Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics

00:00:36 ADAMS: Comic books are the dreams and aspirations of human beings.

00:04:20 They were pornography by the standards of the '30s. Donenfeld almost went to jail.

00:08:04 ...science-fiction-type things.

00:12:01 WAID: There was never anything like it. There was that Supermania...

00:15:36 WAID: I can probably count on the fingers of one hand...

00:19:10 Wonder Woman.

00:23:08 NARRATOR: Here comes The Flash, the fastest man alive.

00:26:44 WAID: They were ambitious beyond belief.

00:30:35 The DC characters had all this might and all this energy...

00:34:19 It was a cultural revolution.

00:38:07 In the '50s, Superman could represent the men who were home from the war...

00:41:36 And he sees it falling in slow motion...

00:45:02 JONES: When he really took command of Superman in the late '50s...

00:48:53 We were happy if we were wearing socks that particular day.

00:52:23 Big changes in America.

00:56:05 ...to bring back the strong female role model she grew up idolizing...

00:59:48 He's got the kind of maturity, or innocence, really...

01:03:19 ...Miller moved to New York City's Hell's Kitchen as a teenager...

01:06:51 The most important thing that you have to understand about Alan Moore...

01:09:47 And he'd say, "Wow, you know, this is a literary work."

01:13:28 I'm not sure a modern reader would understand that he was human.

01:17:17 They bury these little things kind of symbolically.

01:21:15 You know, that were not really heroes at all.

01:24:48 FAN: I really feel like I grew up with these people around me.