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Post by badwolf on Feb 12, 2019 14:16:00 GMT -5
When did Martian Manhunter go from being drawn as a green, bald human to his more alien, heavy-browed look, and was there an in-story explanation?
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Post by rberman on Feb 12, 2019 14:24:23 GMT -5
When did Martian Manhunter go from being drawn as a green, bald human to his more alien, heavy-browed look, and was there an in-story explanation? He had the heavy brow in his debut in Detective Comics #225, so he must have lost it for a while.
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 12, 2019 14:41:00 GMT -5
JLA #117 “I Have No Wings, and I Must Fly!” (April 1975) Why is Superman leaning so far forward? Is Atom doing some kind of groin stretches? What's up with Batman's short arm? And where on his hip is his fist resting? Are they standing on ice? Is there a source of light somewhere or is this the shadowless room on the JLA satellite? Lucky the satellite has a private dancer room curtained off, too. And that dialogue... Jeez. "He made it before... He can do it again." Who put you in charge, Flash? "Who is he?" Really? Some detective you are, Ralph. And of course Mr. Hard-ass Batman has to weigh in with a pound of judgmental self-importance. Were we supposed to be guessing which former JLA member's was returning? There was no one else this could have been but Hawkman despite the cheesy attempt to fudge on his silhouette. Big frikkin' surprise. Yet another horrible cover by Mike Grell. (It was only his second cover for DC.) Great Colletta's Ghost, couldn't someone have given the kid a hand here?
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Post by rberman on Feb 12, 2019 15:05:34 GMT -5
JLA #117 “I Have No Wings, and I Must Fly!” (April 1975) Were we supposed to be guessing which former JLA member's was returning? There was no one else this could have been but Hawkman despite the cheesy attempt to fudge on his silhouette. Big frikkin' surprise. As an extra dollop of non-suspense, Hawkman appeared in the final panel of the previous issue, written by Bates. This was clearly one of those covers that had to be done before the story was written. The actual story inside ("Why is Hawkman attacking the JLA and stealing their powers???") would have made a far more compelling cover.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2019 15:54:09 GMT -5
Good points ... rberman and I can see why it is.
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Post by zaku on Feb 12, 2019 17:20:04 GMT -5
... I never read JLA comics of that era, but I have to say that the tone seems quite, err, "different" from the Avengers of the same period... You could say that again. I don't think that the JLA ever reached it's potential until Grant Morrison came along and made them all awesome. Well, I liked the K.Giffen & DeMatteis's JLA too, but you are right. Only with Morrison the JLA became really epic.
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Post by tarkintino on Feb 13, 2019 5:18:31 GMT -5
Yet another horrible cover by Mike Grell. (It was only his second cover for DC.) Great Colletta's Ghost, couldn't someone have given the kid a hand here? Wait--at least with Grell, this cod be considered an odd one-off cover considering the work he was doing on Superboy starring The Legion of Super Heroes at the same time . Wait a second, you have seen the interiors since '68, right?
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 13, 2019 7:25:15 GMT -5
Many Grell covers featured wonky anatomy. Even his Sable work was weird at times.
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Post by tarkintino on Feb 13, 2019 7:25:40 GMT -5
That's 2 straight years of full network runs, with the same episode set. Most shows were 16 half hour episodes, with maybe an additional quantity commissioned for the next year (like the original Scooby Doo). ABC had paid for two ears worth of tv, in one go, by buying the hour series. They ran it for 2 years. The Super-Friends was cancelled after a single seasonof 16 shows, and unlike The New Scooby-Doo Movies or Filmation's Star Trek--both earning a 2nd season of a handful of new shows padded out with 1st season reruns, the Super Friends was cancelled outright. Rerunning it was an inexpensive alternative to a greater investment on the network's part as there was an obvious cost for their side, too. This is not even a case where an older, successful series was added to support a new one (e.g., 1976's Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle added to 1978's Tarzan and the Super Seven, or 1969's Scooby-Doo Where Are You? added to 1976's The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour). The aforementioned most glaring evidence of the Super Friend's failure was the historical fact of successful TV series never being cancelled, out of production for years, then heavily retooled, almost as if it was another series altogether. The one example mentioned earlier-- A Different World--was such a massive hit in its first year, that Cosby/Carsey-Werner/NBC did not cancel it / take it out of production, but made a major retooling of the post Lisa Bonet season. Again, in the case of the Super Friends' 1973-74 season, it was not renewed, put on hiatus (e.g., for a hypothetical retooling in 1974) or anything else--it was officially cancelled. There's a reason for that, but its not a stretch to conclude it took the attention/success of The Six Million Dollar Man, and Wonder Woman (both ABC series in the time period in question ) to convince ABC try an adapted superhero cartoon again, only it would play closer to its source to avoid a repeat of everything that torpedoed that original version.
