Super Powers in DCUC!

[John Moores]

Also, I think the first two series, as I said perhaps before, predate Batman And The Outsiders #1 and New Teen Titans #38, and so are kind of set in that 1983 era.
Third series has no Flash because he's on trial.

[Gardner Grayle]

Just looked at Jason's site and did a quick count.  There are a potencial total of 59 characters executed or planned for Super Powers.  44 have been done in some form leaving 15 to be done.  These are the characters that have not been done or announced:

Super Friends Related

Samurai
El Dorado
Black Vulcan

DCU Characters

Shockwave
Mr. Mxyzptlk
Reverse Flash
Simonson Manhunter
Atomic Knight
Black Racer
Manhawk(?)

"Concept Characters"

Silicon
Quadrex
Rocketman
Executioner
Howizer

So lets see what this weekend brings.   

[Doghouse Reilly]

If you could get to it, it'd rock like fuck.

I'll give it a go this weekend. I need to find a torrent of the comics since my scanner is FUBAR, and this will definitely need some images. Volume 2, issue 6 alone is a goddamn gold mine of kinetic Kirby krazy.

I'm certainly going to bounce some questions your way about potential continuity snags, so fair warning. 

[John Moores]

I stand ready!

[Doghouse Reilly]

Still getting my research together. This Toy Fair nonsense was a bit of a distraction this weekend.

[John Moores]

You know, I am an absolute useless shit about getting stuff like this done, but I'm thinking it would be awfully nifty to do a review/examination-type thing of the three Super Powers minis. The second series especially deserves more notice; it's King Kirby drawing the fuck out of a bunch of DC heroes fighting his personal pantheon of villains.

Any chance of this happening now?

[JSayonara]

I'll give it a go this weekend. I need to find a torrent of the comics since my scanner is FUBAR, and this will definitely need some images. Volume 2, issue 6 alone is a goddamn gold mine of kinetic Kirby krazy.

I'm certainly going to bounce some questions your way about potential continuity snags, so fair warning. 

I have those issues.
If this happens, I'll happily provide the images.

[Doghouse Reilly]

Any chance of this happening now?

I dunno, I think I need to procrastinate a little more. It's only been about a year and a half... 

Pretty sure I did download the issues and have them on file somewhere (I don't have a comic book collection anymore). Dammit John, you've reminded me how much I hate that these are overlooked. The irony of CriticalMess doing a Super Powers feature is pretty darn sweet as well. 

Maybe this can happen.

I have those issues.
If this happens, I'll happily provide the images.

Thankya kindly, sir, but I should be able to get images out of the torrent. I think there's a screengrab function in the reader.

[Rocko]

I can help.

I want nothing at all to do with the third one, but the first and second are essentially Jack ending the story of Darkseid. If you read the New Gods and then Hunger Dogs, you see what becomes of Orion, but not Darkseid. What happens to Darkseid is that the Justice League have to deal with him, and deal they do.

I don't know why so few people get that.

Actually, I take that back, I do know. It's because people see the title and say "Oh, it was just some out of continuity tie-in" because they figure that somehow Jack gave a fuck about any of that shit. No, this was his last chance to party with Apokolips and he knew it, you read all that shit together and it flows like a river.

Super Powers as an overall property involved Kirby doing some of his only DC work, Garcia Lopez getting his stuff out there in a massive way, the absolute best action figure sculpts of the time with a marked unwillingness to cheap out, no useless variants, and they at least tried to innovate with some new characters. Anybody that can't comprehend that, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you weren't paying attention.

While I'm on the motherfucking subject, I'll tell you what I'm encountering as I get older myself. I'm liking the things I grew up with more and the things that have been made more recently less. I doffed most of my 90s-now collection and now display mostly vintage. They have a charm that cannot be improved upon by fine details provided by Chinese labor and extreme articulation that make them look like marionettes. What DCD and DCUC stuff I have is mostly in storage, as are most of my MLs, and this is after I sold a ton of all of those. 

What remains are Super Powers, Secret Wars, Megos, Marx, paper airplane type shit from the 40s, the kind of thing that's got some real character on it, that reminds me why I liked all this dumb shit in the first place. things I missed because I was born to late gets some space with things like the Captain Action repros that I luckily got off my high horse about. Yeah, Cap's head is real big, and no, he doesn't look like a shrunken corpse of Chris Evans.

[Doghouse Reilly]

Aw fuck, John and Rocko... I'm actually going to have to do this now.

[SDcomics]

the absolute best action figure sculpts of the time with a marked unwillingness to cheap out,

Well, see, you just said it.  "of the time".  They looked ugly to me when I fist saw them, and they've gotten uglier with age.

no useless variants,

Just useless "action features".

and they at least tried to innovate with some new characters.

So many DC characters they had to choose from.  Vigilante, Hourman, Blue Beetle, Zatanna, and on and on.  Cyclotron?  Golden fucked up Phailure?  What? The? Fuck?

Anybody that can't comprehend that, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you weren't paying attention.

Or ... maybe I'm just not looking at that shit through the rose colored glasses of a five year old.  I was well into my 20's when Super Powers came out.  They were crap then, and they look even worse now.

Mike
(Sorry, but there are certain things that some people go nuts over that I'll just never get.  And Super Powers is one of them.)

[John Moores]

I'm far from nuts over the toys, but I don't think the minis being in Earth-One continuity (even the third one, because how important are Cyclotron and co. anyway? - which is like, three continuities ago anyway, is a bad thing. Or an important one.

[ThrillHo]

Well, see, you just said it.  "of the time".  They looked ugly to me when I fist saw them, and they've gotten uglier with age.

Just useless "action features".

So many DC characters they had to choose from.  Vigilante, Hourman, Blue Beetle, Zatanna, and on and on.  Cyclotron?  Golden fucked up Phailure?  What? The? Fuck?

Or ... maybe I'm just not looking at that shit through the rose colored glasses of a five year old.  I was well into my 20's when Super Powers came out.  They were crap then, and they look even worse now.

Mike
(Sorry, but there are certain things that some people go nuts over that I'll just never get.  And Super Powers is one of them.)

but the capes tasted good and had that fun plastic clip to keep them on their necks.

 

[Rocko]

I'll never understand that level of bile over toys (which were made for kids) in the likeness of superheroes (which were made for kids). I don't think "of the time" or "rosey glasses of a five year old" are negatives. I don't know what's to be achieved by telling someone "Hey, your childhood toys that your fond of were shitty."

But this conversation has been had many times, obviously.

Whatever energy I would care to further expend on the matter would be on the comics Doghouse brought up. Now those, those haven't been thoroughly abused and maligned enough yet.

[SDcomics]

I'll never understand that level of bile over toys (which were made for kids) in the likeness of superheroes (which were made for kids). I don't think "of the time" or "rosey glasses of a five year old" are negatives. I don't know what's to be achieved by telling someone "Hey, your childhood toys that your fond of were shitty."

But this conversation has been had many times, obviously.

Hey, if you like Super Powers, then you like 'em. That's fine.  I probably would have just let the whole thing go, but it was the "Maybe you weren't paying attention" part that made me respond.

Nine Questions with the men of Sequart

A Sequel Soliloquy: Scot Eric's Top Twelve #2's of All Time

The Golden Age Blog - Flash 11-20!

American Comics: The Illusion of Change

The Golden Age Blog - Flash 1-10!

CriticalMess interviews writer Steve Bryant!

Mess member Jim Beard helms new Batman TV book!!

Nine Questions with Pamela Des Barres

Advanced search