Obscurity of DC Presents: Ultra-bscure Book Club, Week 8 (January 8-January 14) --- SUGAR & SPIKE!

Welcome, @ObscurityofDCClub and other members of the DC Community! Welcome to Obscurity of DC’s eighth Ultr-Obscure Book Club! This week, we’ll be focusing on…


SUGAR & SPIKE
AGE SUGGESTION: 12+

Number of Issues: 6

Not-so-brief description from dc.com: The last time we saw Sugar & Spike, they were still in diapers! Now they’re grown up, and they’ve become private investigators who specialize in cleaning up embarrassing problems for the DCU’s greatest heroes. In these tales from LEGENDS OF TOMORROW #1-6, Sugar and Spike take on assignments on behalf of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and more!

Now that that’s over with, here are some discussion questions:

  1. Why do you think Sugar is so serious? What about Spike and his light-heartedness?
  2. Did you enjoy the throwbacks to old comics? Why or why not?
  3. Back in 1956, Sugar & Spike had their own comedy series, in which they were still little kids. Why do you think DC changed them so drastically? Do you like the change? Explain.
  4. Which of their stories was your favorite? Why?
  5. Who do you like more? Sugar or Spike? Explain.

Do you have an interest in exploring the unknown? Do you like discussing comics? Do you like pineapple on pizza? If so, The Obscurity of DC Club is the club for you! Join HERE if you’re interested!

2 Likes

Hi pal! I hope you’re still enjoying your DC Community experience!

I read the first three or four of these just now. I don’t remember them from the original comic book even though I bought the first two or three issues back then.

  1. Why do you think Sugar is so serious? What about Spike and his light-heartedness?

I didn’t see this explained in the comics but overall my life experience is that there are just certain basic standard personality types and these two illustrate that. You have introverts and extroverts. Some models talk about Doers and Plodders, so some people are all about accomplishing tasks and not too worried about the details (so I’m terrible example of these folks would be buildings that collapse because they weren’t properly built), while others meticulously plan out and execute ideas even though it takes three times as long as budget allows (so maybe the bridge to nowhere in Alaska?).

I also think they were kind of doing the good cop / bad cop idea.

  1. Did you enjoy the throwbacks to old comics? Why or why not?

I do like the throwbacks and I was kind of hoping when I went to it that Mark Russell might have written it. I’ve enjoyed the whole Looney tunes with DC heroes roll out for example. It doesn’t always work but it’s fun to take the older concepts that were very much a part of the generation they came out of with the values good and bad of that time and then to take that and rework it with today’s modern sensibilities can be interesting.

I mean really it’s exactly what we’re doing with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman because they were around back in the late 1930s / early forties.

  1. Back in 1956, Sugar & Spike had their own comedy series, in which they were still little kids. Why do you think DC changed them so drastically? Do you like the change? Explain.

I assume Keith G just had this idea and pitched it to DC, much like he also revamped Inferior Five. The other reason they do this is to keep the copyright on the names.

At both Marvel and DC, I’ve often enjoyed the “feet in the street” non-powered ordinary human following up on what goes on during in the aftermath of what happens when super groups get together and fight (“Marvels”, “Damage Control”).

  1. Which of their stories was your favorite? Why?

I thought the first one with Killer Moth went pretty well, although I would have appreciated the writer letting us know those were tranquilizer bullets instead of thinking that Sugar and Spice were slaughtering people for no apparent reason. It’s very seldom that we see heroes having long calm discussions with villains to sort of take apart what makes them tick, which police and lawyers regularly do.

  1. Who do you like more? Sugar or Spike? Explain

Why I like them both for different reasons of course. They’re both very special little snowflakes. With Sugar’s focus on the mission they often do very well. But Spike helps to bring a little humanity and empathy to what they do and they are dealing with human beings.

I find the same thing in the workplace over and over and it’s often why a company can be successful. You don’t want to have all “Spikes” or all “Sugars” doing tasks for the company’s clients.

2 Likes

Those responses were beautifully said @Don-El! Great answers!

I just realized Spike is always the one to drive. Why do we think that is?

Personally, I think Sugar has road rage and couldn’t past her driving test because she’s too aggressive a driver. But that’s just me!

2 Likes

Lol

1 Like

Oh I’m being completely serious rn lol

It’s an interesting observation

1 Like

Thank you!

  1. Why do you think Sugar is so serious? What about Spike and his light-heartedness?

I don’t know because I don’t think they really get into her personality from before, but I think with both it’s an ironic thing – the girl named Sugar is this deadly serious ice queen and the guy named Spike is actually a lovable himbo.

  1. Did you enjoy the throwbacks to old comics? Why or why not?

They were all fun concepts. It definitely makes for a good hook for a action/comedy series like this. That said, some of it works better than others and some of the commentary they do to compare the present to the past was…strange to me.

For example, it’s really hard for me to picture the New 52 Superman making an island that looks like himself to hide Kryptonite no matter how many times he says “I was young.” Similarly it’s hard for me to see New 52 Wonder Woman actually nearly getting married to those weird goblin things.

The issue with Green Lantern and his former pet “Itty” was an odd one for me, because it feels like the issue is making a point about how comics these days are so grim and gritty that they can’t do things like give characters pets, but…there’s Atrocitus with Dex-Star, there’s Damian with practically a petting zoo of animals, everyone’s favorite character in Scott Snyder’s Justice League run was Jarro, aka the Best Robin. Then you get into Marvel and you have stuff like Hawkeye’s pet dog Lucky the Pizza Dog, Jeff the Landshark, and much more. If anything, there is never a better time for a superhero to have a pet. So that whole critique of modern comics comes off at best as antiquated, or at worst completely imaginary.

  1. Back in 1956, Sugar & Spike had their own comedy series, in which they were still little kids. Why do you think DC changed them so drastically? Do you like the change? Explain.

I imagine that it’s partly a way to modernize them and make them work for a modern audience and part parody of doing that exact thing. Again, it’s hard for me to judge if I like it or not because I don’t know the original work and I’m not sure what this is. Was Sugar always the serious one and Spike the dope in the original series, or did something happen to make them this way? I thought we might finally get some answers in the last issue when they flashback to a case, but…nope, they’re still the same. So I guess they’ve always been like that? I dunno, maybe I’m just overthinking it. I probably am – it’s my superpower! :sweat_smile:

  1. Which of their stories was your favorite? Why?

The Legion story at the end, without a doubt. As someone who’s read a nice chunk of all those runs, it was so fun to see stuff from the O3’s original goofy costumes with their names labeled on front, to Starfinger of all people showing up.

It makes sense when you think about it, since writer Keith Giffen was one of the major creative forces in the Legion of Super-Heroes for years. It made me want to see Giffen come back and do a Legion book again, though considering the last time he did that he basically…broke the 31st Century, so maybe it’s for the best he doesn’t. :rofl:

  1. Who do you like more? Sugar or Spike? Explain.

Honestly, I didn’t really get into either character. They both felt so one-note and not even all that funny by themselves. Like, Sugar is mean and no-nonsense, Spike is a dumbass and shameless flirt, repeat ad nausum for over a hundred pages. There just wasn’t enough depth to really get into these characters. I guess we see some moments of Sugar softening up, but that is so common with that kind of ice queen archetype that they need to do a little more than that to make it work.

1 Like