When it was first announced last year, the DC Universe app seemed like a dream come true for superhero fanatics. A dedicated streaming service with the best of DC's movies and TV projects, brand new DC shows and a robust comic book library? What's not to love?

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The Exclusive Shows

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The Classic DC Movies and TV

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The Comics

The Best Comics to Read on the DC Universe App 14 IMAGES

In execution, though, DC Universe hasn't quite lived up to that hype . The selection of classic material is a bit thin, and the slow roll-out of new series like Titans and Doom Patrol makes binge-watching a difficult proposition.The good news is that DC Universe has finally progressed to the point where the service justifies the price of a monthly subscription. Here's a look at how the service has improved over the last few months and why these exclusive shows are leading the charge.For most DC fans, the single biggest selling point for DC Universe has been the prospect of brand new TV series featuring iconic teams like the Titans and Doom Patrol. Unfortunately, when the service launched last September, it was a full month before Titans premiered, and months more before Young Justice: Outsiders and then Doom Patrol made their debuts. The service had very little new content to offer subscribers up front.Fortunately, that drought has ended. As of right now, subscribers can watch the full first season of Titans, the first half of Young Justice: Outsiders, and several episodes of Doom Patrol. That's still not much compared to what Netflix churns out in any given week, but at least DC has been taking a quality over quantity approach. Despite a weak season finale, Titans has proven to be a compelling, dark re-imagining of a classic team . Outsiders, meanwhile, shows that the Young Justice formula works even better when geared specifically toward an older audience New though it is, Doom Patrol may well be the single biggest selling point for DC Universe so far . This series is as dark and kooky as it is emotionally charged. It truly brings this oddball team to life, and rivals DC's Legends of Tomorrow as the best DC-themed TV series around. Even if you wait for the full season to air, Doom Patrol is well worth the $8 on its own.DC Universe definitely has work to do in terms of growing its pool of exclusive content. Luckily, subscribers can look forward to at least one new episode every week for the foreseeable future. There's more Titans and Young Justice on the way, as well as other new shows like Swamp Thing Stargirl , and a Harley Quinn animated series New content is all well and good, but sometimes you just want to kick back and re-watch a classic like The Dark Knight or Superman: The Movie. DC Universe has enough classic material that fans may want to subscribe just to binge some old favorites. The service has a solid and growing lineup of older material to satisfy that urge.The service has a lot of what fans would expect in the animated realm, including Batman: The Animated Series and pretty much every other branch of the DC Animated Universe, as well as Young Justice, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and many of DC's direct-to-video animated films. Even the old-school Superman movie serials are there.Things are still a bit sparse on the live-action front, unfortunately. DC Universe does play host to the original Christopher Reeve Superman film, Tim Burton's Batman and its sequels, the 1975 Wonder Woman series, and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. However, that leaves plenty of holes. There's still no Arrowverse content (unless you count Constantine), no Smallville, no Batman '66 and no DCEU movies. DC even recently removed Batman Begins and The Dark Knight from the lineup, eliminating two of the live-action movies subscribers would be most likely to want.Our hope is that DC Universe can continue to expand its classic live-action content, especially as DC's current streaming arrangements with Netflix lapse. But the takeaway right now is that you shouldn't subscribe if you're mainly interested in having access to DC's contemporary live-action movies and shows.DC's movies and shows all spring from the comic book source material, so it only makes sense that the streaming app would shine a spotlight on those comics. That alone was one of the more exciting elements of the service early on. At long last, DC might finally have its own answer to Marvel's very successful Digital Comics Unlimited service. Convincing would-be readers to pay one monthly fee for access to thousands of classic comics is a lot easier than asking them to head to a comic shop and pay $4 per book every week.Unfortunately, this is another area where the execution fell a little short when DC Universe first launched. While the initial library offered a smattering of classic comic book storylines, it was far from comprehensive. And even now, DC Universe's comic book selection falls well short of Marvel Unlimited. The good news is that the app has made major strides in this area recently. DC greatly expanded the comic lineup in January, with the promise of more additions to be made in the months to come.DC Universe's comic library may never grow to include every essential DC Comics story. That said, there is a wealth of content to dig through, much of it wisely geared toward the movie and TV content available on the service. These comics are a nice bonus for subscribers, if not necessarily the driving force of the app - and DC has proven that it's willing to listen to consumers and add titles that users are interested in, giving the service plenty of opportunities to grow.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter , or Kicksplode on MyIGN