Listen! Up in the sky!

So, a while back we talked about old-time radio plays of superheroes. Well, three weeks of listening to them haven’t diminished my enthusiasm in the slightest. But there’s one little problem… they’re old.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing at all wrong with old stories. But it does remove the heroes from our frame of reference - Superman was a different character in the 1940’s then he is today. His relationships with Lex, Lois, Perry, etc. have all changed dramatically in the intervening sixty years, and the modern day listener can be somewhat confused when listening.

Fortunately, a great group of fans has come to the rescue.

The great people at Pendant Audio have been recording audio dramas for several years now. They started off with fan dramas, the first one being Star Trek, and then they moved into superhero audio shows, Superman: The Last Son of Krypton first, than Batman: The Ace of Detectives, Wonder Woman: Champion of Themyscira and Supergirl: Lost Daughter of Krypton.

They’re good stories, grounded in modern continuity, with a remarkably good group of voice actors working on them - all the more remarkable because they’re fans across the internet and not professionals. The different superheroes are also intertwined (no worries, they will provide you with a list of the stories and what order they should be listened).

I’m up to “issue” 6 of Superman: The Last Son of Krypton, and loving it so far. They’re not perfect, but they are a lot of fun.

4 masks out of 5

Superheroic Radio Plays

We've gotten fairly maudlin on here of late, so let's shift gears, shall we? Now, we all know that superheroes are primarily creatures of visual media. Superheroes mainly exist, and thrive, in the brightly colored pages of comic books.

Other superheroes have successfully (sometimes) made the transition to film and television, and we've discussed many of these endeavors, both good and bad, here on this blog.

But imagine, if you will, superheroes you never got to see - but instead only heard?

Ridiculous, you say, but I tell you it's true. Batman, Superman, the Blue Beetle, the Green Hornet and the Shadow all had lengthy careers in radio.

I've spent the last few days at work amusing myself by listening to old episodes of these radio dramas on my iPod. And I thought you, my gentle readers, might enjoy them as well. There are many places to find these old recordings, including through iTunes, but here is a link to get you started.

Botar's Old Time Radio
On this site, you will find archives for many heroes, including the Blue Beetle, Captain Midnight, The Green Hornet, The Shadow and Superman.

But wait! There's more! Modern-day superheroes have made the same endeavor. The winner of Season One of Who Wants to be a Superhero?, Feedback, has his own radio play.

One last exploration of superheroes through the auditory media is the Kingdom Come Audiobook. I can't provide you a link to it (and in fact, haven't been able to find a copy of it on CD for my own purposes), but if you can locate it, it's a blast.