Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Challenge of the Super Friends: "Super Friends: Rest in Peace" (December 16, 1978)

Batman is dead!

The Super Friends huddle in the Bat Cave in shock, as the latest Legion of Doom gambit takes a powerful emotional toll on the Justice League.

This crisis all began when the Legion of Doom members, posing as oil company employees, excavated a deadly canister of Noxium that had been buried under the Hall of Justice. 

After acquiring the weapon,the Legion tricked Superman into opening it. Inside is a poisonous crystal.

With the deadly weapon in hand, the Legion proceeded to attack Paradise Island. There, Cheetah killed Wonder Woman.  

At another location, Superman had to rescue Lois Lane, only to die, apparently, in the attempt, because of exposure.

The deadly Noxium gives The Legion of Doom"The greatest victory" it has ever had.  But the Super Friends have one last trick up their costumed sleeves.

"Super Friends: Rest in Peace" is a really fun episode of this Saturday morning series. It features an exciting  point-of-attack: the death of Batman, and then works backwards to explain what has occurred. 

The story is surprising, and fans get to see superheroes dying, which is an unusual sight, to say the least, for a kid's show.

I also adore this episode because it pulls in characters from the individual hero universes. For instance, we see Commissioner Gordon, from the Batman mythos.  And, of course, we get to see Lois Lane, at the Daily Planet, too.

The final deus ex machina involves the death of these beloved superheroes.  They aren't dead at all, but super duplicate robots!  

It's a little far-fetched, but it is consistent with what we see on screen, and so it works.

Next week: "History of Doom."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Challenge of the Super Friends: "Doomsday" (December 9, 1978)

The Super Friends foil an attack by the Legion of Doom on the brand new vessel Dauntless, the largest aircraft carrier in the world.  The Legion abandons Sinestro, Cheetah and Black Manta, rather than help them during the crisis.

Enraged, the three super villains seek revenge, leaving anti-matter robots in their place, in the Hall of Justice, and heading out to execute their wrath.

Soon, it's a battle between two Legions of Doom!

"Doomsday" features members of the Legion of Doom turning against the villainous organization, and boasts some intriguing moments. 

For one, we get to see the holding cells at the Hall of Justice. All the criminals housed there, intriguingly, are extra-terrestrial in nature. 

On one hand, this alien round-uup captures the idea that the Justice League protects more than Earth, but rather the whole galaxy. 

On the other hand, it doesn't seem realistic that Earth would house these prisoners, considering how people feel, today, about housing terrorists in American jails. How do you think such people would react knowing dangerous alien criminals are incarcerated in the middle of a major city?

Secondly, Black Manta carries a hand gun in this episode that very clearly resembles an inverted Colonial Viper, from Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979).

Bad dialogue watch: Rboin says "Holy Abominable Snowman," and Aquaman gets the honor of saying "That's what you think" this week. The target of his quip is Sinestro.

Nextweek: "Super Friends: Rest in Peace."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Challenge of the Super Friends: "Fairy Tale of Doom" (December 2, 1978)

In “Fairy Tale of Doom,” Toyman unveils his “newest and most awesome” invention, a weapon which can zap any living being into the pages of a book.  If someone becomes trapped in said book for more than twelve hours, they are stuck there “forever.”

The Legion of Doom traps Hawkman in Jack and the Bean Stalk, which pits him against a giant. And the Man of Steel is tricked into the world of Gulliver’s Travels, and captured in Lilliput.

Meanwhile, Batman, Robin, Green Lantern and Black Vulcan are trapped in a pit in the Hall of Justice, unable to save their friends.  Meanwhile, the clock ticks down...

Another episode of Challenge of the Super Friends (1978), another ridiculous (but enjoyable) plot-line. This week, the Legion of Doom traps our favorite DC heroes in the fictional world of books.  

It’s a dopey idea -- “Holy Science Fiction!” as Robin exclaims -- and yet an installment filled with fun little Easter eggs.

For instance, the Nautilus, Captain Nemo’s submarine from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, makes a guest appearance in “Fairy Tale of Doom,” and in design it looks almost exactly like the beloved Disney Nautilus from the 1954 film.

Later, while the superheroes fight in Japan, we see a sign for “Toho,” the studio that produces the Godzilla films (and which had licensed Godzilla to Hanna-Barbera for a 1978 Saturday morning series of his own…).

Otherwise, this is your standard episode of the series. Everyone announces what they are going to do, as they do it, and a character inevitably states “That’s what you think!” This time, Toyman gets the honor. 

