The Power Records Podcast 20 – Superman/Batman!

THE POWER RECORDS PODCAST 20 - SUPERMAN/BATMAN!

Chris and Rob and special guest ScottX are back with a new Power Records Podcast, discussing the book and record adventure "Alien Creatures" starring Superman, following that with a Batman tale, "The Catwoman's Revenge", and your listener feedback!

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Opening and closing themes courtesy Peter Pan Records.

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15 responses to “The Power Records Podcast 20 – Superman/Batman!

  1. So happy to have another episode of Power Records!!! It’s my absolute favorite podcast. It’s also the the one that introduced me to The Fire and Water Network. No offense to Shag or Cindy, but Rob and Chris are best pairing. Your joy of discussing these records (and The Superman movies) is clear and makes these podcasts almost as much fun as the Power Records themselves.

  2. I absolutely adore this pidcast. Rob and Chris obviously love these power records and always bring interesting and engaging conversations about them. Keep it up, guys!

  3. Thank you all for a great show. The Alien Creatures was one of the few Power Records that I owned. Like Scott, I played the heck of out of it but I lost it somewhere in time, either it when we moved when I was eight or it got broken and my Mom thru it away so
    I would not be upset. Never heard the Batman story before but I agree it sounds like something out of the Filmation animation series of the 60’s. Thank you again and hope there is not another long break between episodes.
    PS. Yes to Six Million Dollar Man.

  4. That was quite a passive-agressive little speech from Perry White. “Okay, you haven’t done much for us lately, but here.” Have they figured out that a steady stream of award ceremonies is the way to keep Superman from staging elaborate silver-age pranks on his friends and the city.

    Also weird to see Metropolis as a drivable city and Jimmy prosperous enough to keep a car in a big city…

  5. Thanks again for another cool episode! The “Batman Theme”, which opened and ended the LP, actually came from the “Batman and Robin” LP from Tifton Records in 1966. The album also included an original composition “Robin’s Theme”, with the same female vocalist.
    The narrator for the 2nd “Batman” album was Elliott Lewis, an actor, writer, producer and director during the Golden Age of Radio. During his time with Power Records, he was also the following voices (among many):
    • the 2nd Superman
    • the 2nd Mr. Spock
    • Steve Austin (the first 2 albums)
    • Cmdr John Koenig (both “Space 1999” albums)

    The “45” mentioned on the Batman story was actually a 7″ LP. Just saying. 🙂

    The “Shazam” 7″ LP was copyrighted in 1977 (Peter Pan had since retired the Power name. In spite of such, they reused the Power Records back cover from 1975….because “super-hero”).

  6. Impressive podcast. Most impressive. The Super Man story seems a bit Silver Age. Or pre Bryne Super Man. But, sounded fun enough. The Bats was pretty good. Did I mention I have a U tube channel? That’s Liz Anne Oswalt. Bavk on point. The Bats story reminded ne a bit of 70s bats. But, yeah it was mostly the new look Bats. But, a cool story and avoided the Bat Gwad that can beat any one with prep time. I like that he won, but made mistakes. Also that Cat Woman made him Cat Man for a bit with out knowing it.

    Cat Woman does get her revenge…not hear but by decades latter bringing in Tom King. The real revenge of Cat Woman. I’m kidding. The acting was good for power records. I liked Cat Woman and Supes. And Lois. But, Bats he was good. But, he sounded more like a Supes guy. The Narrator for Spidey comics would have been better. I always see bats with a deep voice almost gravely. This guys to Dudley Do right. In the way he sounds. Adam West even had a bit of a Shakespeare sound to him. So it worked. His delivery worked for what they were doing. And still a deep voice.

    This Guy was almost a tone down version of Aqua Man’s Outrages form from Brave and the Bold. Or the chin from Fairly Odd parents. Any way can’t wait to hear the next Pod cast.

    1. The narrator for the 2nd Batman album was the same actor voicing the 2nd Superman (“Tomorrow the World”, etc.)!

  7. I don’t remember if I found Fire and Water through the Power Records Podcast or the Treasury Cast. My first encounter with Rob’s work was through either his Treasury Comics or Power Records podcast. We 70s babies love our Power Records almost as much as our treasuries.

