Saturday Morning Super-Heroes, Part 4: Superfriends

 

"You have reached the Superfriends. Please listen carefully as our options have changed. Press 1 for Superman. Press 2 for Wonder Woman. Press 3 for Batman and Robin. Press 4 for Aquaman. Press 5 for the Wonder Twins. If you wish to speak with Wendy or Marvin, they have gone back to school. If this is a criminal matter, please hold and a hero will be with you shortly. If this is an Earth-shattering life extinction crisis, please hang up and kiss your ass goodbye." I used to imagine that would be the automated response you would get if you called the Hall of Justice, the headquarters of the Superfriends.

This animated hour-long series began on ABC in 1973 and ran under various titles until 1985. The Justice League had been adapted in animated form as part of the 1967 Superman-Aquaman Adventure Hour on CBS with Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and the Atom as featured members. For some reason, Aquaman was not a part of this combo even though he had his own series produced by the same company, and Aqualad was a team member of the Teen Titans which rotated in the guest spot of the show. 

This series, produced by Hanna-Barbera, took a decidedly different tone at first. Instead of interplanetary mayhem and supervillains, the superheroes dealt with "timely" issues such as pollution and overpopulation and their antagonists were not evil but well-intentioned and just a bit mixed up. Instead of battles, the episodes always ended with a civilized discussion on the proper way to deal with the problem at hand. (Yawn!) The Superfriends were accompanied by "junior" superfriends--sort of summer interns--Wendy, Marvin and the canine Wonder Dog who spoke like other Hanna-Barbera mutts Astro and Scooby Doo with an R in front of every word.

Wonder Twin Powers Activate!

The New Super-Friends Hour saw the departure of Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog--I guess their internship was up and they had to go back to school--to be replaced by the Wonder-Twins, a pair humanoid aliens with actual superpowers, and their useless pet monkey, Gleek. (Even more annoying than Blip on Space Ghost.) The girl Jayna had a legitimately cool ability to transform herself into any animal she chose, but the boy Zan had the lame power of changing into different forms of water. How much times can you make yourself into an ice-bridge?

Challenge of the Super-Friends moved away from Afterschool Special territory and back into comic-book land. Less learning and more bashing. Gone were the Wonder Twins and that obnoxious monkey. The core five--Superman, Batman and Robin, Aquaman and Wonder Woman--were joined by JLA members from the comic books Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Hanna-Barbera created DEI hires Apache Chief, Samurai, Black Vulcan, and El Dorado (Note: I am in favor of DEI.) Their conflicts now centered on the Legion of Doom, 13 supervillains, mostly from the DC comics headed by Lex Luthor and including the Riddler, Scarecrow, Bizarro, Cheetah, Black Mantis, Solomon Grundy, Giganta, and Toy Man, not to be confused with the Toyman who appeared in the Filmation Superman cartoon in 1966-7. The Legion holed up in a spaceship in a swamp and always managed to get away at the last minute.

All this time Olan Soule and Casey Kasem did Batman and Robin's voices, but for the final iteration Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, Adam West returned to his role after the cancellation of CBS' The New Adventures of Batman. Kasem continued to voice Robin. I wonder how Soule felt having to relinquish a role they had played for almost a decade. The Wonder Twins rejoined the group who were now mainly occupied with Jack Kirby's Darkseid, his nephew Kalibak and henchman De Sade (voiced by Tony winner Rene Auberjonois, later of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Benson. Side note: In the 1986 Tony Awards salute to all the Best Play winners, Auberjonois read the excerpt from the 1966 winner, Marat/De Sade.) An interesting sexual twist was provided in this series of episodes. Darkseid was obsessed with Wonder Woman and wanted to abduct and marry her. Oh, and Firestorm and Cyborg were slipped in here as teen Super Friends to add to the youth appeal. (Olan Soule switched from Batman to voicing Prof. Stein, half of Firestorm's secret identity.)

