Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Costume Spotlight: Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf is a lesser known New God who first appeared in New Gods #7 (January 1972). He's a great hunter, one of Darkseid's Elite, and actually Darkseid's uncle. Since he was a hunter, he had a bit of a Robin Hood look when he first appeared:


In the 80s, DC released their first major action figure line (well, after Mego) through Kenner, called Super Powers Collection. After the first series was released in 1984 with the most popular characters, ie. ones that had appeared on Super Friends, the second series launched in 1985 with more obscure characters, including several New Gods, such as Darkseid, Desaad, and Kalibak. Steppenwolf was a mail-away figure, and he had quite a different look (Kenner also redesigned Mantis and the Parademons, among others):


This costume would later appear in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #22 (October 1985). As you can see, they even use a similar positioning of the character as on the action figure card.


In New Gods volume 3, or at least in issue #22 (November 1990), pictured here, Steppenwolf's clothing was a mixture of the two looks: the shape of the green outfit with the coloring of the Super Powers outfit.


However, by Damage #8 (October 1994), he was back to the Super Powers look.


Superman: The Animated Series chose to use his original look, as seen in "Apokalips Now!" (February 1998):

But as late as February 2007 in the comics (Flash: Fastest Man Alive #9), he was wearing a version of the Super Powers appearance.

Unfortunately, this is no longer the case in the New 52.

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