Note: DC Universe will transition to a comic book service with a community while their video content will be rotated on HBO Max by January 2021.
Before I begin, I’m new to DC. I know Superman and Batman. That’s pretty much it.
So one day, after getting hooked on Young Justice, I decide to dig deeper.
DC Universe is a streaming service with all kinds of DC content. Comic books, TV shows and movies, live-action and animated as well as a community where members can hang out and chat.
So what’s special about it?
It’s truly, everything DC. Everything a fan could wish for. You can sort, filter the comics by era, story lines or even by characters.
Their comic reader, for starters. It has a panel mode and I don’t know if it’s a thing elsewhere but I think it’s fantastic. I don’t have to move around the page or worry if I missed a dialogue or action.
It was last year during their celebration of Batman’s 80th anniversary that I took advantage of the 80 cent deal for my first month. (#LongLiveTheBat!)
The collection of comics was not as much when I first subscribed but has grown a lot and is still releasing frequently.
Though mind you, comics under Vertigo doesn’t really make an appearance here. (Though it may, for special occasions.)
I watched a good number of animated films and TV shows on the exclusive streaming service and would recommend (in no particular order):
- Swamp Thing – a nice mash of horror, supernatural and drama
- Young Justice: Outsiders (third season in the series, fourth to come and one of the big draws of the service when it was launched – should watch the first two seasons for it to make sense)
- Constantine (much closer to its comic book counterpart than the film adaptation – which I enjoy too lol)
- Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (Wonderful Elseworld (alternate) story and of course, Bruce Greenwood plays Batman)
- Batman: Bad Blood
- Justice League: The New Frontier, an amazing film that I need to watch again
At the time of writing, Stargirl just started airing. Reviews look positive and Luke Wilson is in it too! The Justice Society of America is involved (in the past, at least) and that’s something new I’m looking forward to. It’s also on The CW.
Doom Patrol’s season two will be premiering on June 25! What an amazing month of announcements alongside Zack Snyder’s Justice League to be released on HBOMax.
For someone new to the franchise (aka me!), I feel $7.99 (and applicable tax) for the service is a very justified price tag. You have plenty of stuff to watch (Batman Beyond is now available on HD with their release on Blu-ray), read and a place to chat with like-minded people 🙂
They also very recently announced a rewards program that is still in beta to commemorate the site’s 2nd anniversary.
All users (free and paying subscribers) can accumulate tokens by reading, participating in the community or watching programs to redeem merchandise or even a month of DC Universe subscription for yourself or your friends and family. There is also free comics available to read for a limited time.
The site still has a lot of things that they can improve on and with the feedback from users, they do work on it which I appreciate seeing as it has changed immensely from the time when I first subscribed.
DC Universe is available on the web, iOS, Android, Android TV as well as Roku and Amazon FireTV for those located in the United States. (If you are overseas, a VPN might be of use.)
Titles available in 4K/UHD can be streamed on certain platforms. 4K/UHD is not available on web, Android or iOS (mobile/tablet) devices.
I took a long time to finish this but this is in part of the growing improvement of the service which is a good thing.
Keep going, DC Universe ❤
