the cellar, pulling back from her
as she comes out with the machine gun--
[gunfire] [people screaming]
And then her walking forward and firing
as all the flowers and unicorns and shit come out of her.
[rapid gunfire]
♪ ♪
Superheroes are often presented as gods and goddesses
and stuff like that.
But my superheroes are not that.
- Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late.
I had to go number two.
- Good to know.
- Give them a pissed off look, like,
"Are you [bleep] kidding me?
You just shot across my face?"
- Yeah. - My superheroes
are the assholes that are stuck
playing in the fields of gods and goddesses.
[energetic rock music]
[grunting]
- He does throw polka dots at people.
- "The Suicide Squad" was such a great comic book.
The superhero movie became the most
dominant form of cinematic storytelling
because of technology.
We're seeing superheroes do things on screen
that were exactly like what we saw
them doing in the comic books.
And we were able to believe it.
[crashing]
- [roaring]
- Yes. It's gonna be-- yeah, it's gonna be
all probably jump cuts-- jump, jump, jump, jump,
jump, thomp, thomp, thomp.
- James is such a visionary director.
You can tell that the scope of the project
is just gonna be massive.
And it's also his humor is just so bizarre and funny.
Like, the more specific something is, sometimes I feel
like the more funny it is.
And his humor is, like, incredibly weird and specific.
- Hand.
- Yes, that is your hand, Nanaue.
Very good.
- I do tell these stories that are pretty ugly stories.
But finding something in them that is meaningful
or hint of having faith in something greater,
that's really important to me.
And I think it grounds those stories more completely
by grounding it in real emotion and real human strife.
♪ ♪
- "The Suicide Squad's" antihero ensemble
ran counter to the Righteous Trinity
and proved that DC's vast, ever-expanding universe
could appeal to almost anyone.
- Superheroes, super villains, anti-heroes.
For every person in the world, there is
a DC character for them that they can relate to.
- You have two choices.
You can be the destroyer of this world
or you can be its savior.
- When I was a kid, a guy like Black Adam,
he had his own moral code.
And that meant something to me.
- Comics are an incredible medium.
You can tell impactful stories about anything.
What you need is the courage to tell them.
♪ ♪
- It's a privilege to tell these stories
with these characters.
But you're also a guardian
of them for a period of time.
- It's always a challenge to make sure
that as you're evolving, that you don't lose
the people who got you here.
And so that balance of making sure we have
enough to fuel our core superfan
but also deliver enough to create a new fan,
that nuance is really, really difficult.
- DC has endured for more than 80 years
by taking risks and pushing the envelope of storytelling.
- There's a saying in DC,
"publishing is the cornerstone."
We are making comics for the comic book market.
But we wanna come up with something new and cool
that the TV and movie people have never thought of.
♪ ♪
We can do anything.
We don't have a special effects budget.
♪ ♪
Our job is to incubate cool stories.
And we have no limits, essentially.
It's whatever we can draw.
- DC Comics, especially, it became
a place for ideas to be free and grow unlike anything else.
The ideas that are being developed
in that pool right now
are gonna be the ideas that conquer the world
for the next 25, next 100, next 200 years.
♪ ♪
- With each generation of creators,
the stories they craft in panels
and in pixels evolve DC's roster of characters.
- Yeah!
- But their core remains true--
the power to restore our faith in humanity
and the promise of infinite possibility.
- Yeah! [crowd cheering]
- All of us need to go back to being kids and picking up
comic books again and reminding ourselves,
why are we attracted to these stories?
Is it having power for the sake of power?
Or is it having power because we believe that
we can do the right thing?
[cheering]
- There's a reason we love superheroes.
They've embodied these great ideals.
And they're inspirational to all of us.
- [screaming]
- At the end of the day, I think people look
to our characters not just for entertainment
but for heroes that they look up to.
We recognize the role we play
and the difference we can make.
And we are united in that mission.
♪ ♪
- Greg, move your head.