The Super Heroes of Summer 2025

David Corenswet in Superman (2025)
Credit: Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros/DC

I haven't been to a superhero movie for the past few summers. The recent crop seemed pretty lackluster. But two of this year's cinematic comic-book efforts caught my attention and drove me back to the theater, in 3-D no less: Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Both feature the figureheads of their respective comic houses, DC for Superman and Marvel for the FF. Both have been adapted for film and TV numerous times before with varying success. The Man of Steel has flown into pop culture through multiple media since his birth in 1938. He remains one of the few characters to be the subject of a series of movies, at least one live-action TV show, and a Broadway musical (the others are Spider Man, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, The Addams Family, and Nick and Nora Charles.) In addition, Supes was immortalized on the radio (voiced by To Tell the Truth host Bud Collyer) and in several animated cartoon series. Though they are the first family of Marvel Comics, the FF have not fared as well in their transitions to the silver and video screens. They have had no less than four different cartoon series--I remember 1968's Hanna-Barbera iteration best since I used to watch it every Saturday morning--and four sets of actors have played them in live action, receiving mixed notices for the first three times. Now both franchises have been given new life in cinematic form.

James Gunn's Superman has come under fire from conservatives for being too "woke," meaning Superman is portrayed as being too supportive of immigrants since he is one himself, arriving on Earth after his home world Krypton exploded. The parallels between our current political climate continue. The plot is set in motion as Superman interferes when a Russia-like country invades a Ukraine-like neighbor. In a story trope echoing a move the Man of Steel made with Adolph Hitler, the superhero flies the Putin-esque dictator to a remote location and sits him on a cactus, promising worse treatment if the invading leader doesn't behave himself. Also Superman's traditional arch enemy Lex Luthor is a sort of Elon Musk-Donald Trump type who imprisons anyone he doesn't like in a pocket universe resembling detention camps in El Salvador. The villain is in cahoots with the Putin-like despot and actually kills an immigrant food vendor in cold blood just because he was nice to Superman. Luthor also uses trolls (actual monkeys typing on keyboards) to smear Superman on social media. 

Superman was always woke--meaning in favor of social justice and sticking up for the rights of minorities--so the right-wing whining feels petty and churlish. This Superman played with humor and humility by David Corenswet is a champion of the underdog and not a toady of the rich (Trump). 

Reality TV Update: Tears for Fears

The origin of Dr. Mid-Nite
so Alana from King of the Nerds will never forget it.

Everybody was crying their little hearts out on my reality shows this week. On King of the Nerds, Genevieve bawled like a baby when Kevin Smith criticized her performance in a debate on superheroes. On Project Runway, Ben broke down because his past difficult relationship was causing him to make a lousy dress. On the new show The Job, everybody was weeping because they were all out of work. Join the crowd, hons.

There is so much reality I must watch these days, I had to DVR everything. Thursdays will be especially bad when Comic Book Men returns next week. Then Kevin Smith will be on opposite the Nerds and Project Runway. I guess I'll have to DVR the late-night rerun of one of them. Plus, Amazing Race starts next Sunday as well.

News for This Week: Of Cats, Moose, and Supermen

There will be a casting call for the role of "Cat" in the upcoming production of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Send your cat's headshot and owner contact info to kittygolightly@oandmco.com This reminded me that the last live real cat to star on Broadway was the feline who played opposite Maggie Smith in Lettice and Lovage. I'll never forget her acceptance speech when she won the Tony Award. "My friends said I should thank the cat," Dame Maggie archly said. "And I do thank the cat, but it had better behave itself, because it's getting entirely out of hand." 

At the opening of Moose Murders.
Yes, it has come to this.

I had reviews for Moose Murders  Women of Will and Clive at the Backstage website this week. Moose Murders is one of the biggest flops in Broadway history and this tiny company called Beautiful Soup Theatre Collective decided to revive it. The playwright had "shamelessly revised" his script, but it was still awful. Opening night was also the first night they invited critics and everyone was there including John Simon who brought his Playbill from the original production. Charles Busch, Julie Halston, Jackie Hoffman were also in the audience which was not a smart move. It led me to think how much better the production would be with these funny people in it. At least they would know how to camp it up and make this script so bad it would be a riot, as it was it was just bad. They actually had the celebrities--me included--pose with a guy dressed as a moose. Hanging around in the lobby was more fun than watching the show.