World's Greatest Super Friends

It's no secret that my favorite cartoon growing up was the Super Friends. Back in the seventies, we didn't have a DVR, TIVO, or even a VHS, so a kid had to make sure that he caught all the episodes. And I had a deep-rooted fear of missing any episode.

These days I have the entire series of Super Friends, nine season spanning twelve years, available digitally and fed to the screen through my Apple TV. Any childhood memory can be summoned in an instant.

Except for one season. One miserable season. One season containing only eight episodes from 1979. It's been killing me.

The thing is, this show is currently being broadcast on various cable channels devoted to nostalgic TV or cartoons. So it's not like that season has been lost to the winds of time. But I've been monitoring iTunes and the DVD news watching for this season to be released for awhile now.

Finally! Finally. On April 23rd this season went on sale as a Target exclusive, and now I have it.


There is not one single original thing happening in these eight cartoons. Nothing mind-blowing at all. Each story is heavily lifted from other source material. It's the most derivative season of the show. (Yes Bill, I did look up 'derivative' to make sure I was using it correctly.)

BUT... but... it's also the most memorable of the Super Friends offerings. Except for perhaps the Challenge of the Super Friends, no other season sticks out in my mind so much. This could be because there were only eight episodes, therefore each episode was rerun several times through the year. Or it could be the derivative nature of the material that makes it so memorable.


The Super Friends end up fighting the genie from Aladdin's lamp.


The Super Friends get changed into hobbits and go on a Lord of the Rings style quest.


I always loved this one for several reasons. It showcases Luthor as the main villain. It was rare that the show would use actual DC villains outside of the Challenge of the Super Friends season. And Luthor ends up winning, but has to release the Super Friends in order to save his own butt. With the touch of a button, the Super Friends are freed, much butt is kicked, and the Earth is saved once again.


The Super Friends fight Captain Nemo. This one is interesting because it uses characters from the bottle city of Kandor.


Easily one of my favorites, despite Aquaman not being present. The Super Friends start fighting Frankenstein's monster. But by the end of the episode Dr. Frankenstein has sapped all their powers into a new monster. And it's up to a powered-up Robin to save the day.

Dr. Sims: "You don't understand! If you use this machine, it could kill you!"

Superman: "I'm afraid it's you who doesn't understand, Doctor Sims. We're GOING to use it."


This one has Batman fighting a space knight with a light saber in a castle on another planet. Glorious. How could one forget an episode with Superman as the Black Knight?


Perhaps the best remembered episode of Super Friends. Superman switches places with an evil counterpart from another dimension. We get to see the evil Super Friends. Including Pirate Aquaman before Peter David made it a reality in the 1990's.


I think this picture speaks for itself.

So yeah... my collection is complete. It's time to hit the couch with the kids and boggle my mind at light saber Batman, hobbit Wonder Woman, super-Robin, evil Superman, and scarecrow Aquaman. And get transported to 1979 all over again.

Thanks,
DCD

World's Finest Contradiction

I think I've made it a little more than obvious by now that I prefer comics and entertainment from previous decades. It certainly wasn't always this way with me. I have to pinpoint the 1990's as the decade that started to create the biggest gap between my sensibilities and modern day entertainment.

I didn't keep up with TV much in the 1990's. And meeting my wife Lorie sealed the deal on the TV coffin as I suddenly didn't even have time for Star Trek or shows like Lois and Clark: the new Adventures of Superman. But I was up-to-date with movies, as I was involved with Blockbuster video for most of the 1990's.

And comics. I read comics. I wasn't happy about it in the slightest, but I read them.

The 1990's was a wasteland of good comics and the decade that would see the most change for what comics were about and who their audience was. I never really got the perspective on the subject to understand that's what was going on. I kept buying comics for the reasons that I always bought comics, only the entire industry changed around me and I didn't really recognize that fact until I gained the perspective to look back on myself and the entertainment I had grown to love so much.

I would like to illustrate with a specific example. The relationship between Superman and Batman.

In 1999, DC ran a huge storyline dealing with an earthquake that devastated Gotham City. During that storyline of a destroyed city and people in obvious dire peril, the big question was where were all the DC heroes that were supposed to avert disasters of such proportion. This was dealt with in Batman #566 with a visit from Superman.












As you'll notice from this example, Superman and Batman are treated as far from equals and far from friends. This issue will forever rest in my memory because of the level of disgust and anger it created within me. There was no reason for this at all. And it spits on the characters of DC and the decades of growing those characters.

