Super Friends was Hanna-Barbera’s animated adaptation of Justice League of America, a superhero team that frequently featured DC Comics’ Big Three: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Over 12 years, the studio produced 93 episodes over nine seasons with the show under various names. Super Friends: The Complete Collection collects all those series on Blu-ray for the first time across 16 discs.
Buy Super Friends: The Complete Series Blu-raySuper Friends aired 16 episodes that debuted in 1973. As stated when I reviewed the Season One, Volume One on DVD, “Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. Each episode runs about 45 minutes telling a single story as they deal with aliens and mad scientists. There are no sightings of villains from their rogues’ gallery and there’s very little violence.” There are appearances by reserve members: Plastic Man in ‘Professor Goodfellow’s G.E.E.C.,’ the Flash in ‘Too Hot to Handle,’ and Green Arrow in ‘Gulliver’s Gigantic Goof.’
Joining the heroes are original characters, teenage sidekicks Wendy and Marvin and Wonderdog, who get way more airtime than they should considering they are assisting, as narrator Ted Knight states, “the world’s four greatest heroes.” They are basically imitations of the Scooby-Doo gang and are surprisingly instrumental in solving problems. Their inclusion makes sense to provide someone for kids to identify with, but also seems a tad odd considering Batman is supposed to be a great detective.
After a four-year break, The All-New Super Friends Hour returned with 15 episodes in 1977. The format was changed to four stories in an episode, each of varying run times. Wendy, Marvin, and Wonderdog are replaced by the alien shape-shifting Wonder Twins, Zan (who could take the form of any state of water) and Jayna (who could take the shape of any animal, real or imaginary) and their space-monkey Gleek. The Super Friends are joined by other heroes, such as DC Comics characters Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Atom, and new ones created for the series, such as Black Vulcan, Samurai, and Apache Chief. They also battle known villains such as Black Manta and Gentleman Ghost.
In 1978, the show was tweaked again to have two stories within an episode and given the title Challenge of the Superfriends. One of the stories in each of the 16 episodes found an expanded roster of 11 superheroes battling against a team of supervillains composed of the heroes’ frequent foes, which included the likes of Lex Luthor, the Riddler, and the Cheetah. Known as the Legion of Doom, this iteration is arguably the most beloved by fans.
In 1979, the formula was tweaked again for eight episodes as was the name. The World’s Greatest SuperFriends saw the series revert to its original format of a single story, running 22 minutes, and the original lineup except for the Wonder Twins. The Legion was gone, although Lex appeared in one episode, and some storylines take ideas from classic literature as the heroes travel to Middle Earth, the Land of Oz, and encounter a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein.
In 1980, Super Friends went back to three stories an episode with an expanded hero roster, including the introduction of Mexican hero, El Dorado, and occasional appearances by villains, such as Mr. Mxyzptlk, Bizarro, and General Zodd. The series ran for three seasons, skipping 1982 due to a writer’s strike, for 22 episodes.
In 1984, the series became known as Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and was made in conjunction with Kenner’s Super Powers Collection. The eight episodes feature two stories per episode and frequently find the heroes fighting against Darkseid who wants to conquer the Earth and marry Wonder Woman.
As I stated in my review of the DVD set, “new to the series was DC hero Firestorm, whose powers included an ability to change matter into whatever he wanted. His essential omnipotence makes him a terrible character. There is no suspense in the stories because he is undefeatable. Now that is understandably a good thing when you have stories that are 11 minutes long because he can take care of any problem, but then it makes no sense how the Super Friends get into any trouble in the first place.”
“Fans of Super Friends will notice some changes in the cast. Adam West, the live-action Batman from the ‘60s series, reprises the role. He replaced Olan Soule, who had done a very fine job previously and still appears on the show in smaller roles, which is distracting. Shannon Farnon no longer plays Wonder Woman and it sounds as if different actresses play her throughout the season.”
The final Super Friends series was The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, which ran for eight episodes in 1985. Most of the stories run 22 minutes, and as Ron Ruhman states in his review of the DVD set, “Galactic Guardians was an attempt to allow the show to grow up with the viewers that had invested their time over the past 12 years, and for the most part it succeeds. It clearly laid the groundwork for some of the more cutting-edge shows featuring DC superheroes that would follow.” Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Firestorm and new team member Cyborg are the predominate heroes in this season. The villains are familiar foes from past seasons, and finally, the Joker and the Penguin appear on Super Friends in separate episodes.
The video is available in a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer displayed at the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Colors appear in strong hues that pop. Blacks are inky and whites accurate. The linework looks finely delineated except for occasional moments of too much usage of digital noise reduction. The image looks clean with rare instances of cel dirt and damage. The audio is available in DTS-HD 2.0. Dialogue is clear and the music and effects come through with good clarity. No signs of age or defect were noticed.
Archival bonus material can be found on the following discs:
The All-New Super Friends Hour, Disc 3
- One Dimensional Goodness: The Super Friends and the Good Old Days (15 min) – Looks at the creation of the show.
- Origins of the Guest Stars (8 min) – Looks at the little-known DC characters that were used.
- The Wonder Twins Phenomenon (12 min) – Looks at the activation of the Wonder Twins into the series.
Super Friends! (1978), Disc 2
- The Ballad of Zan and Jayna [Wonder Twin Powers Activate] (4 min) – A silly music video about the Twins.
- Pajama-Rama: Super Friends Retrospective (12 min) – A look back at the show and the times.
Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show
There are five commentary tracks by three writers. All are paired with DC Comic writer Mark Waid. It is very interesting to hear how they crafted a script and the network restrictions placed on them, especially in terms of violence. Evolution: New Heroes, Viler Villains, and Ethnic Additions (18 min) and The Super Powers Collection: The Effect of the Toy Industry on the Super Friends (8 min) focus on the changes in the series and the toyline.
The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians
- Super Friends Redux: Galactic Guardians (11 min) – Mark Waid, writer Rich Fogel, Dan DiDio, DC president Paul Levitz, writer Alan Burnett and others talk about the series. “Though informative, it seems thrown together and a bit self-serving. This piece could have and should have gone deeper.”
Fans of the Super Friends should delight in having all their adventures gathered in The Complete Collection. Many of the stories certainly play like they were written for young children of the ’70s so they don’t compare to the more serious storytelling that came years later in shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League. But that doesn’t mean there’s not fun to be had in revisiting them. The Blu-ray delivers a satisfying high-definition presentation considering the source material.