...but there was no official, produced "second season," but merely a rerun, truncated version.
I've never viewed any source saying the single season, 1973-74 Super Friends had great ratings, but instead was undeniably a failed, cancelled series. 1977's All-New Super Friends Hour is referred to as a retooling, but it may as well be seen as the start of the proper Super Friends TV series, as it laid down plotting templates that would be used in nearly every version that followed it (with the exception of The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians from 1985-86), while no other series repeated any of that 1973-74 season's plot/format. As mentioned yesterday, I will eventually dig into storage for my old Daily Variety copies, which did run ratings/assessments of TV cartoons, and from memory, the Super Friends was listed as a poor performer, hence its cancellation.
Filmation's Star Trek (NBC, 1973-74) did show characters performing violence such as flying kicks into other characters, people shot by Phasers or other gun-like weapons, and even the unambiguous destruction of a ship full of living beings ( "The Pirates of Orion") or a planet-side group ( "The Slaver Weapon").
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 13, 2019 8:10:32 GMT -5
There had to be a point where the networks relaxed the violence restriction. I think I remember there being punches thrown years after Superfriends.
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Post by rberman on Feb 13, 2019 8:12:38 GMT -5
JLA #118 “Takeover of the Earth-Masters!” (May 1975)Creative Team: Written by Elliot S! Maggin. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: Hundreds of glowing pink polyps fall from the sky, coalescing into a vaguely humanoid shape. They can adapt to any threat, even generating Kryptonite rays to fell Superman. These polyps were sent by benign aliens who were under the mistaken impression that the JLA were attacking Earth and needed defeating. The polyps set themselves up for showdowns in “three different corners of the globe” (don’t think too hard about that mixed image), so it’s squad-time for the JLA. In a change from the usual, each squad loses their contest against the super-adapting polyps and must flee back to the JLA Satellite. Worse yet, Hawkman has abandoned the team and returned to Thanagar. Why did he do that? My Two Cents: I was bracing myself for another rote “JLA squads fill pages and win the day piecemeal,” so their defeat was a nice change of pace from the usual, setting up a cliffhanger for the next issue. I see that Aquaman can explicitly command amphibians and reptiles now as well as fish. Good to know! Black Canary doesn’t use her scream power, but she does make a “Sonic Whammy” by striking the ocean. Next issue, her scream is called a “Sonic Whammy” as well. It's been quite a while since we've seen her use this new power, but she appears to have it completely under control now. It’s a nice nod to real science that the radio astronomer who made contact with the aliens was “Doctor Hubble.”
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 13, 2019 8:18:05 GMT -5
Even in 1975 the writers were " making stuff up", Aquaman can control lizards? Someone owes Stan Lee an apology for playing fast and loose with characters powers at the start of Marvel comics.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 13, 2019 11:06:04 GMT -5
There had to be a point where the networks relaxed the violence restriction. I think I remember there being punches thrown years after Superfriends. By the 90s you have more relaxed standards, especially Fox. Batman TAS had it far easier than the Super Friends. Bruce Timm spoke in interviews, comparing the restrictions during Galactic Guardians and BTAS. However, they still had some. Early on, they couldn't show breaking glass, syringes, knives and use of firearms was mostly limited to tommy guns, with handguns being used sparingly (with the idea that children were more likely to get ahold of a handgun than a submachine gun). Some of that was relaxed as the series progressed, though not all. Timm spoke of negotiating some things, trading off far less violent episodes for the heavier ones. He said Fox was more willing to work with them than ABC had been. He even did a cartoon, encapsulating everything banned, including a topless Catwoman. {Spoiler}
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 13, 2019 11:16:33 GMT -5
Ha. Excellent .
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 13, 2019 11:17:19 GMT -5
Yet another horrible cover by Mike Grell. (It was only his second cover for DC.) Great Colletta's Ghost, couldn't someone have given the kid a hand here? Wait--at least with Grell, this cod be considered an odd one-off cover considering the work he was doing on Superboy starring The Legion of Super Heroes at the same time . Wait a second, you have seen the interiors since '68, right? Not sure what you mean here. Grell didn't start till the mid-70s. But yes, I saw his work on Warlord and Legion in particular. I think he showered much more attention on the former, probably b/c it was his baby. It was good, but to me, even at his best, Grell was trying to look like Adams and not quite getting there. More flash than draftsmanship. Never cared for his Legion work. His lack of command of anatomy kept getting in the way of his storytelling, IYAM. I wonder if a solid inker would have helped him.
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