Super Powers Trilogy Volume 1: From Plastic to Pages

This week marks the first "event" posting I've done for the blog with a trilogy of epic proportions!  (Hey, I need a project like this to occupy my time!  In a day where I've added to my application rejection collection, and annoying phone calls from employment/education offers, I NEED targets like this to keep from crawling into a fetal position!)  So, as you all know, I'm rather sided towards the DC universe.  When I was growing up, action figures had well hit their prime with the smashing success of Mego's line, and Kenner's market-creating "Star Wars" line.  So DC decided to work a little bit of that magic for their own toy line, and thus was launched the much-fondly reflected "Super Powers" line.

Now to be fair, out of this first run of action figures, I've only ever owned the Brainiac figure.  (And those that remember that particular figure know that while it looked awesome, the kicking leg feature more often than not resulted in eventual limb loss for our robotized intergalactic master intelligence.)  But the toy line was one I always wanted to expand upon.  With the launch of the toy line in 1984, DC Comics decided the mini-comics included with the action figures wasn't enough product advertising. SO... They decided to take a page from the Marvel commercializing of their "G.I. Joe" and "Transformers" lines, and create a comic mini-series based off their own toy line... Which they already held the rights to!  And we welcomed to our spinner racks the first "Super Powers" comic mini-series.

Before I go into the mini-series, I wanted to give a plug to Rob Kelly and the "Irredeemable" Shagg's podcast "The Fire and Water Podcast", which can be found at the following link: Fire and Water Podcast.  Not only is the show exceedingly entertaining in all of its network of programs, but check out the archives for their "Super Powers" episodes, which cover the history of the figures, and comic line, far more in detail than I could!

The basic gist of this mini-series is on Apokolips, Darkseid... Er, kinda spoiler alert... has a gladiatorial contest to judge which four "Fairy Godfather Warriors" will make the trips to visit with four of Earth's most fiendish villains to grant them vast power to conquer their foes.  (Although the villains list seems to more stacked against Superman and Batman.  And really... as much as I like the Penguin, is he EVER going to be considered a "cosmic level" threat, even with super powers?)  Our first issue details our villains general schemes for their new powers: Lex Luthor plans on making himself even FASTER than Superman and the Flash combined, to challenge them.  Joker creates an insane reality to trap Batman, Robin, and Hawkman in.  Brainiac begins a campaign to influence Wonder Woman into a militant Amazon mentality, so that she can lead her Amazonian sisters into combat.  And Penguin... Well, he decides that Alfred Hitchcock had a great idea with that "Birds" movie of his, and commands the forces of flying nature.  I say general "flying nature", because apparently this includes flying fish, which of course means the involvement of Aquaman.  (I KNOW Green Lantern figures into this story, but I can't remember who his initial threat is.)

A fun fact about this series, and the general time period at DC, was this toy line was the first appearances of the new Luthor and Brainiac redesigns, which where handled by Ed Hannigan and George Perez.  To my eyes, these redesigns should've lasted FAR longer than they were given.  I mean, that Luthor power armor is synonymous to the character for my eyes!  And Brainiac has never looked more threatening than when he became a "Terminator" riff!  But as the series proceeds, our heroes manage to puzzle out the means to their... AKA Superman and Batman's... arch fiends.  And whenever a villain meets their defeat, their Apokoliptian "Fairy Gladiator Godfather" removes their cosmic power from their being.  I seem to recall Lex Luthor and Penguin falling fairly early in the game, with the Joker lasting right up until the midway point.

Fairing more successfully on his conquest rounds is Brainiac... but you have to give Brainiac some credit; instead of trying to engage the Super Powers team directly, like Luthor and Penguin attempted, his plotting with Wonder Woman and the Amazons allowed him the option to wage war against humanity at a safe distance!  So while the Amazonian army seeks to crush an island nation, most of our Super Powers team is free to attempt to stem the conquest tide.  However, at the conclusion of the midway point in the series, a wrench is thrown into peacekeeping efforts, in that Brainiac de-evolves Superman into becoming a savage Super Cro-Magnon!

With great effort... and a LOTTA combat, including Aquaman being given the short end of the heroic stick in this particular issue... the Super Powers team manages to quell Super CAAAAAVEMAAAAAN rage via a trick involving Green Lantern's power ring acting as a containment unit.  It's also in this penultimate issue that the Apokoliptian "Fairy Gladiator Godfathers" start getting into major trouble with their boss, revealed in this issue to be Darkseid.  (And also featured in this issue is Granny Goodness, looking surprisingly her most feminine in any comic portrayal to date!)  So the "Fairies" are blasted into oblivion for their efforts, and in the process, the villains and heroes are forced to unite against the greater threat that Darkseid represents, which then leads them to being Omega Beamed into another dimension, and our grand conclusion.

I'll be honest about this cover blurb: it is NOT "Final Combat with Darkseid".  That comes... eh... well, let's just say that saying ANYTHING is "final" in comics is rather doubtful unless your Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis, or James Robinson.  But for the time being for this mini-series, it is NOT the last time our heroes get to butt heads against Apokolips' Lord and Master.  But a special treat... and teaser for the next mini-series... awaits in this final issue, with the art chores being handled by Jack "King" Kirby, who snagged a sweet deal helping to develop aspects of the toy line, and redesigning some of his created characters for the toys/comics!  All you need to know for the moment is that the general balance of Good and Evil was restored by event's end.  But Darkseid would make his presence known in another "Super Powers" mini-series in 1985... Or by this blog's reckoning, tomorrow!  But in conclusion, the first "Super Powers" mini-series wasn't exactly what you consider a "stellar" event, but for a tie-in to a toy line, it still entertains, providing our available at stores everywhere heroes and villains a conflict, and the shadow of a grander threat to come... AKA A grander threat that will ALSO soon be available at your local stores!