Winslow Schott, the original Toyman, has retired and reformed, but this new Toyman is defiling the brand, as it were, so Schott decides to teach him a thing or two...
Wow. You know, I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Superman has the lamest Rogue's Gallery around!No wonder they keep going back to Luthor for the movies...
Of course (SPOILER ALERT), Schott hadn't really turned back to evil...he was just helping out Superman as part of a clever ploy.
Yet just two years later, in 1976, Schott would go back to being a villain, and murder the Jack Nimball Toyman so he alone could have the title. Yes, he murdered him. Just in case you believe everything was sugarpies and moonbeams and happiness in the DC Universe pre-Crisis...not everything is Geoff Johns' fault...
Buffoon fight from Action Comics #432 (1974).
I can't see that new version without getting a splitting headache thanks to the voice work done for that wank in the superfriends. I don't know I rather like the old ben franklin-ish toyman as a foe for superman because isn't that how the superman of say "superman IV" thinks of humanity as children playing with dangerous toys? I don't think they ever played up that angle but I think it would work if they did.
ReplyDeleteLazarus Lupin
http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/
art and review
Superman's rogues gallery is vastly underrated. Yes, Toyman and Prankster are terrible. Doomsday is one-dimensional. Imperiex is a Galactus ripoff. That still leaves Luthor, General Zod, Metallo, Parasite, Bizarro, Myxyzptlk, Mongul, and Darkseid (who has been grandfathered into his rogues gallery at this point).
ReplyDeleteI fail to see why Batman gets a pass for Ten-Eyed Man, Killer Moth, and Tweedledee & Tweedledum when Superman doesn't get the same courtesy extended to him for Toyman, Prankster and Vartox.
Forgive me for disagreeing with you, Dan, but I guess it comes down to taste. Metallo and Parasite are one-dimensional to me, as well as boring; Bizarro is rarely handled well; Mongul is Darkseid-lite, and is as much a villain in Green Lantern's rouges gallery as he is Superman's these days; we may argue that Darkseid has been grandfathered in, but when was the last time he appeared in a Superman book?; Myxy is not to my tastes except very infrequently, as all-powerful characters are pretty boring.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you don't mention Brainiac, as he is one of the few decent Superman rogues.
A plunger arrow has to be one of the greatest ideas ever! I wonder if Ollie has one of these?
ReplyDelete