The Fire and Water Podcast Presents: THE POWER RECORDS PODCAST, Episode 2: Christmas With The Superheroes
It's Christmas time at The Power Records Podcast! Rob is joined by guest co-host Michael Bailey to talk about three holiday adventures: Superman in "Light Up The Tree, Mr. President", Wonder Woman in "The Prisoner of Christmas Island", and Batman in "The Christmas Carol Caper." We wrap up with Listener Feedback!
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Opening and closing themes courtesy Peter Pan Records
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3 comments:
My podcast Christmas wish came true! Thanks for doing the show guys.; I really dig these.
Man, that was a lot of fun. Since I knew this was coming, I pulled the album out and listened to it this weekend. I actually had the 45 single version of the Superman tale as a kid. I was too young to understand the rather weighty plot involving WWIII, but the little girl saying "Will it light up the whole world, Daddy?" over and over again has sure stuck with me!
The Wonder Woman story seems to be a sequel to the WW story on the Justice League album that also had Aquaman, Flash, Plastic Man and Metamorpho. I believe Brunnhilde was the villianess there as well.
Like Michael, I'm a HUGE fan of that classic DCCP Superman/Santa team-up, and even read it to my daughter last week, in true Power Records fashion with bad voices, etc. I don't mind my heroes meeting Santa, but that may be because of all the comic covers I had as a kid where he was obviously chummy with them anyway!
The Batman story...WOW. I had forgotten how thoroughly...ODD this story was. Most of Power Records Batman output had a very authentic Bronze Age feel to it. You could imagine those stories in a Batman or Detective issue of the time. Not this one. I think Adam West may have even balked at this script as being TOO campy. I don't agree with the overly-obsessed, socially maladjusted Batman of the past 20 years or so, but I think this version goes a bit too far in the other direction. It is fun in it's utter ridiculousness,though.
Merry Christmas!
Chris
Missing the second show? Does Earth 2 Chris think he's Carson now?
I was surprised by how much I liked “Light Up The Tree, Mr. President.” I didn't own any Superman Power Records because they struck me as boring, but this story grabbed me. The voice talents here were aces (well, except Lois,) the subject matter surprisingly intense, and I loved the part where they sampled "Peace, Little Girl" from Lyndon Johnson's campaign against Goldwater.
People too often forget how closely associated Wonder Woman was with World War II, and the loss of Nazis in the modern era hit her rogues gallery hard. The evil Teutonic goddess Brunhilde was introduced in a 1966 45rpm, and was still avenging Germany's defeats in global conflicts decades after the last one. I talked about "The Return of Brunhilde" here, and it's funny that she should be revived by Power Records eleven years later instead of introducing a new villainess. Wonder Woman is like DC's Captain America, and she needs an absolute, inarguable evil to battle. The concept gets muddied and confused when more specific and polarizing politics come into play, where the characters are meant to be of generalized positive orientation for universal appeal.
The voice acting was much, much better in 1966, where here the ladies sound like an SNL parody of a Massengill commercial. "Mother, what do you do when you get that 'not so Aryan' feeling?" On the other hand, let's put some Mars God of War in Shag's pipe and make him smoke it! The story is also much improved from the Steve Trevor buffoonery of yesteryear.
“The Prisoner of Christmas Island” showcases a much missed Amazing Amazon making use of her tiara and invisible robot plane. In this way, she bridges the gap between Superman and Batman, where she's spent to many years Post-Crisis as a themed variation on Supergirl instead. Santa Claus didn't get enough action in this team-up though, and I really needed him to visit the inconsolable orphan because that actress sold that so hard it hurt. I'm surprised you guys forgot to mention the part where Wonder Woman endeadens the Nazis as part of her Christmas cheer. Maybe Diana was on loan to the Mossad? Somehow, Rob didn't reference Captain Lance Murdock.
My new porn name is "Rodney Dewgood."
You know what happens when Rob compiles the comments? He misses mine, not that I make it easy for him.
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