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Challenge of the Super Friends - The First Season (DC Comics Classic Collection)
- Challenge of the Super Friends - The First Season (DC Comics Classic CollectionA birthday present to a comic book collector who was very happy with his gift. Arrived in good shape and in a timely fashion.
Rating:
- "Meanwhile, At The Legion Of Doom....""Challenge Of The Super Friends" debuted when I was too young to originally watch or be aware of. Thankfully, this show, and other incarnations of it that ran from 1973-1977, were in reruns(and often partnered up with current versions)for years, so I felt like I grew up on it too, if not during most of the original airings. The show went on until 1985/86 or so, so some of it I saw originally. But this one?. This one takes the cake. Easily the best version of the long running superhero series, "Challenge" had what other versions lacked, but were still good and enjoyable. We will get to that in a minute. First, what exactly was this version, which only lasted 1 season and 16 episodes, about?. Read on....
"Challenge" had the best of the DC heroes, Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and The Flash. There were other heroes included, like Apache Chief, Samurai, Black Vulcan, and Hawkman. They resided in the Hall Of Justice. Elsewhere, there lurked something evil in a menacing swamp. It was none other than the Legion Of Doom!. Residing in an ultra cool hideout(which somewhat resembled Darth Vader's helmet)in a murky swamp, the Legion consisted of some of the worst criminals in the superhero gang's history. The leader of the bunch was Lex Luthor(although it seemed there were others who were bigger, stronger, and could easily overtake Luthor if they wanted too!), and the rest included Bizarro(my personal favorite), Solomon Grundy(an interesting one indeed), Grodd, The Riddler, The Toyman, Cheetah, Brainiac, The Scarecrow, Captain Cold, Sinestro, Giganta and Black Mantra. These dastardly criminals planned and schemed week after week, but our mighty superheroes could always stop them just in time!....and, apparently, could always lose the gang of criminals so they can strike again the following week!.
Episodes were, sadly, too few of this great animated series. Here is what you get - "Wanted : The Superfriends"(dream machine makes the superhero gang steal valuable items); "Invasion Of The Fearians"(Aliens want to colonize earth, and enlist the Legion to help do so); "The World's Deadliest Game"(Members of the gang are sucked into a black hole in outer space); "The Time Trap"(Legion use a time machine to go back in time to steal valuable riches, and trap the SF in another time); "Trial Of The Superfriends"(The SF gang have to fight robot copies of themselves); "Monolith Of Evil"(The legion discover an evil energy source); "The Gates Of Doom"; "Secret Origin Of The Superfriends"(Luthor goes back in time to when the SF became superheroes); "Revenge On Gorilla City"(Grodd enlists the legion to conquer the African city he came from); "Swamp Of The Living Dead"(SF battle zombies raised from the dead); "Conquerors Of The Future"; "The Final Challenge"(The Legion and the SF are swept away to a planet to partake in 1 on 1 battles); "Fairy Tales Of Doom"(SF are put into fairy tales); "Doomsday"; "Superfriends : Rest In Peace"; "History Of Doom"(The Legion have supposedly conquered earth, and a couple of aliens reverse the damage).
Earlier versions of the show, from what I hear, had the violence and action toned down a lot from concerned parents. "Challenge", while not necessarily violent or packed with action to the rooftops, seems to have avoided some of that. It's more fun, adventurous, with the superfriends doing more, and the evil villains as well. Like I said before, all of this easily makes it the best version of the show. It offered the best, in terms of scripts and villains, for the superhero show. But how is it, really?. How does it hold up?. The series, and it's heroes, come from a long ago time when it wasn't all doom and gloom, and the people saving you weren't on the fence of being a hero or villain. Things were a lot simpler. How refreshing it was to go back to something lighter and simpler. It may seem pretty cheesy and dated to some now, but that's the beauty of it. Part of the charm and nostalgia of it all. It was a comic book come to life, with superheroes being superheroes, the way we originally remember them. As for the animation, a lot of reviewers on the web have called out the show for it's old school, dated animation, and how crude it was. Not to mention, some drawing mistakes. To me, all for the better. It looks how I remember a lot of cartoons to look, and how I prefer them. With very, very few exceptions, I loathe a great deal of today's TV animation, especially ones dealing with superheroes. Just not a fan. A lot of people see these animation things as a drawback, and something that hurts the show, but it's part of what makes it for me. What I want to see. And finally, the voices. Some may not be household names, but they are some of the best voiceover people ever. Danny Dark as Superman, Olan Soule as Batman, Casey Kasam as Robin. Ted("The Addams Family")Cassidy as Brainiac. Good work here.
