# Remember The Superfriends? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 16, 2000, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412 "2000-11-16T04:50:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/21 "2000-11-17T03:47:36Z")
**Loved that theme-song!** [sub]Also, had nasty boy-thoughts about Jayna.[/sub] :o ---
**Author:** ![DRY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/22 "2000-11-17T07:29:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Me!! Joe!!! \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by BobSchroeck \* > > My long-time take on this was: > > > > “Wonder Twit powers activate! Form of a moron, shape of an idiot!” > > > > No, I didn’t like them. How’d you guess? > > > > – Bob \*\* > > In college, a drinking buddy & I were fond of saying: > “Wonder twin powers, activate!” > “Form of A bottle of Tequila!” > “Shape of A shot glass!” > > And we thought we were so cool…\ > > To tell the truth though, I didn’t care much for Zan, Janya, or Wendy or Marvin. I liked it better when they didn’t have any annoying kid sidekicks. I liked it much better when it was the 12 member team fighting the Legion of Doom.\*\* Thank god for you two! I was reading this thread, and I thought maybe I was the only one who didn’t like those obnoxious adolescent brats. The **real** superheroes were cool. But even the bad guys were neater than those…creatures. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/23 "2000-11-17T08:25:05Z")
I always wondered why Zan couldn’t turn into an ice death ray machine. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/24 "2000-11-17T14:29:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by quasar \* > I don’t know if you will get the show back on the States. I live in Costa Rica and what we get here is the Latin American version of Cartoon Network, so programming might differ a bit. Good luck, though. \*\* Found it! According to our satellite guide, it’s on at 5 am (CST) Saturday mornings. _yawn_ I’ll be setting the VCR. ---
**Author:** ![SqrlCub](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SqrlCub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SqrlCub)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/25 "2000-11-17T14:45:38Z")
My favorite were the Wondertwins but only because I get to play the fun game with friends and coworkers. It starts when I see someone knew and do a little fist on fist thing like they did and start saying as fast as I can, “Wondertwin powers activate, shape of water, that makes you the girl.” I sometimes do this with strangers too and get odd looks. It is so much fun. I liked doing it to this one guy several years ago and got a date out of it he thought it was funny and said, “I am a girl you know.” 🙂 He wasn’t all that girly on our date but that doesn’t matter. HUGS! Sqrl ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/26 "2000-11-17T14:49:53Z")
Thanks, AWB for the clarification. I never see the Wonder Twins on the Cartoon network, just Wendy and Marvin, so I always thought that I was just seeing the later episodes. 🙂 And I still hate Wendy and Marvin. Although I think now that it is because I was secretly jealous because I didn’t have superheroes for friends… And what’s up with them looking like Vulcans? Except for the ears. ---
**Author:** ![Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommy_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/27 "2000-11-17T15:05:21Z")
And what exactly was the deal with Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog? I mean, The Wonder Twins had super powers (although the ability to turn into a purple puddle doesn’t qualify as super in my book). Wendy and Marvin, on the other hand, had no powers to qualify them as members of the Super Friends. So, did they get picked up by Batman while hitchhiking and he though the Hall of Justice could use a few more rubes, or what? I always thought the Super Friends should be a little more edgy and hard hitting. I remember Samurai coming through a kid’s window when he said his mouth had a bad taste in it. Samurai’s great Super Gift to this kid was to tell him to brush his tongue. Brush his tongue? What the hell sort of Super Activity was that? The Legion of Doom was probably off mugging some Girl Scouts and Samurai is giving this kid advice on oral hygene. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![andyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@andyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andyman)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/28 "2000-11-17T15:18:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Snooooopy \* > \*\*I always wondered why Zan couldn’t turn into an ice death ray machine. \*\* I think he actually did once! I seem to remember Jayna turning into a giant tortoise and Zan turning into an “ice turrent” on top of her, and then he began firing away. Even as a kid I knew they’d never to that again. I mean come on, the wonder twits being effective. Pssh! ---
**Author:** ![quasar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@quasar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quasar)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/29 "2000-11-17T20:39:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AWB \* > Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog were in the 1973 incarnation, “Super Friends”. The Wondertwins debuted in 1977, “The All-New Super Friends Hour”. They in turn were bumped for a while by “Challenge of the Super Friends” (1978). The twins returned for “The World’s Greatest Super Friends” (1979). Then in 1984, Firestorm became a regular, and the twins weren’t seen again. The Super Friends go back to the early 70s? And I thought they started out in the mid 80s. Talk about being off by a decade! Anyhow, I used to watch them on WGN after coming back from school, but something really bugged me: the Cubbies. Yes, the Chicago Cubs. You see, they broadcasted their games on the Super Friends time slot with an unbearable frequency. I used to hate baseball for that! Of course, that lasted only for a couple of months. After the ’86 Series