Name the 70's TV Superheroes

Cafe Society
41

Okay, one thing I gotta know:

Why, oh why, in the name of heaven and earth, did they put AQUAMAN on the Super Friends?!?!!

[li]Superman belongs on the Super Friends. He’s the most popular superhero of all time, and he can bench-press an apartment building.[/li]
[li]Batman and Robin belong on the Super Friends. They are DC’s second most popular title, and they have those swell utility belts.[/li]
[li]Wonder Woman belongs on the Super Friends. She’s not as strong as Superman, but she can stop two locomotives from colliding, and she has a telepathically-controlled lasso that can force its victim to tell the truth, plus a telepathically-controlled invisible jet plane that can top 10,000 miles per hour. Oh, and she’s a female, which fulfills the TV series’s all-important Token Female Superhero(ine) requirement.[/li]
[li]But Aquaman?!? Come on! There were tons of DC characters more useful than Aquaman! All he can do is breathe underwater and communicate telepathically with fish. Why not have Green Lantern on the Super Friends instead? Or the Flash? (Sure, they had a few guest appearances in earlier shows and became “regulars” later, but Aquaman always had top billing above them.)[/li]Okay, I know what some of you are going to reply with. You’re going to say “Aquaman was on The Super Friends because he was in that 1960’s Superman/Batman/Aquaman cartoon.” Okay, fine – but then why was he in the 1960’s cartoon to begin with?! Huh? Riddle me that, caped crusader!

42

Several reasons, based on what I’ve read.

(1) He was one of DC’s most recognizable heroes. In addition to having a 1960’s cartoon series, he was also one of the few heroes who were published more-or-less continuously since the 1940’s. The only other DC heroes who could make that claim were Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, the Green Arrow and Speedy.

(2) He offered opportunities to expand the SuperFriends’ adventures into the oceans. This was handled pretty well in the original hour-long series, which had more developed plots and more complex villians. Subsequent series only had 30-minute episodes though, and they usually sacrificed plot for action.

(3) In the original series, Aquaman was a fairly complex character. He did more than just talk to fish; he was also the resident expert on oceanography, marine geography and ocean chemistry. On several occasions, he even performed feats of superstrength (towing a sub, for example, or hefting a bulldozer shovel into the air). Sadly, the later series seldom emphasized these aspects of his background.

Adding Aquaman was a logical move at the onset. His inclusion was just handled poorly as the years went by.

And while we’re on that topic…

The first series provided more complex depictions of all the original SuperFriends. The series featured Clark Kent in one episode, and in another, it presented his origin in considerable detail. Wonder Woman displayed a Ph.D.-level grasp of chemistry, as she helped synthesize a solvent for King Plasto’s mysterious plastic, Frerp. Batman relied on his wits and deductive skills, as much as he used his utility belt. And Robin… Robin was an equal partner, rather than just a kid who took orders from the Batman. He was just as likely to save the day as Batman was, and on one occasion, we even got to hear him reminisce about his days as a circus acrobat.

Even Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog – strongly reviled though they were – were handled more gracefully than the Wonder Twins and Gleek were. Wendy and Supermarv had no powers, but they relied on their wits, courage, initiative and insight – and they always helped solve whatever crisis faced the team. In contrast, Zan and Jayna had powers, but they seldom used them effectively. They were little more than comic relief, and they often aggravated the crisis rather than helping out.

43

Simple. As I said, his adventures had been continuously published since the 40’s. As a result, he was one of DC’s most widely recognized heroes at the time.

In addition, his undersea mileau allowed for an exotic arena of adventures. DC felt that this would help draw interest from the viewers. (Why not a space-based hero, you say? Well aside from Superman, such heroes were less well-recognized. In addition, the space age had barely begun, and Apollo 11 had not even been launched yet. It’s no surprise that undersea adventures held more appeal at the time.)

44

Probably at least partly because Aquaman was, at the time that the cartoon began, a member of the Justice League in the JLA comic. Super Friends being moderately loosely based on the JLA, Aquaman naturally was involved.

He did seem to be the designated rescuee an awful lot, though, didn’t he?

jayjay

45

Incidentally, I don’t think that a writer’s obligation is to incorporate the most useful characters. Rather, his duty is to use characters that will help him tell engaging stories. In that respect, Aquaman was both a reasonable and a logical choice. He certainly provided more diversity to the team’s adventures than, say, Green Lantern or the Flash would have.

46

Well, JTC, you’re right. Aquaman did make for more engaging stories. Because as jayjay pointed out, the other Super Friends spent half their time just rescuing him!

47

Only in the later series. Not in the original. In the original series, he contributed just as much as any of the other SuperFriends. (We’ve been over this before, tracer.)

As always, we must distinguish between poor ideas and poor implementations. Including Aquaman was a valid idea, entirely consistent with the SuperFriends’ initial concept. It’s only because of slipshod writing that his participation was handled poorly in subsequent incarnations.

48

In the late 70s or early 80s some other kids told me that they watched a show with someone called Mr green. They said he had super strength. Was that a real show or were they just lying?

49

This thread is now almost as far from its original posting date as it originally was from the 70s.

50

nm

51

That episode had one kind of neat thing I have always remembered: The alien people looked exactly like humans - except that, when standing with their arms at their sides, the palms of their hands faced forward. Just a subtle reminder that these folk aren’t from around here…