Super Friends 1980-1983!

These seasons of Super Friends are all about bombastic adventure. Both years saw some new adventures added, still in the classic vein established upon the arrival of the Super Twins. But increasingly the adventures seem to deal with outer space threats, which is a natural setting for Superman and even Wonder Woman, but hardly so for Batman and Robin. The Dynamic Duo seem to spend most of their time in these adventures patrolling the solar system on the alert for all sorts of threats. Also getting less and less attention is Aquaman. The show had done a really good job of getting him screen time early on but the focus definitely shifts to the "Trinity" in these cartoons. That is when they don't feature the characters created just for the the Hanna-Barbera shows such as Samurai, Black Vulcan, Apache Chief and a new addition, the Hispanic El Dorado.

Perhaps emblematic of the wild and crazy nature of the storytelling is the episode in which Superman discovers a Black Hole (lots of nods to movies of the era too) and ends up with the Earth inside it. But the Man of Steel in a flabbergasting moment is able to push the entire planet out of the grim vastness. This kind of impossible power is hokey and fun, but makes Superman utterly invincible. Adherence to science is not something I expect in a classic superhero story but there have to be imaginative limits or it becomes whimsy and loses its dramatic edge. These cartoons verge on that narrative weakness.

Still and all they fun, because seeing comic books get off the page and come to life, even animated life, is always fun.

NOTE: This is classic post which first appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo.  

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