The SUPER POWERS era was DC Comics when they were most iconic
With the coming Flash movies, DC Films is rumored to be restarting their entire universe. What that means for the Justice League as a franchise is still unknown. But perhaps the title “Justice League,” with all the drama and toxicity that has surrounded it for the past four years, should rest for a while. Meanwhile, there’s a great period from DC’s past that has the perfect feel for what DCEU should look like … and it’s just waiting to be exploited. We are talking about Superpowers toy, merchandise and cartoon branding from the mid 80’s.
DC Comics
From 1984 to around 1987 Super Powers Collection was a DC Comics line of action characters from Kenner Toys, home of Star wars. It featured the DC Heroes in their most iconic incarnations, where classic villains got cool new modern upgrades. Apart from the numbers, there was also a metric ton of merchandise. And the long lasting Super friends cartoon also got one Superpowers makeover. While the stories for Superpowers were simplified by modern standards, their colorful aesthetics and emphasis on fun adventures and pure heroism feel exactly like what the DCEU needs today. But before we get into how Superpowers can inspire the future, let’s take a deep dive into its history.
Genesis of Super Powers Collection
DC Comics
As utterly insane as it may seem today, in the 1970s, DC and Marvel shared an action figure line together. From 1972 to 1981, the company released Mego That The word’s greatest superhero 8 ”figure line. The line featured characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and Avengers, who shared space together on the toy store shelves, not to mention commercials on TV. The line was extremely successful, but eventually Mego hit a tough financial patch. In 1982, the company went bankrupt.
At the same time, the action figure market exploded thanks to Kenner’s success Star wars. As a result of Mego’s dissolution, DC and Marvel became separate licenses. Marvel eventually went to Mattel, where the heroes populate Secret wars line of figures. But Mattel was focused on their mega-success The masters of the universe toys and so on Secret wars slightly as a result. The first Secret wars wave sold poorly. It received a minor second wave and then disappeared from the toy shelves.
DC Comics
Meanwhile, Kenner Toys acquired the DC license in 1983. This is right as theirs Star wars line of figures was winding down after the release of The return of the Jedi. This allowed them to focus properly on their new series of DC heroes. Instead of calling the line Justice League (or Super friends, like the popular cartoon), Kenner went by the name Super Powers Collection. This name was meant to trigger young boys’ power fantasies, and it worked. The fact that each character had a “power action” feature – like hitting (Superman) or running (Flash) – was also great for playability. Marvel could have had far more success in comic book sales than DC at the time, however Superpowers totally confused Secret wars.
DC’s Heroes at their most iconic
DC Comics
Superpowers’ first wave of characters featured the world-famous line-up of JLA characters. It included Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman. Opposite them were the arch-villains Lex Luthor, the Joker, Brainiac and Penguin. The artwork for the packaging was mainly from the famous cartoonist José Luis GarcÃa-López. In fact, most Superpowers the artwork is directly from GarcÃa-López’s official DC Comics Style Guide.
Warner Bros. Animation
The first wave was a great success. Year two saw a wave that added even more iconic DC heroes, as well as Darkseid. All the New Gods characters became the primary villains of the DC heroes. Their creator, the legendary Jack Kirby, was hired to redesign them for the toy and product line. The second wave also saw the release of the Hall of Justice play set, which was based on JLA’s headquarters from Super friends cartoon series. The same cartoon series got a rebranding associated with the toy. So many key elements from DC’s history in comics and television came together perfectly into a product line that celebrated all the appeal of these enduring characters.
DC Comics
Superpowers was bright and vibrant with clear heroes and villains. Since the characters’ appearance was straight from the DC Style Guide, all the heroes appeared like their most famous incarnations from decades of comics. Superpowers was the overall DC product branding for three years, and was everywhere from packed lunches to pajamas to school supplies. Book and record sets, coloring books, stickers, “Choose your own adventure” style novels and literally dozens of other products came later. If you were a kid in the 80s, chances are Superpowers was your introduction to DC’s characters.
Superpowers Decline
DC Comics
Most action figure lines back in the 80s lasted max a few years. Long lines like GI Joe and Transform were deviants. Even though The masters of the universe, a billion mark, lasted only five years. Superpowers lasted three, which is not bad at all. They could have lasted longer, but they made some important mistakes. To begin with, they had only one female character across the board: Wonder Woman. And they saved her pretty much when she did not appear in any ads for the toy.
When they managed to wave three, Kenner started making characters in whole fabric, like Golden Pharaoh and Cyclotron. This was instead to include famous female heroes from the comics, such as Black Canary, Supergirl, Batgirl or Catwoman. Interestingly, the female characters appeared in Superpowers merch regardless. But the sexist attitudes of the time allowed only one girl in the boys’ club at a time. With several bad choices for characters in the last wave and no new comic book episodes to support the line, Super Powers Collection disappeared from the toy shelves in 1987.
The legacy of Superpowers
DC Comics
Despite only a few years on the market, Superpowers has had a long-lasting effect on the DC brand. DC Comics updated their popular heroes after the 1985 event Crisis on infinite lands, but the classic look of the characters from Superpowers era continued to appear on random items for decades. Heck, if you walk into a big chain store right now, chances are you can find a T-shirt with Superpowers repetitions of the Justice League and the old starburst logo.
DC released three Superpowers also associated comics, where Jack Kirby himself delivers works of art. It was the only time Kirby ever drew the Justice League characters in her entire career. The comics showed Darkseid as JLA’s primary antagonist. Although Lord of Apokolips has fought against the JLA a few times before, that was it Superpowers who solidified the character as the “big bad” of DC’s primary heroes. This would seep into mainstream comics and ultimately future animated series and live-action movies. DC could have tried to become more edgi as the years went by, but the impact of Superpowers’ straightforward all ages aesthetics were hard to escape.
The plan for one Justice League Restart
DC Comics
So how could this relic of a bygone era inform the modern DC movies? It’s not a single story from a comic or comic (which, to be fair, was aimed at young children). It is the overall positive and colorful mood that Superpowers creates. The heroes and villains are well-defined. The good guys are colorful and hopeful; and the villains just look cool. And most importantly, for anything based on DC heroes, kids can enjoy it. This is crucial.
Instead of calling a future movie Justice League II, why not just call it Superpowers? Use as much of the line’s iconography as possible without falling into camp. If Marvel Studios can juggle the number of characters Infinity War and Playoffs did, why can there not be one Superpowers movies showing JLA versus Legion of Doom and Darkseid? The living branding and aesthetics of Superpowers once sold millions of toys. Do not tell us anything that is inspired by the fact that it can not sell a movie.
DC Comics
No matter what Warner Bros. and DC decides to do next time, looking Superpowers for inspiration is perhaps the best way to give live-action Justice League a shiny new life. The classic line of toys and merch is still loved for very good reasons. And as an antidote to all the darkness in the world, maybe what we need is a small clean dose of Superpowers truth and justice right now.
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