Challenge of the Super Friends Season 1



I want to say first up that my girlfriend made me buy this DVD set. I don’t have any particular need to own Challenge of the Super Friends. It was crudely animated and dumber than a Kryptonite jockstrap. Still, my girlfriend wanted it for the nostalgia factor.

Watching some of these episodes again I noticed some things about the series I hadn’t noticed before, or at least didn’t remember.

What’s the deal with Wonder Woman? The Super Friends version of the character is totally emasculated, please forgive the term. As near as I can tell she doesn’t have any superpowers beyond telepathic control of her lasso and her plane. In the episode “Trial of the Super Friends” the Legion of Doom sends what is obviously their B-team (Braniac, Scarecrow, Cheetah) to steal the accessories of Batman, Robin, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman. Incredibly, they suceed. The Legion then kidnaps the defenseless heroes and puts them through a cockamamie trial for no apparent reason. Now I can understand why Batman, Robin and Green Lantern fold faster than Superman on laundry day; they’re basically just grown men who wear their pajamas in public. But Wonder Woman should be able to juggle buses! She should grab Luthor and shove him through walls until he starts apologizing for things Yul Brenner and Patrick Stewart did.

It really gets disturbing how Robin gets tied up in every single episode. I guess this is why some people call him Robin the Boy Hostage. In fairness to the Robin, I should mention that 80% of the time Robin gets tied up Batman gets tied up too. It’s only natural. Batman has no superpowers, but he’s on a team with people who can fly, bench press buildings, shoot beams out of every orifice of their heads, breathe underwater, and grow to gigantic size. Heck, in this season alone three separate Super Friends move planets around. Is it any wonder that Batman’s the guy who ends up trussed up on the floor of some guy’s basement?



On the other hand the Legion of Doom has more dead weight than a sumo wrestler's funeral. Riddler? Giving away your plans isn't a superpower. Brainiac? Isn't the position of bald genius already filled? Cheetah? A pretty good novelty stripper, but no so great at conquering the world. Scarecrow? I don't think fear toxins are much of a defense against heat vision, and in case the Super Friends version of the character seems more interested in controlling crows. Toyman? Did he win a raffle to get on the team? At least Bizarro is as strong as Superman, even if does have that whole backwards going against him. Or for him. I forget which.

The one thing about this DVD set that allows me to retain some dignity while owning it is the commentaries on two episodes by modern comic book writers Geoff Johns and Mark Waid. They try to be generally positive about the series, to the point that they sound almost apologetic, but they also get some good jokes in. When the Super Friends are blasted into space in a open cage Johns points out that "the message is not that you can't survive in space..." Waid continues, "The message is teamwork, the message is do the right thing."

Posted: Sun - September 18, 2005 at      

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