I can never find the full intro, so this not completely accurate. Still it’s kind of important for our open.
The New Adventures Of Mighty Mouse & Heckle & Jeckle was Filmation’s attempt at bringing back the two Terrytoons theatrical shorts. it’s also not to be confused with Ralph Bakshi’s Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, which also aired on CBS but in 1987. Heckle & Jeckle, the out of work magpies, were reimagined as bumbling detectives. A third segment featured Filmation original story Quackula, the tale of a vampire duck–long before Danger Mouse met Duckula–who for some reason spent every night trying to scare the bear who lives in the house Quackula’s egg coffin was kept in. Don’t worry, it wasn’t very memorable. The show aired on CBS in 1979.
Mighty Mouse was the star attraction here. Originally intended to be called Supermouse, I guess they heard about the Captain Marvel debacle and decided to change it to Mighty Mouse. There is one cartoon that left that has relics of that concept, with Mighty Mouse still wearing blue and signing his autograph as “Supermouse” despite being called Mighty Mouse. Terrytoons would revamp the concept a few times, the version Filmation was inspired by for their Mighty Mouse shorts were based on The Perils Of Pauline. It would feature future co-star Pearl Pureheart, a girl mouse and MM’s love interest, being threated by Oil Can Harry, your typical serial villain. Filmation would make a series of shorts with these three, giving Harry a mindless sidekick named Swifty, in unrelated stories where they almost seemed to be acting since the shorts took place sometimes in alternate time periods.
Filmation was also inspired by the serial format itself, as seen with their Flash Gordon series. The only recurring storyline was the serialized Mighty Mouse And The Great Space Chase. The story found space queen Pearl as the head of a galactic federation being menaced by Ming-type villain Harry The Heartless and Swifty. Each segment would end on a cliffhanger and if memory serves there would be two installments per episode. Filmation would collect these segments for a direct-to-video movie, something that has been done with other classic serials like Zombies Of The Stratosphere. Someone uploaded the VHS tape, which explains the static at one point, to YouTube so I get to introduce you to a big part of my childhood. Enjoy. I know I will.
How To Properly Satirize Superman
I have made my dislike of “evil Superman” stories clear: I am not a fan. It’s usually done by somebody who doesn’t get the character, is too cynical to believe someone with Superman’s powers wouldn’t kill and turn evil despite how many heroes are practically at Superman’s level in the DC and other universes with nobody complaining about how Captain Shazam isn’t evil, or characters like Marvel’s Guardian despite his changing sides depending who is on the Shi’Ar throne at any given moment. Nope, it’s just Superman they can’t believe, the “boy scout” who is kind, compassionate, and loves humanity.
Sucker, you better HOPE anyone with that level of power is more like Superman than Homelander. That’s how the fantasy works!
That’s not to say that you can’t tell a story that looks at someone with Superman’s powers and make an interesting story about someone without Clark’s morality, but you need that morality and Clark Kent/Superman himself as the template to base your hero on, especially if you ARE going with the moral superhero route. As proof I bring you the following video by Overly Sarcastic Productions, a channel I don’t usually follow but have seen videos for. I was pointed to this by a recent article by Caroline Furlong, so thanks for pointing out a new addition to my Defending Superman playlist over on my YouTube channel. Since I’m trying to get my schedule under control this admittedly long video (with some rather uneven swear censoring) is just what I needed.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on January 27, 2023 in DC Spotlight and tagged commentary, Superman.
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