DC Comics has officially unveiled its new streaming service called DC Universe during San Diego Comic-Con 2018. The service is set to launch this fall for $74.99/year. You can preorder a yearly subscription now, with monthly $7.99 subscriptions opening on launch day.
DC Universe is unlike anything we’re used to seeing from a streaming service. Such, it’s gonna come with lots of DC-branded television shows and movies, but it adds certain features that make it unique and stand out from the crowd, especially when compared to something like Netflix or Hulu.
According to DC, DC Universe will come with movies, TV, select comic books, news, merch, and an encyclopedia. The movies and TV stuff is typical, but it’s rare to see have comic books included in a content-focused streaming service. DC says around 2,000 to 3,000 titles will be available for browsing which can all be read on your phone, tablet, or even television set.
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As for the news, merch, and encyclopedia, these are basically a few enhancements to make the service more appealing to use. The news aspect will deliver alerts from top outlets to let you know of any major developments in the DC universe, the merch will be exclusive to DC Universe subscribers, and the encyclopedia will allow you to look up virtually anything about the universe and the characters within it.
This is all in an effort to build a community within the universe for fans to resort to and have relations with other folks with the same interest. To build a community in the service, DC says it’s tinkering with a few ideas such as shareable favorites lists, discussion forums, and encyclopedia entries that would allow users to take part in making the platform better as a whole. It’s unclear exactly what they have up their sleeves so we’ll have to wait it out until the service actually launches.
Of course, DC Universe is a streaming service at heart, and there’s plenty of television and movies to consume. The company will introduce five original series with the service, including Titans, Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, Young Justice: Outsiders, and Harley Quinn, while classic shows like Batman Beyond, Justice League the animated series, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold will also be available for streaming.
Movies like Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and the four Christopher Reeve Superman films will also be available to stream as a part of DC Universe. Meanwhile, recent titles like Man of Steel, Justice League, and Wonder Woman along with select recent TV shows will be available for rent and purchase. I’m not sure why, but that’s just the way it is.
As previously announced by the company, DC Universe will be available on platforms including iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, and the web. It remains unknown when the service will formally launch, but we’ll let you know when it does.