And, of course, the situations are ridiculous. I noted above that Batman, Robin, Green Lantern and Black Vulcan become trapped in a pit in the Hall of Justice. It has an open-ended top, but the series writers apparently forget that both Black Vulcan and Green Lantern can fly. A hole in the floor shouldn’t impede them;

Next week: “Doomsday.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Challenge of the Super Friends: "Swamp of the Living Dead" (November 11, 1978)

In “Swamp of the Living Dead,” an episode of Hanna-Barbera’s Challenge of the Super Friends (1978), the Legion of Doom negotiates with an old witch in a swamp to possess the greatest powers of all time. A dark force, an Evil Being, promises the Legion of Doom it will comply, but wants the Super Friends in return.

The Legion of Doom sets out to capture and destroy the Super Friends one-at-a-time, setting “super traps” for the heroes.

Before long, the heroes are captured in tubes under the swamp, and gassed into suspended animation.  

While the heroes suffer this “strange fate in the depths of the fathomless bog,” the Legion of Doom inherit from their benefactor -- “The Evil One Who Haunts the Night” -- the ability to raise an army of the living dead.

The Legion of Doom and the zombie army attack the Federal Plutonium Plant, but no one should ever count out the Super Friends.

Challenge of the Super Friends delves into George A. Romero territory in “Swamp of the Living Dead” after, in its previous installment, visiting the Planet of the Apes (Gorilla City!).

In “Swamp of the Living Dead,” the Legion of Doom seeks power from a dark force that happens to inhabit a local swamp.  Why or how this creature -- a kind of floating head -- has come to exist is never explained. The Legion of Doom, however delivers to it the Super Friends, starting with Hawkman, and then Batman and Robin.  The Dynamic Duo end up running the Batmobile into the swamp, and Robin exclaims, “Holy Reckless Driving, Batman!”

The funniest thing about this episode is that the Legion of Doom has never, ever -- in the entire history of the show -- been able to successfully restrain or stop the heroes from the Hall of Justice for any significant duration of time.

But when the dark swamp entity demands the superheroes as a price, the Legion of the Doom promptly captures them all. Maye they should have just quit while they were ahead.

In addition to his reckless driving comment, Roin gets in a quasi-reference to Kolchak at one point: “Holy Night Stalker!”

Next week: "Conquerors of the Future."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Challenge of the Super Friends: "Revenge of Gorilla City" (November 4, 1978)

In “Revenge of Gorilla City,” an episode of Challenge of the Super Friends (1977), Grod convinces his allies in the Legion of Doom that they must take over peace-loving Gorilla City. Long ago, he was banished from the peaceful metropolis.

Now, Brainiac has developed a mind amplification device that allows the Legion of Doom to enslave the city-dwellers.  Only the city’s King, Solivar, escapes this brain-washing, and manages to warn the Super Friends of the danger. Unfortunately, Superman is far away, in Galaxy 13, pulverizing asteroids.

Rescuing the city of intelligent simians is more difficult than it might seem, too, because Toy Man has created a Kryptonite toy airplane that can immobilize the Man of Steel.

“Holy Gorilla Warfare!” Robin exclaims in “Revenge of Gorilla City,” a story that blends a Planet of the Apes (1968)-style civilization with a superhero story. 

Grod -- the only criminal in the history of Gorilla City -- takes out his revenge on his people, and the episode’s big set-piece is a “royal hunt” of the Super Friends by the mesmerized apes and the Legion of Doom. So, think Taylor, Landon and Dodge under attack, but throw in the DC characters for good measure.

We learn much background about Grod and his civilization in this episode. Gorilla City is hidden under a dome of invisibility, near Bogota, and rests on huge deposits of gold. The Super Friends and the Legion of Doom know about its existence, and apparently Grod has been frothing at the mouth to return there and wreak his vengeance. King Solivar is a noble leader.

Here, everybody drives to the city in moon buggy-type vehicles, and the Legion of the Doom invention of the week is the brain wave amplifier by which Brainiac can establish mental control over the city's denizens.

This week, Wonder Woman is the hero who wears a helmet in space, but no space suit (last week it was Batman), and it’s confusing why she even bothers. Clearly, the writers of the episode understood that some protection is required in space, but didn’t want to give her a space suit, apparently.

Lastly, the Super Friends state a variation on the line that is repeated every week on Challenge of the Super Friends: “Not if we can help it!”

Next Week: “Swamp of the Living Dead.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Challenge of the Super Friends: "Secret Origins of the Super Friends" (October 28, 1978)

In “Secret Origins of the Super Friends,” Lex Luthor hatches a new plan to stop the Super Friends. He will use a time machine, and travel back in time to undo the creation of Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Superman, three of the most powerful super friends.