I became a huge baseball fan and watched Super Friends only as a means to exorcise the frustration that arose when there were no ball games. How is that for a turn around in viewing habits! Funny how malleable a kid’s mind is. In any case, I am getting too anecdotal and drifting off subject. A few comments coming now: > [@](#): > > **Max Torque** said: > Fans of the Superfriends will get a big laugh out of this site: Seanbaby’s Superfriends Page. I’d pretty much forgotten about Solomon Grundy… That was really funny stuff, especially the page about **The Flash**. Thanks for the link! > [@](#): > > **KKBattousai** said: > My favorite episode of the Super Friends the one in which the LoD went back in time to various time periods stealing treasures and setting traps for the Super Friends. When the Super Friends went back to stop them - one went to each time period - all of them, except for the Flash and Superman, IIRC, got trapped. Then, with 3 minutes in the episode to go, they were all freed - but the LoD got to keep all the treasure! Yeah, that was a nice episode. Somehow, reading your post made me remember about another favorite of mine, the one about **The Monolith of Evil** (or something like that). At the time, before having ever heard about a guy named Stanley Kubrick, I was fascinated by the idea of an all-powerful, mystical force capable of shaping our destinies. When I heard about the existence of a movie called **2001: A space Odyssey** that included the presence of such a monolith I was totally intrigued and could not wait to watch it. Even though I disliked Kubrick’s narrative style, it was interesting to note the contrasts between his motion picture and the cartoon. While 2001 proposed the idea of conditioned evolution, that is, evolution guided towards the advancement of technology by an unknown, seemingly rational entity, Super Friends proposed a less deterministic scenario, one under which we are not bound to follow a predetermined course (or be guided to it) but instead, are, through our actions, the sole architects of our destinies. The monolith is an idealized representation of our free will and our power of shaping our future as best we can. The future course of our evolution has not been written, it is ours to set. The Super Friends monolith can be conceptualized as a point in the road, a juncture at which our path bifurcates; it then asks which path to take, the decision, the choice of our destiny (evil or goodness) is entirely ours. Kubrick’s monolith is not as static, it is a guide that points out the way, it fixates on a preferred destiny, one in which there is no intrinsic good or evil, these abstracts concepts being replaced by a more pragmatical approach: the pursue of survival, a survival which in his vision in inextricably tied with the evolution of technology as the fundamental way to guarantee our long term existence. Or, in a summarized way, whereas SF monolith presents a moral dilemma, Kubrick’s disregards ethical judgements–or obviates them–in favor of pragmatism. And, where the former asks a question and lets us pursue the answer, the latter not only provides the answer but also guides us towards its materialization. Isn’t it odd that I turn on my existentialist impulses on a Super Friends thread. Oh, well. :rolleyes: Hmm! Now that I think about it, the monolith episode might be the same one that \*\* KKBattousai\*\* alluded to in his/her post, since the monolith was certainly powerful enough to allow for time travel and the such. Somehow the concept of the monolith stuck on me more than the story that served as a context for its exposure. Could somebody fill the gaps in my recollection of the episode? Al that I seem to remember is that the LoD had to go all the way to the Center of The Earth to get the aforementioned monolith and from then on The Super Friends were powerless to do anything against it until the Bat Computer told them that the monolith could be used for good as well as evil, it only obeyed the commands of the person who was controlling it. Of course, The Superfriends immediately proceeded to kick some ass and correct all the bad deeds done by the bad guys, restoring peace and tranquility, BLAH, Blah, BLAH. Whatever happened in between I got no idea and am very curious about. Any help? * * * **Yoda** or **Yogurt**? A dilemma for the ages. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/30 "2000-11-18T02:39:28Z")
AWB wrote: [QUOTE] [li]The Wonder Twins, especially that cool synthesizer chime that occured when they activated their powers.[/li][/QUOTE] The majority of that sound was achieved by hitting a big chord on an ordinary piano. ---
**Author:** ![ricksummon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ricksummon/32/3333_2.png) [@ricksummon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricksummon)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/31 "2000-11-18T03:34:23Z")
I used to watch that show, and often, I’d root for the bad guys, because the Superfriends always got captured and then got rescued at the last minute by some completely unrelated thing. The way I saw it, the bad guys had beaten the Superfriends fair and square and they **deserved** to win. Favorite Legion of Doom member: Sinestro. With his Fu Manchu mustache and his power ring that could **automatically** beat Green Lantern’s every time because it was yellow, Sinestro ruled! Most Obscure Superfriend: El Dorado. His power was creating holograms. Big deal. Favorite Episode: Superman is switched with his counterpart in a parallel universe in which the Superfriends are evil. The evil Superman says “Great Satan!” instead of “Great Scott!” and the Hall of Evil has a goat’s head symbol on the front. I have NO idea how something like that got onto a children’s program. Other Favorite Episode: The Legion of Doom creates a drug that makes the Superfriends stupid. (Of course, I mean even stupider than usual.) So stupid, in fact, that Batman couldn’t figure out the Riddler’s riddles! ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/32 "2000-11-18T03:38:22Z")
