REVIEW: Selling Superman

‘Selling Superman’ is a four part documentary which follows a story of son coming to terms with his fathers extensive comic book collection. Dale collected comic books to the point of it affecting his family and it wasn’t until after his death, they came to realise just how much his collection was worth.

This is a bit of a tragic story, dealing with their fathers undiagnosed Aspergers Syndrome and how it linked and affected him and his comic book collection. Watching this, you can come into the documentary in two ways… as a comic book collector or fan, or a general viewer. It is really thought provoking… it makes you think about how your hobbies or collections can affected others and even about what will happen to your collection when you pass. It also links collecting to being an addiction, which is a way I have never really thought about before, but it is totally true.

To be honest, as a comic book collector myself, I wasn’t sure how I felt watching this. On one hand you resonate with the family and how their lives were affected by this obsession and collection, but as a collector, some aspects of what was described sometimes made sense to me. Now of course, I do not know the full story behind what happened and what their lives were like, but that is how it came across in this documentary.

Within the documentary is a great breakdown on the history of comics, how the business has changed over the years in terms of style, how their success is linked to entertainment and everything in between. There are some noticeable spelling errors in the entertainment credits throughout though. The documentary also features industry professionals, fans and dealers, I have to say they were the highlight for me, seeing their take on this unique situation was interesting and their reactions to seeing or even hearing about the comic collection was just so genuine and heartwarming.

I also loved the way that the documentary is linked to Superman, that is a really nice tough and as a Superman fan, really showed the significance of this man’s collection. The documentary is shown well, the narration is relatable, comprehensive and interesting an though this is a documentary, the story telling is great. Though I cannot help but feel there are several aspects of drama thrown in that doesn’t feel necessary and sometimes feels out of place.

(6/10) Personally I think ‘Selling Superman’ is somewhat divisive, but worth a watch. It is entertaining and actually really interesting and I was quite hooked from the first episode. Like I said, there are some parts that I feel didn’t need to be included, which felt like it was just added for emotional and dramatic aspects. But if you are a comic book fan, this is a must watch docu-series that really makes you evaluate the worth and affect that collecting can have.

‘Selling Superman’ is available to watch right now on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Google Play.