First, the Legion of Doom travels to Paradise Island of 1941, and Cheetah defeats Diana Prince in an Amazon tournament, thus becoming Wonder Woman herself.

Next, Lex Luthor replaces Hal Jordan when he is visited by the Green Lantern Corps., and Abin Sur, on Earth.

Lastly, the Legion travels back to Krypton of the past, and diverts young Kal-El’s rocket away from Earth, to a different planet with a red sun. There, the boy grows up as just another citizen, unaware of his destiny as the man of steel.

With these powerful Super Friends out of the way, the Legion of the Doom captures the other members of the Hall of Justice, and makes them fight one another using a “Hypnotic Anger Ray.”

Fortunately, while in captivity, Batman and the other heroes learn from the Legion of Doom memory banks that there are missing Super Friends, ones whom they have no memory of at all, because of the altered timeline.

Batman, Robin, and the others launch an attempt to bring Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern back into existence.

Although “Secret Origins of the Super Friends” features many of the same lapses of logic and dramatic consistency that frequently plague this 1977’s Hanna-Barbera series, it nonetheless must count as one of the better episodes of Challenge of the Super Friends.

The reason is simple. For the first time, we get some background info on members of the Super Friends, and the way they came to be superheroes. The origins of Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Superman are all explored in depth here, and the audience even gets to see the great Jor-El, as he argues about the impending destruction of his home world.

These sequences are fascinating for how they depict the beginnings of these heroes, and, in dramatic fashion, showcase how the Legion of Doom undercuts and subverts them.  It is terrible, in particular, seeing deceitful Cheetah adopt the Wonder Woman mantle, defeating Diana.  It is bracing, and alarming, as well, to see Lex Luthor in the uniform of Green Lantern.

The mechanics of the altered time lines are kind of dodgy here, but it hardly matters, as Batman restores his friends to the timeline and corrects the universe in the process. However, I couldn’t help but think, while watching this installment, that the most powerful origin to undercut in the story would have been Batman’s.

Imagine if Bruce Wayne’s parents hadn’t been murdered. Batman would have never come into creation, and Bruce would have grown up happy, with both parents alive and well. This fact would have created a real bind for the other Super Friends. Could they alter time if it meant killing Bruce’s parents, and taking away the boy’s happiness? What a fascinating that story would have made!

Next week: “Revenge of Gorilla City.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Challenge of the Super Friends: "The Giants of Doom" (October 21, 1977)

Bizarro devises a plan to transform his fellow members of the Legion of Doom into giants using a strange ray device. Toy Man, Sinestro and Captain Cold grow to gigantic proportion and go on a crime spree, terrifying the world. Captain Cold even freezes the Parthenon.

The Super Friends are then trapped in a giant test tube and sent to their “frozen doom” on Saturn, leaving the Legion of Doom to revel in its new power over Earth.

But the Super Friends discover a way to turn the tables on their nemeses. 

“The Giants of Doom” may be the most nonsensical episode yet of Challenge of the Super Friends (1977).  Logic, science, and reason are nowhere to be found in this particular cartoon half-hour.

For example, Sinestro and Bizarro crack the moon open. They literally crack it in half. This action has no impact on Earth, apparently. No tide changes. Nothing.

Fortunately, Superman uses his heat vision to “weld” the two lunar chunks back together.

If that sequence isn’t strange enough, the astronauts on Moonbase #1 wear Starfleet delta shields, and Batman -- for this episode alone -- must wear an air/breathing mask over his costume mask while in outer space. Yes, he has been in space several times before “The Giants of Doom,” but never required a mask.  Also, Batman has no need for a pressure suit. Just the mask.

Meanwhile, Superman gets what may be one of the most unintentionally funny lines of the entire series. “From the looks of it, I’d say we’re somewhere in the gaseous interior of Saturn.” 

There, in that gaseous interior, the superheroes battle a gas monster. But how would Superman know, just from surveying the terrain that they are in the gaseous interior of Saturn? Has he been there before? Does it look different from the gaseous center of Uranus?

Another element that doesn’t make any sense: Superman traps Sinestro in a yellow force field, but the villain should be able to escape all energy that is yellow, right? (The way Green Lantern was able to penetrate a green energy force field in an earlier episode). Miraculously, the yellow force field traps Sinestro.

Finally, our “That’s what you think” exclamation of the week goes to Green Lantern, who makes the comment to Sinestro.

Next week, a much more intriguing episode: “Secret Origins of the Super Friends.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Challenge of the Super Friends: "Monolith of Evil" (October 14, 1978)

The Legion of Doom travels to the “molten center” of the Earth to locate a legendary “evil” power source that only Solomon Grundy knows about.  The power source -- a monolith – is guarded by a lava monster that is impassable.

