#65 Defenders
This issue featured “B-team” superhero teams, such as the Defenders, the Champions, the Guardians of the Galaxy (this was pre movie release), the Doom Patrol, Titians West, the Inhumans, X-Factor, and the Legion of Substitute Heroes.
The Defenders article was very comprehensive about the 80’s comic. I’d read a few of those. This will make you want to read more. The Champions were bad enough that they fought Godzilla for some publicity. (This was back when Marvel had that license. Some of those Godzilla comics were great.) The Guardians article covered the original 70’s version, the 90’s reboot, and then the 2000’s version that the movies would be loosely based on. (That 90’s version looked really over-the-top. I’d like to see some of those.)
The different versions of the Doom Patrol are covered over several articles. One of the creators did comment on the similarities between his group and the X-Men at Marvel. Both came out within a couple of months of each. He thought it was possible that Marvel “borrowed” the idea, but nobody has admitted to it. The other “loser” groups are covered in less detail. The Inhumans may have been the worst. Their more recent series have been only used for social commentary. I did have the Legion of Substitute Heroes Special from the 80’s. It was hysterical.
#99 Batman the Animated Series
This was pretty informative about the creation of Batman the Animated Series. Wow did they come close to completely screwing this show up. Just to be brutally honest, a couple of women on the staff might have made this show worse than the Superfriends. They left and admitted the boys did a better job without them. (One went on to work on Captain Planet, if that gives you any enlightenment.) Disaster averted. One different path was taken in production. Tim Curry was the original voice of the Joker. Mark Hamill, working on a smaller part for the show, was auditioned when Tim didn’t work out.
There was also an interesting origin for Harley Quinn, a character who is today, mostly not interesting, just over-marketed. Writer Paul Dini was home sick and saw his college friend, Arleen Sorkin, dressed as a harlequin on a soap opera. There was your costume and your voice actor right there. Along with a long article on Harley Quinn, there’s an episode guide of the series and articles on the comics based on the show.
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