The Super Friends Appreciation Thread 2019:

[CellarDweller]

yeah, that was a good episode.

As for that pic above with the figures, where did that El Dorado figure with those different colors come from?

[caj]

Please remember that it's been years since I've seen them, but wasn't there an episode where the Super Friends went to the land of Oz? They were turned into the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion. I just remember them walking down the yellow brick road.

Maybe I'm thinking of another cartoon because it sounds crazy.

[Güicho]

Please remember that it's been years since I've seen them, but wasn't there an episode where the Super Friends went to the land of Oz? They were turned into the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion. I just remember them walking down the yellow brick road.

Maybe I'm thinking of another cartoon because it sounds crazy.

LOL To crazy? For Super Friends?
No, they did it.
Although to the "The Planet of Oz", which was the name of the episode.
By way of Mxyzptlk ...





I think that bizarre seasons had several classic books, folklore and tales, related episodes. Another straight referenced Lord of The Rings type adventure where they become trolls LOL!



Aladdin's Lamp = Rub Three Times For Disaster
King Arthur Camelot type adventure = Space Knights Of Camelon
Frankenstein - The Superfriends Meet Frankenstein
A 20,000 Leagues rif = Terror At 20,000 Fathoms
The Pied Piper from Space
Sinbad and the Space Pirates, obvious, allot of these were just take the concept and put it ....IN SPACE! LOL!

[caj]

LOL To crazy? For Super Friends?
No, they did it.
I think that bizzar seasons had several classic book related episodes. Another straight referenced Lord of The Rings type adventure where they become trolls LOL!

We are correct. A quick look at Wikipedia shows that in 1979, the Super Friends had an episode titled 'Planet of Oz'.

"After the Wonder Twins and Dynamic Duo find out they are not able to get rid of a tornado, the storm transports the Hall of Justice to the Land of Oz where Mister Mxyzptlk, who has once again escaped from the 5th Dimension, informs the Super Friends that they must find The Wizard to get home. Along the way they encounter the Wicked Witch of the Worst Kind in a gingerbread house who turns Aquaman into the Scarecrow, Superman into the Tin Man, and Wonder Woman into the Lion."

I'm not as crazy as I thought I was. LOL

[Güicho]

I'm not as crazy as I thought I was. LOL

LOL if it's a bizarre memory, it probably happened on Super Friends


Eg: Frankenstein's "Super-Monster" actually combined Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman into one giant Super-Monster





This behemoth should be made canon.

[caj]

LOL if it's a bizarre memory, it probably happened on Super Friends

ROFL - so true. Thanks for posting this. Nice to see that image again.

[Restingvoice]

I love this when I was a kid. Barely remember anything except Wonder Twins though. Their unique powers stand out to me.

So Super Friends was named so because, during this era, Justice League is very... friendly with each other, right? Does anyone know when they started to become more official and business-like? Modern iteration shows Justice League as the professional one and Titans as the friendly one.

[Güicho]

So Super Friends was named so because, during this era, Justice League is very... friendly with each other, right? Does anyone know when they started to become more official and business-like? Modern iteration shows Justice League as the professional one and Titans as the friendly one.

No, not really, that seems to be a misconception by modern fans. Super Friends didn't really match what was going on in the comics at the time.
SF debut in 1977, by then JL comics had already moved away from the simpler silver age purely plot driven stories, and moved into the Satellite era / bronze age, with somewhat more relevant, character driven stories and tension.

Super Friends was more of a symptom of Saturday morning program regulations, (and animation studios who had to deliver with next to zero budget)
Nobody was allowed to punch, or use violence (which really takes the byte out of Superheroes), story tension was built of fun somewhat goofy surprises, if anything Scooby Doo was more the template, hence why the first season included Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog.



Challenge era managed to introduce some actual comic specific super villains, but still hampered by Saturday morning regulations. Tension and character development and story arcs were unheard of. And of course the low budget, was really just for little kids.

Comics at the time, had moved away from that already and recognized more adults were reading too.
O’Neil began to deconstruct the League dynamic, build human tension, and stir things up.
Not everyone was just "friendly with each other" as you put it.

If anything DC released a more kids specific comic, to better match the cartoon, cause the JL at the time did not.

[Restingvoice]

Ah. I see. I thought they're from the same time because of the art style.

Oh, that's their name. I remember there are a few episodes where the Wonder Twins were replaced by those three that reminds me of Scooby Doo, but I don't remember who they are or what they do except being some sort of audience surrogate because they're young and ask the questions. I didn't like them compared to the Wonder Twins.