Thing is... the whole earthquake hitting Gotham storyline was a swipe from a 1977 one issue story with a costumed villain creating earthquakes in Gotham.











As you can see, Batman even makes a mental note to get help from Superman on re-establishing the status quo. The Batman here is very admirable, doing things within human limits and shown to be striving to push himself to the limit. To never give up and help other people regardless of the effort it would entail. This Batman is no thug out to prove that he's in charge and how tough he is. This is a Batman clear of head and purpose and free of selfish motivation. This Batman is secure enough in his identity that he's not threatened by the idea of help from Superman, whose obviously more powerful.

Here's a story I found from World's Finest comics #271 published in 1981. In it, there's a sequence where a firefighter forgets himself for a moment and questions Superman's involvement in Gotham City affairs. Batman does what a stand-up man would do and makes the man realize that some things are bigger than such petty concerns as territory and who's in charge of what. In the end of the story, Superman and Batman are celebrated as partners and friends... the World's Finest team.








The story was written to celebrate the fact that Superman and Batman had been teaming up in World's Finest Comics for two hundred issues.

Here are some sequences from their first team-up in the title from World's Finest comics #71, 1954.





Let's jump from this sequence in 1954 to thirty-two years later and the last issue of World's Finest comics, #323 in 1986. It was decided that these two characters were in for big changes and a title teaming them both up was inappropriate at the time. The severing was handled less-than-gracefully.








So... what happened? Why would DC comics shy away from the most famous super-friends in comics? Why would things go from switching costumes to trick a villain and shaking hands in the end of an adventure to downright animosity between these two characters.

As with anything, there are several factors that built this up. But for me, the straight answer is obvious and disturbing. Comic books used to be published for kids, and the super heroes were moral stories teaching kids right from wrong and how to behave in society. And that worked and worked well. Somewhere along the line the comic book companies felt there was more money in aiming their audience to an older generation. And they had to compete with video games, movies and TV that were getting more and more violent and adult with every passing year.

They stopped trying to teach us morals and behavior, and started fighting for our dollars.

Batman can't be a symbol for the pinnacle of human achievement. Batman has to be a tough talking badass who doesn't get along well with anybody. Why? Because Batman wants your dollars. He doesn't care about teaching you the right thing to do. He cares about making sure you buy his books again next month. He doesn't want to show a small child the best way to behave in a bad situation. He wants to seem like a big man to an adolescent with a fist full of cash.

It's just that simple. At least in my opinion it is.

Have things gotten better since the 1990's? They have and they haven't. Both Marvel and DC publish cartoons and books aimed at young kids that use their characters for the original intended purpose. To teach morals and to show kids what's expected of a hero in society. The comic book themselves continue to get older with their audiences. They've passed the adolescent phase of the 1990's, but they're so adult now that I won't give them to my young son or young nephews. And they're still doing everything they can to attract your dollar. And unfortunately one of the things that attracts money is character death. The companies are killing characters to drive up sales of the books. NOT because that's what the audience wants. But because the public at large thinks if they buy the special "death" issue that it will go up in price and be a collector's item and be part of history. Conceits that just are not true anymore. But shhhhh... don't tell the general public.

SO YEAH! I want the comics of my childhood back. And the reasons are far more than purely nostalgic. Our society and culture is going to Hell in a hand-basket. And where are the heroes that show us the stand-up way to behave?

Thanks,
DCD


Batman #566 - 1999
Kelley Puckett
Jon Bogdanove


DC Special #28 - 1977
Bob Rozakis
John Calnan

World's Finest #271 - 1981
Roy Thomas
Rich Buckler

World's Finest #323 - 1986
Joey Cavalieri
Jose Delbo

World's Finest #71 - 1954
Alvin Schwartz
Curt Swan

World's Finest debuted in 1941
Superman-Batman teams ups started in - World's Finest #71; 1954
They ended in - World's Finest #323; 1986

Super Friends in Jars

I have a lot of action figures. I mean a lot of action figures. Primarily DC figures, as those are the figures that I've never sold off or traded away. I don't really collect action figures any more. The occasional action figure here and there, but nothing where I would consider it actively collecting. My wife used to be boggled by the character selection. "How many different versions of the same character do you need?"

I've never really explored where the genesis of this sub-passion to my main hobby came from. But it occurred to me as I sat down to write about what I wanted to write about today.

The Super Friends trapped in jars.


