Personal blog - and temporary home page until new website is finished - of writer, editor and graphic artist Christopher Mills


Saturday, November 03, 2012

Super Friends To The Rescue!

Amazon had them on sale for less than $10 each, so last week, I ordered the last two incarnations of Super Friends from the early 1980s - The Legendary Super Powers Show and Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians -  on DVD. These two seasons were tailored to tie-in with Kenner's popular DC "Super Powers" action figure line, hence the prominence of the term in both titles.

Both shows featured Jack Kirby's Darkseid as the major villain and had slightly more sophisticated stories than previous incarnations of the Super Friends franchise. In the Galactic Guardians run, Hanna-Barbara's artists switched from the original Alex Toth character designs to new ones by Jose Garcia-Lopez, giving it a fresher look; it was also the first Super Friends show to have full half-hour (well, 20 minute, really) episodes each week instead of two 10-minute stories per installment.

I missed these seasons when they originally aired on Saturday mornings (I was in Art School by then), but I'm looking forward to enjoying some Old School super-hero 'toons over the next week or two.

3 comments:

Rip Jagger said...

I have the Legendary Super Powers Show, that one I remember fondly, as you say for having some slightly more sophisticated story lines, more like the actual JLofA stories of the time I recollect.

I'm not much familiar with the Galactic Guardians run. I think my local Wal-Mart has one for cheap. I might have to check it out if it's still there. Hmmm.

Rip Off

Christopher Mills said...

The Galactic Guardians series not only had updated character designs, but better art overall. Apokolips looked more like it did in the comics and the Hall of Justice got a cool new look.

Andre Romano came on as voice director (her first DC cartoon job), and the writing was a bit more grown up.

It actually plays out as a kind of stepping stone between the old Super Friends and the DC 'toons of the 90s-00s.

I definitely recommend it.

Christopher Mills said...

That's "Andrea" Romano, not "Andre," of course.

Dammit.