[Güicho]

Oh, that's their name. I remember there are a few episodes where the Wonder Twins were replaced by those three that reminds me of Scooby Doo, but I don't remember who they are or what they do except being some sort of audience surrogate because they're young and ask the questions. I didn't like them compared to the Wonder Twins.

By then even Hanna Barbera recognized Wendy, Marvin & Wonderdog were to silly, their solution the more "adult" Wonder Twins. LOL!
Who were loosely based on the then popular siblings...
Who had just had a popular variety show.



Here in my deep purple dreams - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBImNrLzwqc


Although at least HB made them brown skinned, which was unique at the time (not sure how the current comic sees them).
Again to be clear the Super Friends did not reflect what was going on in the JL comics at the time. LOL!

Super Friends was absolutely doing it's own thing.
The other, was the well intentioned yet clumsiest way, of adding diversity to the JL team, to better reflect the diversity in their audience. While the Comics JL remained all white.
HB introduced Apache, Vulcan, Samurai and Dorado.

[Güicho]

Ah. I see. I thought they're from the same time because of the art style.

Super Friends comic used Ramona Fradon and Alex Saviuk who somewhat invoked Alex Toth's superfriends Style Guide and art.

Justice League comic did not.

Modern readers who never actually read that eras JL comics, seem to conflate them with Super friends, they were not the same. I've seen similar with the 66 Batman TV series which ran in syndication well into the 70's , and was more of a call back to the older Batman comics, while in syndication remained the recognizable vision of Batman, the actual Batman comics of the time, had already long moved away from that.
In fact like JL they were fighting against their more recognizable, saccharine and camp tv image, which did not reflect what they were doing in the comics.

[CellarDweller]

There has been debate among some comic fans as to whether or not the SF comic from the 70s/80s was within DC continuity or not.

From what I've read online E. Nelson Bridwell considered the book within continuity, and things that happened within the comic were referenced in other books, and vice-versa.

[Güicho]

There has been debate among some comic fans as to whether or not the SF comic from the 70s/80s was within DC continuity or not.

From what I've read online E. Nelson Bridwell considered the book within continuity, and things that happened within the comic were referenced in other books, and vice-versa.

Well the Global Guardians came out of the Super Friends run, one of the most charming things created by DC, and the greatest international team ever created. They were fantastic!
Follow their thread here - https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post4012832


Of course once they were folded into DCU proper, they were quickly character assassinated, dismantled, and replaced by a team of mostly a bunch of white Americans calling themselves "international".

I agree!
The original Global Guardians were based in Antarctica (considered somewhat neutral territory).



They were kind of written off and replaced by JLI/JLE based in Europe, who were mostly not an international team-


I Honestly always preferred the legit Global Guardians, even as hokey as they were.
I wish they would just rework/update most of the original team. Have Dr. Nommo Balewa go on a global - "putting the band back together" adventure - regroupe any of the original team left (or resurrected, yes he has the power), or find their legacies, and a few new heroes on the way.
With Dr. Nommo - as simply The Myst, leading the team again!

And the one (yes only one) USA member on the team, shouldn't be Batman, or Guy Gardner, or Captain Atom or Dick Grayson as I've often seen suggested, it should be freakin Owlwoman! (who is always criminally replaced by another white anglo male)

There have been some attempts at reinvention, and new members, but DC has never actually focused on, or launched them into their own.

Been championing for their return for a while now. ...

Global Guardians has always had a small cult but strong following, the old boards before the reboot had several threads championing their return.
Although it was often hijacked by the JLI fans, who would just use the name interchangeably, but really only meant JLI. LOL!
But this is the legit Global Guardians team-

With soma costume upgrades, a few legacy characters, and some of the new additions to the team, they should return!

There are several threads celebrating them-
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post4012832
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post1530784

They should be brought back with The Mist (Nommo) as their leader, putting the group back together. (not inserting Batman or some other white american guy as default leader).
And the representative for USA should be Owlwoman (again not inserting another white american male to replace her).
Sorry if that's abrasive, you think those kind of things should go without saying, but whenever there is talk of bringing them back those are the first to roles that unbelievably seem to get suggested for replaced.

[caj]

There has been debate among some comic fans as to whether or not the SF comic from the 70s/80s was within DC continuity or not.

From what I've read online E. Nelson Bridwell considered the book within continuity, and things that happened within the comic were referenced in other books, and vice-versa.

Plus, SF fought against many of the villains that were current in the DC Universe at the time - Mirror Master, Scarecrow, Chronos, Toyman, Penguin, and others.

[Falcon16]

Black Vulcan shouting his name a la Birdman in the season 2 episodes always gets me. "BLAAAAAACK VUUUULCAAAAAN!"