‘Super Powers’ variants to be featured on 8 DC titles this summer
Midweek update: 1980s toy line continues to drive nostalgia, interest
Some action figures that never were — but could have been! — will be featured on DC Comics covers this summer.
The “Super Powers” toy line of the 1980s featured key DC superheroes including Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
Eight variants this August will look at what characters and designs might have made the lineup had the toy series continued.
DC Super Powers variant covers will be featured on Batman #151, Gotham City Sirens #1, Green Lantern: War Journal #12, Nightwing #117, Power Girl #12, Superman #17, The Flash #12, and Titans #14.
Original 1980s Super Powers product artist Alex Saviuk returned to deliver the spot illustrations for each new variant cover. According to DC, Saviuk was a character artist for the Kenner packaging from ’84 to ’86 and drew many of the minicomics that were included with each figure. Toy designer Jason Geyer designed and sculpted the new covers. DC reports Geyer is a historian of the original Kenner Super Powers toy line and the cofounder of Raving Toy Maniac and Action Figure Insider.
DC provides the disclaimer that all toys depicted on front and back variant covers are wholly digital and not for sale.
More background from DC:
Kenner was awarded the DC toy license in 1982 and developed a line of Super Powers toys that complemented DC’s long-running Super Friends Saturday morning cartoon show. The design of the Super Powers figures was based on the iconic 1982 DC Comics Style Guide, which featured the art of José Luis García-López, and additional art was created for the Kenner Super Powers product line by DC artist Alex Saviuk. The Kenner line of DC action figures was in stores from 1984 to 1986, comprising three waves of figures. Each figure had an “action mechanism” hidden inside that activated upon moving a figure’s arms or legs. Forty years later, the Super Powers collection has remained an in-demand line for collectors, with an extensive revival by McFarlane Toys in stores now!
DC’s original Super Powers comics are available on the DC UNIVERSE INFINITE digital subscription platform (DCUI). Following the unprecedented achievements of his Fourth World titles, Jack Kirby returned to the DC Universe in 1984 for two special miniseries celebrating Kenner’s new DC-themed Super Powers toy line. Together with such creative collaborators as Joey Cavalieri, Adrian Gonzales, and Paul Kupperberg, Kirby revisited all of DC’s greatest heroes and villains in the pages of Super Powers, and launched them through time and space into the kind of cosmic adventure only the King of Comics could deliver! For more information and a free trial, visit the DCUI website at www.dcuniverseinfinite.com. DCUI is not available in all countries and is not intended for children. Read more about the development of the Super Powers line of action figures in DC’s The Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 2!
The classic Super Powers line of figures are among my favorite action figures of all-time, hitting at just the right time for me to enjoy their exploration of the DC Comics universe in toy form. Many of these versions are still my core DC Comics versions. The line clearly still has interest, with the McFarlane revival, and seeing these versions as comic-book variants is a neat way to celebrate the anniversary of the action figure series launch.
Matthew Price, matthew@matthewlprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman, Oklahoma.
