Super Friends

Ah, the Super Friends. Anyone who grew up in the 70's and calls themselves a comic book fan has a special place in their heart for this show; the first cartoon to depict the Justice League of America (well, apart from the Filmation cartoons, but they didn't have the big guns of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman in the JLA cartoons). Some hated it because it was watered down, with no memorable villains. Other enjoyed its charm and goofy fun. Some of us were glad to see any show with superheroes.

Now, in the 70's, the networks didn't allow much in the ways of violence in cartoons (except for Bugs and company), so we didn't get any slobberknockers with the bad guys. Still, there were memorable conflicts, with some creativity involved. Yeah, most of the "villains" were misguided and not evil, but there was fun to be had.

Some of my personal favorites were the GEEC episode, where a computer controls all of man's machines, only to go haywire when a mouse gets inside it; The planet-splitting episode, where Superman's origin is retold; the Gulliver episode, where everyone is reduced to the size of a doll; and the episode with the Flash.

The series went out of its way to present environmental issues, moral dilemmas, and other thought-provoking conflicts. It had far greater educational value than the "commercial" cartoons of the 80's and was far more entertaining than most. Yes, Wendy and Marvin were annoying at times, but they did have some value. I'll take them over the Wonder Twins any day. Besides, Marvin made it into Alex Ross' Kingdom Come.

If you wanted action in the 70's, you had to find Jonny Quest reruns or catch Speed Racer in syndication. The Super Friends would suffice until something better came along. It took two more series, but arrive it did; and, it still carried the name, Super Friends.

Along with 'Challenge of the Super Friends' & 'Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show', this was one of the best Super Friends show. The stories were at their peak, being very creative and adventourous. It was classic eighties cartoons, like The Real Ghostbusters and Inspector Gadget. Catch the reruns on Cartoon Network.

I had seen a couple of the 1973 Super Friends cartoons, but don't remember enough about them from that time. There was Superman, Batman and Robin, and the first time I had seen Wonder Woman and Aquaman. When this series premiered, I had noticed that Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog were gone (In retrospect, an improvement). The series had several formats. The first story was a team-up between the central Super Friends (Superman, Batman *and* Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman), followed by a solo Wonder Twins story, an extended story with the entire main cast of Super Friends, and the part I lived for...a team-up with a Super Friend and another super-hero...this is how I first learned about the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Rima, the Atom, and other "made-up" heroes like Black Vulcan (who should've been Black Lightning), Samurai (whose wind powers reminded me of the Red Tornado), and Apache Chief (can you spell stereotypical?). I might have the line-up mixed up.

The art was pretty good even if the stories were simplistic (again, in retrospect). When I found out many characters had their own comics, I had to read about them, and the dominoes rolled...I hope to see those team-ups again.

I remember watching this cartoon at 8:30 in the morning if I had a day out of school. At the age of 10 I realize that this is the best superfriends cartoon. The cartoon pit their arch enemies against the superfriends which derives from the DC comics. I enjoy watching Lex Luther always trying to make a way to destroy the superfriends. Especially superman,wonder woman,and the green lantern because they all the most powerful ones of them all. Superman serves as the superfriends leader and at the end they prove that evil never prevails. If you noticed The Challenge of the Superfriends and The Scooby Doo Show(1978) has the same danger background music.

While this time they do fight some super villain type characters(none I've ever heard of), there's still plenty of well meaning scientists/inventors and alien races thrown into the mix. The Wonder Twins are even worse than the original kids. Thankfully they are mostly kept to their own short segments where they teach kids important lessons like don't go joyriding in airplanes. The segments were the best thing about this series. Instead of a tedious one hour story, we are treated to 3(sometimes 4) shorter tedious stories. Other than that, it's the same as the original.