The Legion decides to use the Super Friends to help the evil doers acquire the monolith. The Super Friends travel to the “underworld inferno” and fall into the trap.

But it is the legion that has a surprise in store. The monolith is not evil at all. It operates according to the intent of its user.

The Legion of Doom once more tricks the Super Friends into helping them achieve their plans of evil conquest, only to be hoisted by their own petards, in “Monolith of Evil.”

This episode of “Monolith of Evil” has call-backs both to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. Intriguingly, no one – villain or hero – bats an eye at the presence of giant, undiscovered monsters in the subterranean world. There might be some scientists out there would be interested in such never-before see species.

In terms of our regular “That’s what you think!” watch, the Riddler gets to say it in “Monolith of Evil.” He says to Superman, “That’s what you think, Stupid Man!” Meanwhile, Robin’s exclamation of the week is “Holy Cut Communications!”

Next Week: “The Giants of Doom.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Challenge of the Super Friends: "Trial of the Super Friends" (October 7, 1978)

The Super Friends defend a new energy source called “Liquid Light,” but the Legion of Doom soon steals it. In truth, the Legion has a far more insidious plan.

It uses its agent to capture the super devices of the Justice League, including Wonder Woman’s lasso, Green Lantern’s power ring, and the utility belts belonging to Batman and Robin.  The Super Friends are rendered powerless and transported to the HQ of the Legion of Doom.

There, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Caped Crusaders are put on trial and found guilty of defending justice. They are sentenced to fight android duplicates of themselves; but ones armed with their devices.

The heroes of the Justice League get a “taste of their own medicine” in “Trial of the Super Friends.” Deprived of their devices, they are forced to understand what it is like to be hunted by those who possess them.

This episode of Challenge of the Super Friends (1978) reveals more information about the Legion of Doom. For example, the members operate by their own set of laws, of what you might call “anti-justice.” In their eyes, the Super Friends are the criminals. 

Actually, their laws are pretty, well... Libertarian. They seem to object to the heroes on the specific basis that the heroes interfere in their plans to do whatever they desire.  Amusingly, the oath in this anti-legal system is “So help me, Grod.”  That’s pretty funny.

Secondly, we see that the Legion HQ has an operating transporter device that can beam people from one location to another. As with other devices, the series’ writers only remember this device sporadically, when a particular narrative requires it.

As usual, logic is not a strong suit. At one point, Green Lantern is without his power ring. That ring is creating an impenetrable green force field. But Green Lantern just reaches through it, and grabs it. Is this because he controls all green powers, even without the ring?  If that’s the case, why bother to steal the ring anyway?

Repetitive dialogue watch: This week, Cheetah gets the constantly repeated line, “That’s what you think.” She addresses it, in this case, to Wonder Woman.  Later, Superman repeats “That’s what you think” to Black Manta.

This line is constantly and tiresomely repeated, and, as we have seen, totally interchangeable. It’s a playground level taunt for first graders, used by protagonists and antagonists alike.

Robin’s exclamation this week is pretty amusing “Holy Mistrials!”

Next week: “Monolith of Evil.”

JLA Week: Super Friends Comic Book (DC)

JLA Week: Super Friends Coloring Book (Whitman)

JLA Week: Super Friends Flashlight

JLA Week: Super Frieds Magnetic Pa'cheesie Game

JLA Week: The Super Friends Theme Song

JLA Week: Challenge of the Super Friends: "World's Deadliest Game" (September 23, 1978)

Brainiac develops a cloaking device that hides the Earth from Super Friends, in space. Wonder Woman, Black Vulcan, and Hawkman respond to a distress call from a distant sector. They travel through a black hole and end up on Toy Man’s planet.

There, the villain traps the heroes in a giant pinball machine, and then in a giant doll-house, where the heroes must contend with a giant wind-up baby doll.

The other Super Friends attempt to find their missing comrades, and battle Empress Zayna, who immobilizes them with sleeping pollen so she can turn them into statues and keep them in her stone menagerie.

In one crucial way, “The World’s Deadliest Game” captures perfectly the creative plan of Challenge of the Super Friends (1978). If I had to state that strategy in two words it would be:

No. Rules.

No rules whatsoever. The Super Friends observe no rules, and neither do the members of the Legion of Doom. It’s all pure phantasmagoria. Anything can happen, at any time. And something that was impossible in one minute, happens in the next minute. 

Consider what happens in this episode. The villains cloak an entire planet, all as a trap for the Super Friends.  Think of the power required!

