SUPERMAN — CLASSIC ANIMATION (1940)

DC MULTIVERSE (McFARLANE)

Back to DC?  So soon?  Well, I regret to inform you that it’s *not* Super Powers today.  But, I do think it’s still pretty cool, and it concerns one of my other areas of interest, animation!  I’ve touched only briefly on Fleischer Studios here on the site.  They were a pioneer in the field of animation, rivaling Disney during the golden age, and in many ways beating them to the punch on a lot of things.  They had a great deal of success with their in-house properties, but also got into the adaptation game in 1933, when they began a run of shorts starring Popeye.  In 1941, their main financial backer Paramount had purchased the rights to Superman, and proposed a series of animated theatrical shorts.  Not initially wanting to take on the gig, Fleischer asked for an insane $100,000 a short, but when Paramount countered at $50,000, they accepted.  The result was not only one of the finest pieces of animation to come out of the golden age, but also an incredibly influential take on the title character, inspiring the likes of Alex Ross and Bruce Timm, as well as adding the power of flight to the character’s roster of abilities.  The rights for the shorts have been all over the place, and they ultimately went into the public domain back in the ’60s. Toy coverage for the shorts has been generally scarce. Mezco did a 5Points set a few years ago, and there was a statue from DC Direct. It’s McFarlane that finally gave us some figure coverage, first as a Super Powers redeco, and now as a proper 7-inch figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman is a standard-sized release from McFarlane’s DC Multiverse line.  He’s not a single, instead being rolled into a larger assortment with a couple of unrelated characters.  Though referred to by *everyone* as “Fleischer Superman,” he’s officially titled “Classic Animation (1940),” with no specific studio mention.  In a way, this actually makes him more accurate than you might think, as only 9 of the 17 shorts were actually produced by Fleischer, with the other 8 being done by their successors at Famous Studios after Fleischer dissolved.  On the flipside, though, it specifies 1940, when the cartoons didn’t start their run until 1940.  Also, all the illustrations are specifically comic-based, so the whole thing is likely some sort of legal thing.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 37 points of articulation.  Superman is built on the Earth-2 Superman mold from the Crisis set.  He was originally shown on the Action Comics #1000 mold, which isn’t great, but Todd actually listened to fan feedback and moved him to the more recent set-up.  I gotta say, I really like it.  It’s quite clean and the proportions are pretty well balanced.  It also especially works for this era of the character.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is quite solid.  It’s a good match for the animation, not being too simple or too detailed, and it sits really well on the body.  He gets a cloth cape, which is fairly similar to the one on the Reeve Superman.  It’s a solid work, and the wires are quite strong, which is great for posing.  His color work does a pretty respectable job matching up to the colors from the cartoons.  The paint’s a bit minimal, but it does what it needs to.  I particularly like the squinty eyes.  Superman is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and flat, as well as a display stand and a card with decidedly not Fleischer Superman on it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m a huge Fleischer fan, because, as noted above, I’m something of an animation geek.  The Superman cartoons are really their finest work, and remain favorites of mine.  I almost went for the Mezco figures, but they were out of my price range at the time they jumped.  I got the Super Powers figure, and he’s fine, but not really on the mark.  This one was one I knew I wanted immediately.  He’s genuinely the best Superman McFarlane’s put on the market, though that’s admittedly a more loaded statement than it used to be, because suddenly they figured out to make a Superman right before the end?  I don’t know, but I’m loving it.