Political Punch
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper
Jake Tapper is ABC News' Senior White House Correspondent based in the network's Washington bureau. He writes about politics and popular culture and covers a range of national stories.
RECENT POSTS
- Obama Team Hocks Obama-Themed Stocking Stuffers, Health Care Conversation
- Subversive Xmas Tree Ornament Won't Hang from White House Tree
- Obama to Nominate Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce
- Obama Attempts to Ease Governors' Economic Worries
- Charlie's Interview with President Bush
- Oh, That Joe! (No. 45 in a Series): The Loquacious Blue Hen is Gracious to the Spunky Maverick
- Louis Caldera to be Director of White House Military Office
- Obama Sits Down with State Guvs to Stem Economic Slowdown
- The Spectre of a Senator Chris Matthews (D-Penn.)
- Clinton On the Case
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
SuperLame
July 20, 2006 9:03 AM
Today at the the San Diego Comic-Convention the US Postal Service will introduce a series of stamps that pay homage to the superheroes of DC Comics.
While the stunningly uninteresting Superman had already merited a stamp eight years ago, this time he's accompanied by his Superfriends -- Aquaman, Batman, Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Plastic Man, Supergirl and Wonder Woman.
No stamps for any of the far superior heroes of rival Marvel Comics -- home of Spiderman, Daredevil, and the X-Men.
Paul Levitz, president of DC TOLD REPORTERS Superman and a few others were easy picks, "the debate was more sort of, do you do Aquaman or do you do Shazam? You could argue either side of that. We had a couple in that category."
They are equally lame, Aquaman and Shazam, so I could see why that would be a tough decision. What kind of a Superhero dies if he doesn't touch water every hour? As for Shazam, I always thought that was a spoof. Batman's cool, tho.
-- jt
July 20, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (2)
Wait, you mean, Vincent Chase is going to be on a stamp?
His Aquaman is much better than the real one.
Posted by: crazyvirgo | Jul 20, 2006 11:23:32 AM
I'm somewhat alarmed that you've set your characteristic journalistic impartiality aside when considering the DC Comics and Marvel Comics superheroes. But, quite frankly, I agree with you that the DC superheroes honored today tend to be SuperBland and SuperBoring, with a few exceptions like Batman, of course. The Marvel editors, writers, and artists gave superheroes the humanity and believability that the DC ones never really developed much. The DC people are still trying to be relevant by doing such things as reintroducing Batwoman as a lesbian, but I think that's more sensationalism than character development.
I would take exception to your comment that Shazam was supposed to be a spoof: it may be that way now, but it wasn't always. When the original Captain Marvel comics were published in the '30's and '40's by Fawcett, Captain Marvel was a formidable rival in sales to Superman. However, Fawcett stopped publishing the comic in the early '50's due to a lawsuit DC brought against it for copyright infringement. DC later acquired the rights to Captain Marvel in the '70's, but didn't have the exclusive rights to the name. DC decided to publish Captain Marvel as "Shazam!" and dumbed down the storylines significantly. As a result, "Shazam!" now seems like the cheesy, unbelievable spoof it has become.
Posted by: chuck | Jul 20, 2006 9:57:37 AM
Post a comment