Then, the Super Friends travel to a distant galaxy without any faster-than-light drive…just by flying. And they travel through the center of a black hole, and don’t experience spaghettification or any gravitational forces that stop them.

And through it all, they are not wearing armor, or force-fields, or even rocket packs.

Which makes it very funny, for certain, when Hawkman and Black Vulcan complain, while dealing with the giant pinball machine, that they can’t fly because of the forces of gravity

Now the gravity bothers them?

No matter, a few minutes later they are flying again, with no further mention of gravitational forces.

This is a series that may know, broadly, the Laws of Physics, but has zero interest in applying them in anything approaching a consistent manner.   For instance, Green Lantern protects some Super Friends in space with a green force field. But then he leaves, when they travel through the black hole, without protection.

So someone writing the show knew that there should be some explanation for the survival of the Super Friends in the void of space. But then didn’t think to apply that explanation to survival in a black hole.

Again, I know the counter-argument is: this is a show for kids.

Well, as I always notes, kids are smart. For one thing, at the age they are watching a series like The Super Friends, they are also enrolled in science classes. So, they know -- in some cases better than adults – when a series strays from science into out-and-out fantasy.

The “no rules” approach of Challenge of the Super Friends makes the battle between the JLA and the Legion of Doom completely arbitrary, a matter of luck. There is no underlying reason for victory or defeat. It’s just a matter of what “works” this week.   It’s weird that the Legion of Doom would never use its planetary cloaking device again, or modify it for their headquarters, for instance.

The best aspect of this episode involves Toy Man's doll-house, which manages to be a creepily, nightmarish locale.

Long story short: Holy Mind Bender, as Robin exclaims in this episode. 

Challenge of the Super Friends is really Short Attention Super Hero Theater. You can get the gist of the story while you eat your cereal, get your clothes on, and start the day. If you pay total attention to the story-lines, you will realize how vapid and dumb the series actually is.

Next up: "The Time Trap."

JLA Week: Challenge of the Super Friends: "Invasion of the Fearians" (September 16, 1978)

The Legion of Doom teams up with three-headed aliens invaders from Venus known as “Fearians.” To assist them, Captain Cold ushers in a new Ice Age, necessitating an intervention from the Super Friends, and in particular, The Flash.

At the same time, Black Manta sets a section of the Pacific Ocean on fire, and Aquaman arrives there to stop him.

However, these are all dastardly tricks to impact the planetary environment, and make Earth’s atmosphere more like that of Venus, and therefore more hospitable to the Fearians.

Once more in Challenge of the Super Friends (1978), thirteen of the most dastardly criminals in the known galaxies are “formulating sinister plans that will jeopardize the Earth.” The game this week involves the Legion of Doom tricking the Super Friends into intervening to alter the atmosphere, in an attempt to reshape the Earth to Venusian preferences.

So, basically, the Super Friends, in “Invasion of the Fearians,” cause the process of global warming to hyper-accelerate so that our beautiful planet can be home to a Fearian colony. The second part of the plan involves using android duplicates (built by Brainiac) of governmental leaders, to facilitate the hand-over of power.

The new Ice Age angle was a big trend of the late 1970’s (see: Robert Altman’s Quintet 1979]), and the android duplicate angle was also popular in the disco decade, in movies such as Westworld (1972), The Stepford Wives (1975), and series such as The Bionic Woman (1976 -1978), which featured “fembots” as recurring villains. The tale a cautionary one. What happened to Venus, and shaped the monstrous Fearians, could happen here on Earth.

As usual in a Super Friends production, there is little attention paid to scientific accuracy. For instance, Flash reduces his temperature to “absolute zero,” and yet he shows no ill-effects, and can still function perfectly. Superhero heroic powers do not equal invincibility…except on this show.

When I reviewed “Wanted: Super Friends,” I noted that there are two specific lines of dialogue that get repeated in every episode of Challenge of the Super Friends. The first is the exclamation: “That’s What You Think!”  In this episode, that line is actually said twice in 24 minutes, first by Batman, and then again, later, by Captain Cold.

The second oft-repeated line is Batman’s exclamation of “Holy (fill in the blank).”  Here, Robin says “Holy Iceberg!” and Holy Impenetrability!”

The whole episode is nonsensical, lacking in any real fidelity to the comic book characters, as we understand them today, and yet, for the 1970’s, a lot of fun.  I do think that children of the 1970’s were ready for a more character-driven, intellectual experience than what is provided in stories like this one. And occasionally, Challenge of the Super Friends delivered on that promise (see: “History of Doom.”)

Next up: “The World’s Deadliest Game.”