Saturday, August 25, 2007

Building A Better Super Hero

Once a comic book geek always a comic book geek, I suppose.

Just today, I caught the newest episode of the Legion Of Super Heroes (on the new CW network) with my four-year-old son, Jaden. Although I'd seen some snippets of the show before, this was the first time I'd watched an entire show.

While this Legion's history and continuity is different than I recall and the heroes personalities have been ramped up to be cooler and hipper, I couldn't help but be mesmerized by the show. I loved it!

Even more than he did...

This is the kind of show I wished for back in the day.

Growing up in the 70s and early 80s, I longed for an animated TV show or movie that could come close to representing the action being illustrated in DC comics. A cartoon that could capture the darkness of Gotham, the evil of Sinestro and the sheer power of Superman without looking cheesy, or relying on comedy to conclude the plot.

Instead, I got Bat-Mite.

Each Saturday, I'd tune the electronic TV-antenna-turning-rotor to CBS and watch The New Adventures Of Batman. Mostly, though, the show was about Bat-Mite, an imp from another dimension who worshipped Batman.

Bat-Mite wanted to help Batman fight crime, but he always ended up causing problems that the Dynamic Duo had to clean up each week.

I hated it. But I settled for it each week. It was the only option I had.

Jaden doesn't realize how lucky he is!

3 comments:

primalscreamx said...

I did a little better. I got Flash Gordon, which was okay, but was moved around on the schedule constantly. There was also spiderman and his amazing friends, the hulk and spiderwoman, plus the dungeons and dragons cartoon, which was pretty wimpy.

larryosaurus said...

You DC guys got what you deserved...

Anyway, on Saturday mornings I liked me some Thundarr and the Spider Friends followed by some Kung-Fu theater at noon. And I actually liked D&D.... :D

Elvis Drinkmo said...

Yeah, Bat-Mite was a terrible addition to the Batman storyline. Did they really think so low of us when we were kids that we actually find that character entertaining.

My fondest DC cartoon memories were when Batman and Robin would show up on Scooby Doo. And I really did like the Superfriends (especially the ones with the Legion of Doom), but the Superfriends were nothing compared to the Justice League and the Justice League Unlimited shows on Cartoon Network.

You're right, kids don't know how good they got it. For us, cartoons were only on Saturday morning til about noon- now kids get them 24/7.