Wendy and Marvin didn't do much for me as a kid watching The Super Friends. I know the idea was for me to see what it was like for someone closer to my age to hang out with the World's Greatest Super-Heroes, but in my imagination, I wanted to actually be a hero, not just a bystander. The Donnie and Marie-inspired Wonder Twins were a better solution, since they actually had powers and could participate in the action. Still, like the first two companions, they had no comic book counterparts, so I never got very attached to them.
Hindsight being what it is... I'm surprised that Dial 'H' for Hero was never a companion to Super Friends... I remember Chris King, but there was a girl, too. They could have had a dog... Krypto or Ace. And here's another thing! - Robin was included, why wasn't there an episode with Aqualad, Kid Flash, Speedy and Wonder Girl? Licensing, probably, no doubt. Since there was a Teen Titans cartoon - minus The Boy Wonder... Hanna-Barbera was all about kid sidekicks weren't they?...
ReplyDeleteMarvin reminds me of a YOUNG Jay Leno. In the later series of books they kill him or almost kill him off. Wondered why they didn't use Snapper.
ReplyDeleteUnless Birdman can change the wavelength of his light weapons, he should only feed Superman yellow sun energy on his attacks.
I like that the Young Justice animated series included Wendy and Marvin. They worked much better in the context of high school friends of the young heroes. As a kid I really hated them on Superfriends.
ReplyDeleteYeah, as easy-going as I've always been, I found Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog just annoying. They kind of killed the otherwise otherwise relatively straightforward feel of the show; their parts seemed more like a separate show from Hanna-Barbera's usual comedic library, in the vein of Scooby-Doo. The Wonder Twins were, as you say, an improvement, though I found the announcement "Wonder Twin Powers Activate!" pretty cheesy for several reasons.
ReplyDeleteI do appreciate that all four of these young people have been featured in other things in one way or another, though I'm not aware of Wonder Dog popping up anywhere. (Maybe he could get a little love here, by teaming him up with Wonder Man?)
@AirDave: The Filmation version of Teen Titans debuted in 1967 on CBS' SUPERMAN/AQUAMAN HOUR OF ADVENTURE. That was replaced the following year by the Filmation spin-off of the Dynamic Duo's live-action show (which was entering its third and final season over at Another Broadcasting Competitor).
ReplyDeleteLuthor probably made it _look_ like the Super Friends did something to him. His last solo effort before founding the first iteration of the LOD.
ReplyDeleteBy "him," of course, I meant Avenger the Eagle!
ReplyDeletePS: Avenger the Eagle can join with Captain Avenger, the Crimson Avenger, and the Toxic Avenger for my favorite as-yet-unnamed team!
ReplyDeleteWendy and Marvin made the Super Friends seem like guest stars in their own show.
ReplyDeleteThey already had Robin, so why didn't they just use Wondergirl, Aqualad and Krypto as the young heroes & dog?
@Bob Rex the Wonder Dog was a big part of the comic book Superboy and the Ravers in the late nineties!
ReplyDeleteIMMWAOO Birdman was the most boring and generic super powered costume wearer for many a decade on the tv screen (Does TV still exist? I wrote it off 6 or seven years ago.).
ReplyDeleteThough I didn't care for Wendy and Marvin, I liked the backgrounds that E. Nelson Bridwell came up with for them on the text pages of the Super Friends comic book. Wendy was Wendy 1Harris, whose uncle, detective Harvey Harris, trained young Bruce Wayne in Detective Comics #226, Marvin was Marvin White, the son of Diana Prince White, the nurse who sold her identity to Wonder Woman so she could join her husband overseas in Sensation Comics #1. When the JLA launched the "Super Friends" project to train young crimefighters, they were accepted as the first students because of their personal connections.
ReplyDeleteThere never was a good explanation for Wonder Dog, though.
How about a crossover between characters from looney tunes, hanna-barbera and DC comics because WARNER BROS owns all three.
ReplyDelete@BKM: Birdman was the Sean Connery 007 of superheroes compared to Depatie-Freleng's "Super President."
ReplyDeleteI like Super President. The hero's costume and powers were good, and the stories were usually interesting (allowing for the 8-minute time constraint). The only thing I hated was the pop-art logo.
ReplyDelete@Bob Buethe: the only SP episode I vaguely remember had him going up against a thinly-disguised Castro stereotype. And the only reason I deem it memorable is because of the filler cartoon "Spy Shadow." I now know that that was loosely based on a Golden Age superhero known as Nightshade!
ReplyDeleteWhat about Birdman and Moon Knight?
ReplyDeleteYou'll have the sun in the morning and the moon at night.
If someone's an android do you still count them as a robot?
While I have never hated the Junior Super Friends, they do feel a bit out of place. However that wasn't the only problem with season one of Super Friends. None of the villains from the comic show up until the revamp in season two, that's fine. But the villains they had were almost always well-meaning about trying to solve the world's problem of the week and just a bit extreme about it. I never really did understand why two ordinary kids and Martin's dog were allowed to hang out in the Hall Of Justice outside of wish fulfillment for the kids in the audience.
ReplyDeleteSeason two's revamp got it right. There was more action focus, the Wonder Twins were there to be trained in the use of their powers while Gleek acted as the kid's back-up (granted Wonderdog served that role as well but the space monkey was more believable than the way too smart for an Earth dog), and the villains not only were a mix of the comic villains and original villains but they were mostly evil, with the occasional goof or well-meaning character. I don't hate season one but season two got it right.
@Bob Buethe: the very word "android" roughly means "man-like." So, technically, an android robot is simply a robot that looks human. Right down to possessing synthetic flesh that feels virtually identical to the real thing!
ReplyDeleteAt least according to most sci-fi comics of the Silver Age.
I never mentioned androids. I think your reply was meant for Horsefeathers.
DeleteI'm interested in the origin and early years backstory of the superbly designed Wonderdog. Wendy and Marvin, however, can go to Hell for all I care
ReplyDeleteMy bad! :-(
ReplyDeleteP.S.---Truth to tell, Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog were a lot more tolerable than Little Rokk (of "Mightor" fame).
ReplyDelete@Anon928: correction! They were A LOT MORE tolerable than Little Rokk of "Mightor" fame.
ReplyDelete