Thursday, September 13, 2012

Animated World of DC Comics: Superman vs. "The Wicked Warlock" (1966)

"The Wicked Warlock" was a made-for-TV villain who had more than his fair share of run-ins with Superman in the 60's. This episode is his first appearance. Warlock would later be part of a group with more established rogues Lex Luthor, Prankster, & Toyman in 2 adventures, but despite his being supernatural in nature, he came across as being, well, lame.

Edit, 1/21/19: The video has been deleted. If/when it returns, we'll bring it back.

Amazingly, Mort Weisinger, a DC editor who served as a consultant to the series, never considered using Warlock in the books. I wonder why.......

Rating: B-.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

Magical characters can become tough to write for. Their limitations always seem to vary with the writers' whims.

Supes had Mixy to deal with, but they had to create this Warlock character instead? Was there an embargo?

Young Justice managed to find a good balance with superpowers and magical abilities. Dr. Fate, Zatara, Zatanna, and Klarion The Witch Boy (upgraded to a Lord of Chaos) all have their well defined strengths and weaknesses in that universe.

hobbyfan said...

Mxyzptlk did appear on the show at least once (he's on the season 1 DVD I have). I think Filmation wanted to add their own villain to the mix.

As far as Supes' Rogues Gallery went, we saw Luthor (DUH!), Brainiac, Toyman, Prankster, & Mxyzptlk, and that was it. The sad part is that Prankster didn't match his comics appearance at all, looking more like a street thug of the British variety than the chubby, gap-toothed fellow I remember reading about.