To this day, I say (in my best Ted Baxter voice): **"Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Justice . . ."** _dee-da-lee-da-dee!_ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/33 "2000-11-18T08:59:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ricksummon \* > **Favorite Legion of Doom member: Sinestro. With his Fu Manchu mustache and his power ring that could automatically beat Green Lantern’s every time because it was yellow, Sinestro ruled!** My favorite Sinestro vs. Green Lantern moment was when Sinestro encased Green Lantern in a yellow cage and sent it hurtling through space. Green Lantern caused the bars of the cage to change color (by rotating the cage super-fast or something) so he could dissolve them and fly back to Earth. Has the comic book ever established how yellow something has to be in order for Green Lantern’s ring to be powerless? What if something is yellow-green? ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/34 "2000-11-18T16:55:56Z")
The Superfriends, which is not considered in DC comic book continuity, only had villains who were from the comics during the seasons of Challenge of the Super Friends and later when Firestorm joined. There were quite a few heroes who were created for the show as well which never appeared in the comic books: Apache Chief Tsunami Black Vulcan El Dorado(who later became a DC Comic Book hero) The villains in the Challenge episodes, while they were supposed to match up to each hero, weren’t necessarily the villain of that hero. Solomon Grundy: Golden Age villain who was the nemesis of the Golden Age Green Lantern and the Justice Society. Cheetah: Golden Age villain of Wonder Woman. Sinestro: Was the Silver Age Green Lantern Villain. Toyman: A Superman villain. Bizarro: Never a villain per se, but still an annoyance to Superman. Lex Luthor: Surprise! Yet another Superman villain. Scarecrow: Batman villain. Black Manta: Aquaman villain. Gorilla Grodd: Flash villain. Captain Cold: Flash villain. Riddler: Batman villain. Giganta: A Golden Age Wonder Woman villain. They changed this one from being a force-evolved ape into the opposite of Apache Chief. She was extra sad… Brainiac: A Superman villain. Not exactly a true match-up. Yellow was the weakness of the Green Lantern power ring, which was installed by the Guardians of the Universe, so they would be able to stop a Green Lantern who went rogue. It had to be yellow though… no half shades. ---
**Author:** ![quasar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@quasar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quasar)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/35 "2000-11-18T18:40:33Z")
**Hastur** : Since your last post proved that you are an authority on the Super Friends, I got a few of questions: What was the name of **Zan and Jayna’s** home planet? Who the hell is **Tsunami**? What is the difference between Batman’s foe **Freeze** and **Captain Cold**? Do you know of any FREE on-line sites where I can find original DC or Marvel comics? I am not talking about places that show the covers and brief you on the story line but rather that show the FULL comic book with all its significant contents intact? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/36 "2000-11-18T19:01:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by quasar \* > \*\ ***Hastur** : > > Since your last post proved that you are an authority on the Super Friends, I got a few of questions: > > What was the name of **Zan and Jayna’s** home planet? Exor > [@](#): > > Who the hell is **Tsunami**? He is a japanese superhero who can fly on whirlwinds. > [@](#): > > What is the difference between Batman’s foe **Freeze** and **Captain Cold**? Captain Cold a.k.a. Leonard Snart is a Flash villain who uses a cold gun to wreak havoc. Mr. Freeze is a Batman villain who has a reduced body temeperature which requires him to be in a cryonic suit to live and also grants him the power to freeze things. There is also a Firestorm villain called Killer Frost who has the same powers, a Batman and the Outsider villain called Cold Snap who has the same, and a few others that escape my memory at the moment. > [@](#): > > Do you know of any FREE on-line sites where I can find original DC or Marvel comics? I am not talking about places that show the covers and brief you on the story line but rather that show the FULL comic book with all its significant contents intact? Nope. ---
**Author:** ![quasar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@quasar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quasar)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/37 "2000-11-18T19:47:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hastur \* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by quasar \* > > **Hastur** : > > Who the hell is **Tsunami**? > > He is a japanese superhero who can fly on whirlwinds. \*\*Translations, translations \*\* I usually watched the show on national TV, which dubs the audio signal to Spanish. Over here **Tsunami** is called **Samurai** , which explains why I was confused when you mentioned him in your post. Even tough I initially assumed that you meant Samurai, I disregarded that assumption since, aside from the fact that tsunamis are common in Japan and were named by the Japanese, the name doesn’t fit Samurai’s powers at all. A much better-fitting name would have been **Tornado** or **Maelstrom**. BTW, thanks for the info **Hastur** ---
**Author:** ![quasar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@quasar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quasar)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412/38 "2000-11-20T19:03:29Z")
So far no one has mentioned Atom–or Atomic, I am not sure about his name. He seldomly appeared in the show but was a nice character. Guess his small role resembled his diminutive size. Wouldn’t you have love to see this matchup: **Atom vs Atom Ant** , or even **Atom vs Mighty Mouse** Wouldn’t it have been cool if Atom had turned out to be the 101th smurf, you know, **Super Smurf** or some crap like that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-superfriends/41412.md?page=1)