Posted By Dan Greenfield on Sep 23, 2023 | 4 comments

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: The toys take over…

Over the last few months, we’ve been excerpting Andy Mangels’ ongoing Super Friends history from the pages of TwoMorrows’ RetroFan magazine. Well Issue #29 is due in shops Oct. 11, and we conclude with the inside story of the Super Friends‘ final season in 1985-6, when “Friends” was dropped from the title as part of a move to further sell Kenner’s successful Super Powers toy line, which debuted in 1984.

RetroFan #29 has tons of other great material, including more from Andy’s article, so dig the cover and the table of contents — and then on to the Hall of Justice one last time!

By ANDY MANGELS

By the time that work on the eight half-hours of the 1984-85 Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show had concluded, Hanna-Barbera and ABC were already planning what to do with the next season. The Kenner Super Powers toy line was a hit, and as kids were now comfortable with the Super Powers name, the decision was made to drop the “Friends” part of the title completely. The new season for fall 1985 would now be called The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.

There were more changes than just the name. Aquaman, Flash, and El Dorado returned (albeit briefly), as did Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Samurai, but Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, Zan, Jayna, and Gleek were all gone, never to be mentioned again. Most noticeably, the Hall of Justice was drastically redesigned, losing its original look, dated computer-wall interiors—and it moved to Metropolis!

A major new character was introduced in Cyborg, an African-American creation of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez for the ultra-popular New Teen Titans comics series. As Kenner was introducing Cyborg to the toy line—and planned to do a Titans wave of the Super Powers figures—he made sense, and he brought more diversity and youth to the series. Hanna-Barbera had already done development on a potential New Teen Titans series for ABC in late 1983 (see Back Issue #122 from TwoMorrows), and created animation for some New Teen Titans anti-drug commercials, so they decided to bring Cyborg over into the Galactic Guardians series. Even the exact same character design was utilized.

The debut episode, “The Seeds of Doom,” was written by animation and comics scribe Alan Burnett. It was relatively faithful to the Cyborg origin, although all Titans lore was omitted. Victor Stone was a promising decathlon athlete, but when an accident destroyed much of his body, his scientist father repaired him with bionic and cybernetic parts.

Introduced in the show while helping a young disabled boy learn to walk with a mechanical leg, Cyborg aided the heroic team to fight Lex Luthor. Offered a permanent spot, Cyborg refused, but he later helped the heroes fight against a plot by Darkseid. Changing his mind, Cyborg became one of the Super Powers team members.

Voiced by Ernie Hudson (best known for 1984’s Ghostbusters), Cyborg appeared in eight of the 10 stories for Galactic Guardians’ eight episodes.

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Everything about Galactic Guardians looked stronger than previous seasons, as the animators more closely emulated Jose Luis García-López’s DC Style Guide art. “The Alex Toth designs that they had earlier [on previous Super Friends shows] had the advantage of simplicity,” said series writer Rich Fogel. “They were real easy to draw and almost anybody could draw them, whereas the new designs had a lot more modeling, a lot more musculature, and that’s real hard to draw in motion. … They had been doing Super Friends for a while, and I think DC in particular felt that they’d like to bring it more in line with what was going on in the comic books.”

More dynamic art, better animation, and older-skewing stories were supported not only by DC, but by Kenner.

“All of these elements came together to make a little bit of a tougher show,” said Burnett, “and a show that would sell toys.”

For once, Standards and Practices began to loosen its noose-like grip on the series. This resulted in stories that were more dramatic and grown-up than normal, including an episode called “The Death of Superman” which imagined what would happen if the Man of Steel were killed. This episode featured multiple cameos, including Flash and El Dorado, and it would be the final time that the original core Super Friends team was seen together onscreen.

Speaking of comic books, DC Comics utilized the toy line and animated series to cue up a trio of Super Powers miniseries. The first two —respectively five and six issues each and released in fall 1984 and fall 1985—were drawn by none other than comics master Jack Kirby. A third four-part series was released in 1986, but it was clearly a cash-grab.

Some comic-book elements were featured from Justice League of America books and others, including villains such as Lex Luthor, Brainiac, the Joker, the Royal Flush Gang, Scarecrow, Felix Faust, the Penguin, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and Bizarro. Darkseid’s screeching Parademons (called “Para-Drones” so as not to offend parents) made their first appearances. Superman’s Fortress of Solitude was shown—complete with giant yellow key—while Wonder Woman’s boots gained the white stripe that had previously been seen in comics and the live-action TV series. The creators also worked in the TV “Wonder Spin” a few times, and one sequence seemed to be traced from a Lynda Carter credit scene.

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But the biggest comic-book element of all was groundbreaking.

In an episode called “The Fear,” written by Burnett, Batman’s origin was shown for the first time ever outside of comics. Through two movie serials, three seasons of the live-action TV series, and two different animated series, viewers had never seen criminal Joe Chill murder Thomas and Martha Wayne in Crime Alley. This episode saw Batman face his demons thanks to the fear transmitters of the Scarecrow. The episode also featured the first appearances on the series of Commissioner Gordon and butler Alfred Pennyworth, as well as the only time that Batman and Robin appeared as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson.

“That actually began as a pilot for Batman,” Burnett said on the DVD set. “A whole separate series.” Burnett adapted his script for Super Powers, but ran into Standards issues. “You cannot show people dying on Saturday morning. You especially can’t show parents die on Saturday morning!” Burnett and the animators also couldn’t use a gun, or even reference one, though Joe Chill does tell the Wayne’s “This is a stick-up!” Right before Bruce Wayne is about to say the word “gun,” lightning flashes and thunder rumbles, drowning out his words and the sound of the shots. Unlike later, near-fetishistic scenes in live-action Batman films, the sprawled bodies of the dead Waynes are never seen.

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“Super Powers: Galactic Guardians was about as far as you could take superheroes on Saturday morning television,” Burnett said. “These shows were the harbinger of superhero shows later on. So I look on Galactic Guardians as the last part of an era, and something else at that time is starting to open up to what we’re doing today.”

The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians debuted on September 7, 1985, with eight half-hour episodes. Six of these were full-length stories, while two shows contained a pair each of shorter tales. Gone were the old-style orange-red title cards, replaced by a sleek new racing-stripe-and-running-heroes motif. The final rerun of Galactic Guardians aired on September 6, 1986, bringing to a close a 13-year legacy of heroism.

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There’s so much more in the article and the rest of the mag, I highly recommend picking it up. RetroFan #29 is scheduled to be in comics shops Oct. 11. You can also get it directly from TwoMorrows, which will ship beginning Oct. 4. Click here. And while you’re at it, check out the World’s Greatest Super Friends Podcast. We recently did a special 50th anniversary episode. Click here to listen, if ya like!

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MORE

— Pour Yourself Some Cereal and Dig This Groovy SUPER FRIENDS Art. Click here.

— THE SECRET ORIGIN of the LEGION OF DOOM. Click here.

— The Secret Origin of the SUPER FRIENDS Comic Book Series. Click here.