Original Air Date
- December 26, 2023
Part 1 Begins
Hero Song (5:48)
- “Christmas Superhero” by Bobby D’Ambrosio featuring Billy Cliff
Superhero Smash (0:30)
- You’re listening to Superhero Smash!
- Featuring the best in “Superhero Music and Comic Book Lore”
- Focusing on current superhero movies and popular culture events
- I’m your host, Dr. Gian Pagnucci, a.k.a. The New Professor X
- Playing great music about superheroes as well as music that is featured in superhero movies and shows
- Also talking about comic book history and heroism
- But no matter what cool stuff I discuss on the show, you don’t have to worry because this is a NO SPOILERS show!
Audio Episode Theme: Batman Noel! (0:30)
- I hope everyone had a great Christmas
- Also Happy Kwanza to those who celebrate that holiday season
- Kwanza is a celebration of family, community, and culture, especially African-American and Pan African culture, which begins today and ends January 1st
- Since it’s December 26, I’m hoping listeners are still in the holiday spirit
- On this episode, I’ll be playing a mix of superhero songs related to Christmas and Christmas songs related to superheroes
- And I’ll be talking about Batman because Batman Returns is set at Christmas time and there is also a new Batman animated holiday special out
- Lots to talk about, but first
Instrumental Theme Music (3:17)
- “Carol of the Buy and Sells” from the the Hawkeye TV show by Christophe Beck & Michael Paraskevas
The Christmas Avenger (3:00)
- I hope everyone had a great Christmas
- Excellent show with the fabulous Jeremy Renner reprising his role of Hawkeye from the Avengers
- Hailee Steinfeld plays Kate Bishop
- Kate gets saved as a child by Hawkeye during the invasion of New York, so she grows up wanting to be a superhero and training herself to use a bow and arrow
- Hawkeye is a bit of an underrated show
- I’ve been rewatching it during this holiday season since it is set at Christmas time
- The acting is great, the action sequences are fun, and it’s based on the Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon comic book which was critically acclaimed and delved into Hawkeye’s real life challenges when he wasn’t being an Avenger
- The comic was written by Matt Fraction and drawn by David Aja
Christmas Song 1 (2:33)
- “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams
- Another wonderful Christmas song featured in the first episode of Hawkeye
Part 1 Ends (@16 minutes)
Part 2 Begins (@16 minutes)
Show ID: Superhero Smash (0:30)
- WIUP FM 90.1
- Alternative music for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DC Cinematic Universe, and our Universe too!
- Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
- Or email Professor X using the address superherosmash2023@gmail.com
- I love to get listener’s input
Don’t Hurt Anyone with the Bow! (2:00)
- Hawkeye was always a bit of a joke hero
- He had a bow but, thanks to the Comics Code Authority which regulated comic books for almost 60 years, he couldn’t hurt anyone with the bow
- “Comics Code History: The Seal of Approval” by Amy Kiste Nyberg
- Nyberg traces the history of the code in her article
- Dr. Fredric Wertham published a book called The Seduction of the Innocent in 1954 which he explored the psychological problems supposedly caused by kids reading comic books
- Wertham is the one who came up with the idea that Batman and Robin were gay lovers, an inaccurate conclusion which completely misread the father/son relationship developed in the comics
- But Wertham testified to Congress about how bad comic books were
- To avoid Congressional regulation, in October of 1954 the major comic book publishers formed the Comics Magazine Association of America and adopted a regulatory code
- The code was enforced by the Comics Code Authority, which placed a bit letter A stamp of approval on every comic published
- While they were worried about kids’ reading habits, their use of a big A showed they had clearly not read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, although at least this A was white and not red
- The Comics Code Authority checked every comic to make sure the fights were not too violent, which is how we get the Bam! Pow! fight graphics of the 1960s Batman T.V. show
- They also made sure that all romances were chaste and, even for heroes like Hawkeye, that no matter how many arrows he shot, there was no blood in the superhero world
Christmas Song 2 (4:45)
- “Blood Bank” by Bon Iver
- A good song which, among other things, might encourage you to donate blood during this holiday season
- Donating blood at your local blood bank really can help save lives
Don’t Hurt Anyone with Censorship! (3:00)
- Although it was well intentioned, the Comics Code Authority quickly became an overbearing censorship body
- Stan Lee himself once had a fight with the Authority when he tried to tell an anti-drug story in a Spider-Man comic because the Authority had a rule that there could be no drugs mentioned in comics even though Stan’s comic had a clear anti-drug message
- Stan had been asked by the National Institute of Mental Health to write a story about the drug problem, so in The Amazing Spider-Man issues 96-98 he wrote a story which explored the dangers of drug use
- In the story, Spidey says, “My life as Spider-Man is probably as dangerous as any, but I’d rather face a hundred super-villains than toss it away by getting hooked on hard drugs!”
- Because the Authority would not approve the story, Marvel published the comic without the big A
- And this became one of the pivotal reasons Marvel in 2001 and DC in 2011 withdrew from the Comics Code Authority and dropped the seal
- You can read more about this fascinating history in “Amazing Spider-Man Anti-Drug Story Hastened Demise of Comics Code” by Maren Williams
- “Tales from the Code: Spidey Fights Drugs and the Comics Code Authority” by Joe Sergi
- “A Comics Magazine Defied Code Ban on Drug Stories” by Lawrence Van Gelder
Christmas Song 3 (2:42)
- “Spidey-Bells (A Hero’s Lament)” by Chris Pine
Part 2 Ends (@30 minutes)
Part 3 Begins (@30 minutes)
Show ID: Superhero Smash (0:30)
- WIUP FM 90.1
- Alternative music for the MCU, the DCU, and our U too!
- Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
- Or email Professor X using the address superherosmash2023@gmail.com
Collector’s Item Classic Comic Book (3:00)
- Last week I talked about Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag Marvel Treasury Editions
- But let me give a shout out to an old friend of mine, Dave Henningsen, who is listening with his wife Min and their kids David and Anna out in Illinois
- Remember, you can stream WIUP FM 90.1 anywhere in the world, so tell all your friends!
- Dave reminded me that DC Comics published some Christmas books just like Marvel
- DC’s Christmas with the Super-Heroes
- Publication Date: 1975
- Value on eBay today: You can get it for about $55, almost double the price of the Marvel version!
- They published a second oversized issue the next year with Superman carrying Santa’s sleigh
- Publication Date: 1976
- Like Marvel, these were reprint issues packaged in a giant format
- The 1976 issue even includes a story with Sandman and his sidekick Sandy entitled “Santa Fronts for the Mob”
- I’d like to get a copy just to see what that story’s about!
- In “A Treasury to Treasure: Christmas with the Super-Heroes!” Dan Greenfield takes us loving through the 1975 issue, and even discusses an Angel and the Ape story, a couple of heroes even I don’t know much about
Christmas Song 4 (3:58)
- “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells” by Superhero Second Line
A Batman Christmas (3:00)
- Max has a new animated holiday special out called Merry Little Batman
- I started watching it, and it is pretty funny
- Batman has a son named Damien who is still a little kid in the movie
- Batman gives Damian his own utility belt for Christmas, but then decides that Damian isn’t responsible enough to have it, so he takes it back
- This leads to Damian deciding he has to prove he is worthy
- And what’s the best way to prove you are worthy at the holidays? Why save Christmas, of course!
- The problem is that Batman is overprotective as a father, so he has already eliminated all crime from Gotham city and made it the safest place on earth!
- Luckily there are a still a few evil doers around to cause some problems for Damian
- The cast is really funny with Luke Wilson as Batman, Yonas Kibreab as Damian, and James Cromwell as Alfred
- Great entertainment for young kids and adults too!
- I’m only partway through, so you might even beat me to the finish, but this is a no spoilers show anyway!
Christmas Song 5 (3:40)
- “Father Christmas” by The Kinks
Part 3 Ends (@45 minutes)
Part 4 Begins (@45 minutes)
Show ID: Superhero Smash (0:30)
- WIUP FM 90.1
- Alternative music for the MCU, the DCU, and our U too!
- Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
- Or email Professor X using the address superherosmash2023@gmail.com
- I love to get listener’s input
Batman: Noel (2:00)
- A modern adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring Batman
- Written and penciled by Lee Bermejo
- Batman is cast as Scrooge who has become cynical and joyless
- When a poor resident of Gotham city named Bob (ala Bob Cratchet!) finds a bag of stolen money accidentally dropped by criminals, Batman decides to use the poverty-stricken man as bait to catch the Joker on Christmas Eve
- Batman is injured during the story and has a vision of civilians killing criminals in cold blood
- This helps him learn an important lesson about the value of mercy
- Great art and an interesting update of the classic Charles Dickens story
Christmas Song 6 (2:56)
- “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” by Thurl Ravenscroft
Romantic Interlude (2:00)
- Batman: Returns
- The Bat, the Cat, and the Penguin
- Michael Keaton as Batman, Michele Piffer as Catwoman, and Danny Devito as The Penguin
- Keaton was great returning to the Batman role in this summer’s The Flash–He was the best thing in that movie and DC should let him star in Batman Beyond as an older Bruce Wayne, a plan they foolishly dropped
- A stylish fairytale by Director Tim Burton
- The Penguin replaces Santa Claus, making a list of children he plans to harm as he seeks revenge for his parents having abandoned sent him floating down a river in a basket because he was so ugly
- An allusion there by Burton to the Moses story too
- But it is the scenes between Batman and Catwoman that light things up
- Catwoman has a fantastic black costume with white stitching, more interesting and realistic than the Halle Barry costume for the disappointing Catwoman film
- Catwoman steals every scene she is in and her chemistry with Batman is electric
Christmas Song 7 (3:32)
- “Baby It’s Cold Outside” by Leon Redbone and Zooey Deschanel
To Be Continued Next Issue (1:00)
- Same Bat Time, same Bat Channel–Episodes on Aquaman and Captain Cold coming up
- Contact me, the new Professor X, via email: SuperheroSmash2023@gmail.com
- And remember…
- “You don’t need superpowers to be a hero. The only thing it takes to be a hero is the courage to do what’s right when someone needs your help.”–Gian Pagnucci
Christmas Song 9 (3:37)
- “What Christmas Is to Me” by Evan and Jaron
To Be Continued Next Issue (0:10)
- And the final word on the holiday…
Christmas Song 9 (0:36)
- “Christmas with the Joker” by Shirley Walker
Part 4 Ends (@60 minutes)