Super Friends

Ah, the Super Friends. Anyone who grew up in the 70's and calls themselves a comic book fan has a special place in their heart for this show; the first cartoon to depict the Justice League of America (well, apart from the Filmation cartoons, but they didn't have the big guns of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman in the JLA cartoons). Some hated it because it was watered down, with no memorable villains. Other enjoyed its charm and goofy fun. Some of us were glad to see any show with superheroes.

Now, in the 70's, the networks didn't allow much in the ways of violence in cartoons (except for Bugs and company), so we didn't get any slobberknockers with the bad guys. Still, there were memorable conflicts, with some creativity involved. Yeah, most of the "villains" were misguided and not evil, but there was fun to be had.

Some of my personal favorites were the GEEC episode, where a computer controls all of man's machines, only to go haywire when a mouse gets inside it; The planet-splitting episode, where Superman's origin is retold; the Gulliver episode, where everyone is reduced to the size of a doll; and the episode with the Flash.

The series went out of its way to present environmental issues, moral dilemmas, and other thought-provoking conflicts. It had far greater educational value than the "commercial" cartoons of the 80's and was far more entertaining than most. Yes, Wendy and Marvin were annoying at times, but they did have some value. I'll take them over the Wonder Twins any day. Besides, Marvin made it into Alex Ross' Kingdom Come.

If you wanted action in the 70's, you had to find Jonny Quest reruns or catch Speed Racer in syndication. The Super Friends would suffice until something better came along. It took two more series, but arrive it did; and, it still carried the name, Super Friends.

This was an hour long show that was actually two shows put together. Half of it was a continuation of The All-New Super Friends Hour but just a half hour this time. The second part is them fighting the Legion Of Doom. That's the series I remember seeing the most as a kid, it was probably re-run by itself later. This is the only series that came close to the comic book, they even go to the Bat cave. I would highly recommend not watching any series that came before this one.

I'm not really sure what they were going for here. It seems like they wanted this to be their version of The New Scooby-Doo Movies but it seems like they couldn't get the rights to use any of the characters. They have the Thief Of Zagdad and Dr. Frankenschtein. The Middle Earth episode seems like it was written by someone who had only seem that awful Hobbit cartoon from 1977 or South Park's parody of it. Despite all that, the stories are actually better than most of the Super Friends series. Except the time when Zan and Jayna wake up their stupid monkey because he was snoring. Zan says "You must have been having some dream!". Because he was snoring? ugh. There is no spoiler, the mods clearly don't read these.

Along with 'Challenge of the Super Friends' & 'Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show', this was one of the best Super Friends show. The stories were at their peak, being very creative and adventourous. It was classic eighties cartoons, like The Real Ghostbusters and Inspector Gadget. Catch the reruns on Cartoon Network.

I remember watching this cartoon at 8:30 in the morning if I had a day out of school. At the age of 10 I realize that this is the best superfriends cartoon. The cartoon pit their arch enemies against the superfriends which derives from the DC comics. I enjoy watching Lex Luther always trying to make a way to destroy the superfriends. Especially superman,wonder woman,and the green lantern because they all the most powerful ones of them all. Superman serves as the superfriends leader and at the end they prove that evil never prevails. If you noticed The Challenge of the Superfriends and The Scooby Doo Show(1978) has the same danger background music.