As for special features, nothing earth shattering, unfortunatley. We get a very short featurette called "Saturday, Sleeping Bags And Super Friends: A Retrospective", which is a brief examination of the show. It's pretty fluffy stuff, but the people interviewed are clearly fans and are ecstatic to be there, talking about it, and that the show is now currently available on DVD. Elsewhere, we get character bios of each member of the Hall Of Justice and Legion Of Doom. There is also commentary on two episodes by comic book writers Geoff Johns and Mark Waid.
"Challenge Of The Superfriends", in all it's 1970's glory, is a warm trip back to Nostalgia land for a lot of people. It was the best Superhero cartoon, and now it's on DVD for everyone to go back into the past, and maybe pass it on to their own kids or grandkids. The animation and writing may not be 100% up to snuff for some, but as something I fondly remember with great feeling, I couldn't ask for more. It brought back the memories, and I loved going thru this set tremendously. I think everyone will. And the best part?. No Gleek!.
Rating:
- SuperfriendsWhile babysitting our friends' son and daughter, the topic of superheroes came up. The superheroes of today have nothing on the Superfriends we grew up watching. They spent two hours on the computer just learning about all the superfriends, the Hall of Justice, and the Legion of Doom. The boy's birthday was the next week and the choice for a present was a no-brainer. He loved it. Now he and his sister can enjoy the superheroes we all grew up watching.
Rating:
- Step in the Right Direction for the Super FriendsWell I finally completed my tour of the first Superfriends box set and can honestly state that this volume is seriously the equivalent of a caterpillar to butterfly metamorphosis. How so? Well it's clear that the early episodes contained residual spillover from the 1977 (and earlier) seasons in that the writers weren't quite familiar with the power of the Legion of Doom at their disposal. As such the initial episodes retain plots with very grand schemes laced with loads of space travel, black holes, inter-dimensional portals and so on. By about the halfway point of the first disc, things take a turn for the better. It's as if suddenly the show's writers realized that they had 13 villains (each with interesting back stories) at their service.
The plots become richer and better fleshed out as the season progresses and the ridiculousness of helmet-less space travel and Flash with the ability to fly along-side Superman begin to disappear.
Interestingly enough, the first 8 episodes of this set have been released before: The first four as Attack of the Legion of Doom and the next four in United They Stand. Despite having purchased both of these stand-alone sets prior, I had to order this one as well so as to enjoy the remaining 8 episodes of the 1978 season.
Also oddly enough, there are special features on the stand-alone sets that, for whatever reason, didn't make it on this complete season box in the form of episode introductions by story editor Jeffery Scott (which was surprisingly interesting). However, I suppose Warner realized that such differences may be beneficial in maintaining sales of the prior releases.
However the good news is that in addition to all 16 episodes from the 1978 season, we are treated to commentary on both the first and last episode of the set by DC writers Geoff Johns and Mark Waid. There is also a nice little retrospective called Saturday: Sleeping bags and Superfriends. While this could have easily been a three disc set, WB decided to instead make the second disc dual-sided to fit the final two episodes and final commentary pieces.
Included on this set are the following episodes:
1 Wanted: The Superfriends
2 Invasion of The Fearians
3 The World's Deadliest Game
4 The Time Trap
5 Trial of the Superfriends
6 Monolith of Evil
7 The Giants of Doom
8 Secret Origins of the Superfriends
9 Revenge on Gorilla City
10 Swamp of the Living Dead
11 Conquerors of the Future
12 The Final Challenge
13 Fairy Tale of Doom
14 Doomsday
15 Superfriends, Rest in Peace
16 The History of Doom
Rating:
- love it!We love watching these episodes. They're a flashback to our childhood Saturday morning cartoon viewing. Our son enjoys them, as well. It's classic fun with the superheroes.
Challenge of the Super Friends - The First Season (DC Comics Classic Collection)
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