Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Animated World of DC Comics: Night of the Living Shadows (1988)

The Shadow-Thief is one of Hawkman's enemies, not Superman, but that didn't seem to matter to writer Buzz Dixon, who penned the episode, "Night of the Living Shadows", the next to last episode of the 1988 series.

Lex Luthor (Michael Bell) has developed his own shadow-suit, and created a line for a gang of thugs. Of course, with his new image as a millionaire businessman-philanthropist, Luthor can't be linked to the crimes publicly, as you'll see. Lois Lane goes undercover, and, well, chaos ensues soon after.

A Superman Family Album short follows.



Now, Lois does look kind of fetching in a shadow-suit, doesn't she? Too bad the series was cancelled, else we might've gotten a sequel, even though Luthor destroyed his suit......

Rating: A+.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

This was a good show! This (along with the failed Batman pilot, "The Fear") really could have changed Saturday mornings for superheroes! Too bad the suits at the time didn't want to take the risk.

I did think it was a mistake casting Mike Bell as Lex Luthor. Although he was a great VA, I often associated him with voicing
good guys and it didn't seem right to hear him voicing a villian. Not to mention it was weird seeing Lex rob jewelry store. The Luthor of today would think that was beneath him - suit or no.


Also a nice (if familiar touch) having Bill Woodson narrate and read the original narrative from the 50s Superman series. In the last Superman movie (no, I don't acknowledge it!) they left out "...and the American Way", which I think is Super blasphemy!

hobbyfan said...

We disagree on Michael Bell as Lex Luthor. I think Bell was using Larry Hagman (JR Ewing on Dallas) as a template for Luthor, which was easy to do since Bell actually was on Dallas for a bit around '81 (post-"Who Shot JR?") as a lawyer working for Ewing, IIRC.

I think this series was the last job Bill Woodson had for Ruby-Spears, though I could be wrong, as he was also the announcer for Centurions at least, and that was 2 years earlier.