    First off, Scott, none of us Super-Fans want him killing anything. (Well, ok, If Superman wanted to kill Green Arrow, I might be willing to look in the other direction, but I digress….), but don’t get too stressed that Superman killed one of the alien creatures on the cover. We know the covers never really happen. I probably can’t count the number of covers I have where Superman kills Lois, and I also have at least one where he kills Green Lantern.

    The reason the professor sounds so young is that he is clearly the same actor who voiced D. Allison Weatherspoon on Weatherspoon’s Catalyst. He doesn’t really seem to be able to change his voice and sounds the same on every story. I should point out that, before I owned the actual album, I had a neighbor who owned it. He would play the Superman for us to listen to and I would play the Batman albums. Anyway, for some reason, Weatherspoon’s Catalyst was his favorite story and he just about wore it out.

    I’m not that crazy about the Superman voice actor either, but I prefer the voice actress playing Lois on the stories on this album. The actress playing Lois on the album with Tomorrow the World had such a nasal, irritating voice that, instead of picturing a Nick Cardy or Kurt Schaffenberger Lois, I kept picturing the nosy neighbor on Bewitched. I need to bust out my book & record for Alien Creatures and check out Lois if she looks that good. I don’t remember what she looked like in it.

    I didn’t think of the Batman story as being Filmation appropriate. Maybe I’ve read too many Golden Age Wonder Woman stories, but I found Catwoman’s Revenge pretty kinky. There is the whole dominance-and-submission angle with Catwoman drugging Bruce, making him follow all her orders, and keeping him in a cage. Then, there is the bit about him using pain to overcome the drug. I seem to be in the minority, but I prefer the voice actor on the other Batman volume. I think this voice actor has a bit too high and cheery of a voice and is a bit too Olen Soule-esque for me.

    A bit about the single cover…..I wonder why Adams went with pants for Catwoman. The comic where Selina went back to her golden age outfit had a 1975 cover date, so I wonder if Adams used the Lois Lane cover that had Catwoman’s first silver age appearance for a reference. Selina was wearing pants on that one. She did have pants instead of her skirt in one Golden Age story, but I read it in an omnibus and am drawing a blank on the issue number or story title. Yeah, Catman looks a whole lot like Wildcat. I guess Adams liked his look better than the comic book Catman.

  8. This was a lot of fun. They all are. The Superman story seems more like a the 60s cartoon than the 70s comic. Clark, Lois, Jimmy, Perry, and no violence. What bugs me is the timeline. Jimmy drove to the observatory in, what, 4 minutes? That’s as fast as Orson Welles got from Princeton to Grover’s Mill. Lois finished her lunch, as the aliens were falling, and she got to Galaxy before Superman? Why wouldn’t Superman have declined the luncheon in the first place? I think that a writer like Cary Bates, or Elliot S! Maggin, would have had Superman fly into Clark’s office, see Lois, and ask Lois, “Where’s Clark?” That at least gives him a pretext for being there, and allays any of her suspicions.
    As I was listening to the Batman story, I could see Irv Novick’s Batman and Catwoman, as well as his Bruce and Selina! I really like the “city sound effects” at the beginning of the story. Now this was definitely a 70s Batman comic. No trappings of the TV show at all. I enjoyed the closing music, also. I liked listening for the little changes, one note here, one syncopation there, that made it almost, but not quite, Neil Hefti’s theme! You can hear the producer, right? “Just change a note or two so that we don’t get sued!”

  9. I always look to see if I can find an unknown Power Record. Over the years I have found a few (Conan Movie record, Ghostbusters, etc). Looks like that well has pretty much run dry but I did find another label called “Kid Stuff Records” that released a few Transformers, Masters Of The Universe, James Bond: Moonraker and a Knight Rider book and record:

    https://www.discogs.com/Unknown-Artist-Knight-Rider-KITT-Vanishes/release/10100652

    While the art in the Knight Rider book is just OK it looks incredibly boring with no background drawings at all, just K.I.T.T. on a bland background. Without “word bubbles” the book looks very wordy.

    They did do one Spider-Man book and record and it would be neat to hear some of these on the podcast when the Power/Peter Pan stuff runs dry. Here is a link to the Spider-Man record:

    https://www.discogs.com/Unknown-Artist-The-Amazing-Spider-Man-The-Big-Top-Mystery/release/13215197

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