When the Super Friends cartoon first started out, it wasn't the polished show that it came to be. In fact the first sixteen episodes are vastly different from what most people remember the show to be. It was a full hour long, much more simplistic, environmentally conscious, absolutely devoid of violence, and totally awesome.





The episode I remember most from the first run is called Gulliver's Gigantic Goof. In that episode, a mad scientist (natch) has devised a shrink ray. He's not evil, oh no. The bad guys were rarely evil in the first season of the show. This dude wanted to solve the worlds hunger problem by shrinking the population. Therefore, there would be more for everyone.





The Super Friends stopped him, but not before being shrunken, trapped in jars, and put on the shelf for display. Also, guest star Green Arrow showed up to help. His only appearance in all 109 episodes.





This particular episode aired in December of 1973. I was four. It was re-run for years before the show was green-lit for new episodes. I believe in my heart that I caught EVERY airing.


Is this where my love of action figures comes from? On some level, do I really just want to stick the Super Friends in jars?

Yes.

Yes I think that's exactly what it is.


Thanks,
DCD

Triangulating the Super Friends

I learned about triangulation on September 10th, 1977, from the Super Friends. And I learned it incorrectly.

It was five days until my eighth birthday. My mother was VERY pregnant with what would turn out to be an attention getting red-haired baby sister. We had just moved from Texas to an Air Force base in upstate New York and were living in a cramped townhouse. My parents were fostering, socially. They ended up forging lifelong friendships with the other officers and families on base. Me? Not doing so well. Not a friend to speak of. But I did have one thing to look forward to… a brand new season Super Friends with all kinds of changes! The Wonder Twins! Guest stars galore in the form of other Justice League members! Actual villains! And an hour-long show in which to stretch some storytelling wings!




I barely slept the night before the first of these episodes was to air. I got up way too early and was downstairs first thing, refusing to budge from the TV set. I had negotiated show-picking rights with my sister in the usual two-fisted manner of justice, and everything was right.

The first episode had a segment titled “Invasion of the Earthors”, and that’s where I learned about triangulation. The Super Friends used it to find the secret base of the villains-of-the-week.

First, Superman finds an air vent and radios the location to Batman.









Then, Aquaman finds another air vent and radios the location to Batman.









"Using the time-tested method of triangulation, Batman draws the angle of the Earthor exhaust vent on the Batmobile computer map."




There were so many things wrong with this. And my little soon to be eight year old brain was listing them out like mad. Where were the angles? How did Batman know what angles to use for the lines? And doesn't the word 'triangulation' mean three? Where's the third element to make this work? And don't you need more accuracy than you can get while wearing gloves and using a pencil to hand-draw lines on the bat-computer screen while in a moving Batmobile with Robin narrating your every move in the background?




Conclusion? The Super Friends were infallible, awesome, God-like American myths. So therefore they must be right and my doubts were obviously a sign of weakness.

In the seventies, we kids were constantly learning things from cartoons. In fact, if it wasn’t showcased in an episode of Super Friends or Star Trek, I probably didn’t know about it. A good example of this is that I learned about triangulation when I was eight, but didn’t know what a sextant was until I was an adult working for the Coast Guard.

The 1973-1974 season of Super Friends downplayed conflict and violence and played up the more educational aspects of the show. As simplistic and childish as the first season was, it’s probably where I got the roots of my beliefs in racial tolerance and environmental preservation. Plus, it had that really cool episode where the Super Friends got shrunk down, trapped in jars, and had to be saved by a tiny Green Arrow. I cannot emphasize enough how cool that episode is. The turn away from super-heroes battling evil had a lot to do with some silly parents group that had targeted cartoons as a source of influence on children.

Poppycock. (<-- Yes, I know. I’m being hipster ironic.)

The 1977 re-emergence of the show attempted to blend action with this educational foundation. The Super Friends team members would show up between cartoons to teach kids about all manner of things, from swimming and bicycling safety, to first aid, to magic tricks and word play. I took notes and started a spreadsheet.




In fact, I learned so much from my entertainment as a kid that it makes me really wonder why I didn’t take to school all that much more. I seem to soak it in if I was hearing something from Aquaman or Captain Kirk or Steve Austin. Why couldn’t I focus better in school?




But more importantly, and I think about this a lot, what are kids learning today? Do the video games on Ashton’s iPad teach him about triangulation? There’s Dora the Explorer for younger kids, but what kinds of things are the older kids soaking in from Spongebob and iCarly?

Thanks,
DCD