Super Friends

Did You Know?

• Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog were dropped after the first season and replaced by the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna, who actually had super powers.
• The Legion of Doom, introduced in 1978, had 13 recurring villains and operated from a swamp-based mechanical flying headquarters called the Hall of Doom.
• Cartoon Network couldn't air Super Friends until after the 1996 merger of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System, even though it had rights to most other Hanna-Barbera shows from 1992.

Production history

In 1973, Hanna-Barbera acquired rights to the DC Comics characters and partnered with ABC to adapt the Justice League of America comic book for television. The network changed the name to Super Friends to avoid accusations of extreme patriotism, though team members sometimes referred to themselves as the Justice League on the show. Violence was toned down for a younger audience and to comply with 1970s broadcast standards. The franchise was owned by DC's parent company Warner Bros., which later syndicated the series.

Cartoon Network could not air Super Friends until after the 1996 merger of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System, which also gave Warner Bros. control of Hanna-Barbera. The series was owned by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, DC Comics Entertainment, Warner Bros. Family Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Animation. Super Friends first aired on September 8, 1973, featuring Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. Voice talent from prior Filmation series was brought in, except Marvin Miller was replaced by Norman Alden as Aquaman.

Superman and Wonder Woman had guest-starred in two episodes of The Brady Kids, and Batman and Robin appeared in two episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.

Spin-offs

On January 18 and 25, 1979, Hanna-Barbera aired two one-hour live-action specials under the title Legends of the Superheroes. The first, 'The Challenge', was loosely based on the Super Friends and the 1960s Batman series, featuring Black Canary, Huntress, and Captain Marvel in place of Samurai, Black Vulcan, and Apache Chief. The second, 'The Roast', had Ed McMahon as emcee. Due to Warner Bros. contracts, Wonder Woman and Superman could not appear.

Plastic Man appeared in one episode of the first season; later, Ruby-Spears Productions released a series starring the character. A Batman animated series was considered in the mid-1980s, with Adam West possibly reprising his role; the pilot 'The Fear' was adapted into an episode of The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. In 1983, a cartoon based on The New Teen Titans was developed as a companion to Super Friends, set in the same continuity, with Robin excluded because he was a Justice League member.

Hanna-Barbera developed it for ABC, but it was not picked up due to the popularity of shows like The Smurfs. The planned team included Wonder Girl, Cyborg, Kid Flash, Changeling, Raven, and Starfire. A substance-abuse-themed commercial featured the Titans as they would have appeared, along with a new hero called the Protector. A Teen Titans animated program was eventually produced, adding Robin and removing Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, and Protector.

Fisher-Price developed a DC Super Friends toy line, and a comic book series and direct-to-video animation The Joker's Playhouse (2010) were tied in.

Comic books

The Super Friends name first appeared on a DC Comics publication in Limited Collectors' Edition #C-41 (December 1975–January 1976), which reprinted Justice League of America stories and featured a new framing sequence by E. Nelson Bridwell and Alex Toth. DC published a Super Friends comic book series from November 1976 to August 1981, launched by Bridwell and Ric Estrada. Zan and Jayna were given back stories and secret identities as blond-haired high school kids and were more competent than in the cartoon.

Bridwell made the comic book accord with other DC titles via footnotes, though the cartoons were not part of the same fictional universe. In 2008, DC began a new Super Friends comic book starring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash (Wally West), and Green Lantern (John Stewart), based on the Imaginext toyline and part of the Johnny DC imprint. Written by Sholly Fisch with art by Dario Brizuela, Stewart McKenny, and J. Bone, it ran for 29 issues from May 2008 to September 2010.

Collected editions include Super Friends: For Justice!, Calling All Super Friends, Head of the Class, and Mystery In Space. In the comics, the Wonder Twins were members of the JLI offshoot Extreme Justice. Young Justice features teenage heroes including Robin, Superboy, Impulse, and Wonder Girl; toward the end of its run, the team recruits the Wonder Twins to invade an island of super-villains.

In other media

The Ultimen, loosely based on Super Friends characters, appear in the Justice League Unlimited episode 'Ultimatum' as allies and later antagonists. They include Long Shadow (based on Apache Chief), Juice (Black Vulcan), Wind Dragon (Samurai), and Downpour and Shifter (based on the Wonder Twins). They are created by Project Cadmus, managed by Maxwell Lord, and are genetically unstable with short lifespans. The Wonder Twins appear in the Smallville episode 'Idol', with Zan played by David Gallagher and Jayna by Allison Scagliotti.

The Hall of Justice appears in Young Justice as a decoy base hiding the Watchtower; Wendy and Marvin appear as classmates. In season two, approximations of minority members from Super Friends appear as teenagers with metahuman abilities activated by the Reach: Tye Longshadow (Apache Chief), Asami Koizumi (Samurai), and Eduardo 'Ed' Dorado Jr. (El Dorado), with Static replacing Black Vulcan. The Wonder Twins appear in the Teen Titans Go! episode 'You're Fired!' applying to replace Beast Boy.

In The Lego Batman Movie, the Super Friends cast celebrates an anniversary party in the Fortress of Solitude. The Super Friends make a minor appearance in Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse. The All-New Super Friends Hour incarnation cameos in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Hall of Justice appears as a stage in Injustice: Gods Among Us and in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.