The Perfect Score: DC Comics

In this series I detail the few series I have given a 5/5 too and why.

What is it?

DC Comics is arguably the largest franchise ever in terms of sheer content produced. It is primarily a comic book franchise based around the premise that at the beginning of this creation God’s power swept across creation creating the divinities, and as it reached the edge of creation and came back it seeded creation with a plethora of latent metahuman powers in all the races of the universes and in many of the natural forces.

Various species learn to harness this latent energy, the godwave, manifestated in a plethora of sources, such as magic, the glow, the speedforce, the quantum forces, etc. for good or evil ends and to control and determine the parameters for the next creation.

Why do I love it?

DC Comics is an absolutely massive franchise written by many writers and so you would think there couldn’t be anything that flows through the whole of it, but if there is anything, it is that people are better then they believe. DC Comics is a truly humanistic franchise and very very often expresses admiration and belief in the human race, a belief I share and yet also find moving to see presented.

Besides that, DC Comics has an amazing sense of legacy that I have seen no other work ever be able to capture so magnificently. You have heroes who have been written by several generations of writers and have had several different iterations, and you can feel the sense of legacy and dignity that is held in all of them. Their heroes see their powers not just as weapons in a war against demons, but as symbols of what it means to be heroes.

This sense of legacy continues throughout the whole of DC, very often things that are ancient or even primordial are the sources of things in DC, and it’s connection with the present gives the present so much more weight and dignity. Ancient institutions and organizations are frequently mentioned and given reverence, and ancient beings show up to both express admiration for and to be admired by the heroes of the present.

I think it’s really these two points, combined with a lot of creativity in it’s worldbuilding that really makes me love DC Comics. DC Comics is thoroughly dignified and humanistic in it’s worldbuilding, it’s a world where God himself is not so unknowable force that we mere humans can never understand, but simply a person like any of us just trying to do the right thing, and where the struggles of the past always lead to a new and better future.

5/5 Moments (note it’s a big franchise, there are A LOT of these)

*Lex Luthor seeing the world as Superman does in All-Star Superman

*Wonder Woman defeating Ares with love in the Post-Crisis Canon

*Zatanna saving the omniverse from Pralaya

*Most of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow

*Superman using the Cosmic Armor to stop Mandrakk

*Superman using the vibrations of the cosmos to defeat Darkseid in Final Crisis

*Earth-1 and Earth-2 Supermen settling their differences to battle Superboy Prime in Infinite Crisis

*Barry Allen sacrificing himself to save the universe in COIE

*Supergirl sacrificing herself to save the universe in COIE

*Brainiac turning noble in Convergence

*Golden Age Etta Candy being….Etta Candy

*Golden Age Superman taking Hitler in to pay for his war crimes

*A LOT of stuff from the DCEU, would be another 10+ points

*When the Justice Guild sacrifice themselves to save the city in the JLU episode “Legends”

*Superman and Batman’s admiration for each other

*Rorschach refusing to sacrifice his principles no matter what even against Doctor Manhattan

*Dream of the Endless changing and being freed by his sister Death at the end of The Sandman

*Superman’s “World of Cardboard” Speech in JLU

*Batman and Justice Lord Batman’s argument in JLU

*Dream apologizing to Delirium in Brief Lives

*Lucifer and Michael finally working together to stop Gyges

*Destiny of the Endless outplaying even Lucifer

*When all the spell-casters of the Earth and The Spectre used their magic to try and stop Anti-Monitor in COIE, resetting all of creation

*Barry recognizing Wally and pulling him out of the speedforce in Rebirth, embracing him and tearfully asking how he could have forgotten him

*Superman’s radio show helping to battle the evil of the KKK both in series and in real life

Favorite Moment:

Superman saves a Jumper in All-Star Superman. Cliché choice sure, but to me it’s the perfect encapsulation of DC’s message, it is the perfect encapsulation of Superman’s message. You are better then you think you are, and if you ever need someone there to tell you that Superman will be there. It’s a moment so simple and yet so powerful, a moment that has saved real peoples’ lives and represents what we all strive towards together. It is the belief in people, that is the core of DC’s humanistic message.