BACK ISSUE NO. 30 - TV SUPERHEROES SPECIAL

Back Issue magazine number 30, from TwoMorrows Publishing, will undoubtedly appeal to Justice League fans as the issue is devoted to television superheroes. Kicking things off is an in depth look at Captain Marvel (as in Shazam!), starting with a look back at DC's 1970s revival of the character. This is followed by a look at an unpublished Captain Thunder story (the thinly veiled version of the good Captain who went up against Superman in Action Comics #576. Which in turn leads into one-on-one interviews with the two actors to play Captain Marvel in the Saturday morning Shazam! television series, Jackson Bostwicke and John Davey.
   ABC's 1970s version of the Justice League -- in the form of Super Friends -- is next, getting 14 pages of coverage and looking at the show from the point of view of a Hanna-Barbera (the animation company that produced the series, along with numerous others) employee, as well as from DC Comics' perspective in terms of titles based on or influenced by the series. Then there are photos and discussions of an unproduced "fourth wave" of the "Super Powers" action figures -- featuring characters from the show.
   Marv Wolfman actually pens a retrospective look back at the 1988 Superman animated series from Ruby-Spears that he produced. "I suggested the title The Adventures of Superman, based on the original live-action show I had watched as a kid," Wolfman revealed. "That show was the reason I got into comics in the first place. I also suggested using the opening from the TV show (and radio show): 'Look! Up in the sky!' etc... but set to the John Williams Superman movie score. The best of all possible worlds."
   To give an idea of the kind of stories he relates, Wolfman discusses the writing of the show's pilot episode. "I had a big scene at the end where Superman, using all his powers, smashes through a series of attacking giant robots, destorying them in a big scene. This was back in '88 or so and unlike these days, fighting on cartoon shows was not permitted by any of the networks. In fact, one character aggressively touching another was forbidden. S&P [Standards & Practices] said we had to change the ending. Superman, they said, can't destroy the robots because, and this is a direct quote, 'Even robots have souls.'" Yeesh! His retrospective spans three features and features storyboards and character model sheets.
   Other stories in the issue (with absolutely no connection to the Justice League) include a look back at the late Dave Stevens (The Rocketeer) and the Saturday morning cartoons Space Ghost and Astro Boy. To order this issue of Back Issue, go to TwoMorrows.com.

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To give an idea of the kind of stories he relates, Wolfman discusses the writing of the show's pilot episode.