In Defense of the Original SuperFriends
(Originally posted by vbv@giskard.cwru.edu on rec.arts.tv in 1996. Reproduced here with the author's imprimatur)
I'm surely in the minority here, but... I kinda liked the "Wendy, Marvin,
Wonderdog" era. Sure, the stories were fairly
juvenile, but no more so than the Wonder Twin episodes. In fact, there are
several things that I liked about the original series. For example:
Characterization. Wendy and Marvin had distinctive personalities that
were not entirely comical. Wendy was acerbic, bright and full of initiative.
Marvin was not as bright, but often was insightful nonetheless. He had a
typical teenaged ego problem, and entertained fantasies of being a full-fledged
superhero. The Wonder Twins, on the other hand, were nothing if not
comical. Zan was a one-note character—an egotistic, bumbling boob.
Jayna, on the other hand, had no character to speak of, and was blander than
tap water. As for Gleek... ugh. Don't even get me started on monkeyshining,
banana-craving, consistently-played-up-for-sight-gags-and-forced-laughter
Gleek.
Even the villains were portrayed in a manner atypical for Saturday morning
cartoons. They weren't your typical power-crazed baddies who were hungry for
revenge or out to conquer the world. Rather, they had more substantial reasons
for the crimes they committed—misguided reasons,
of course, but certainly better than the standard "Must kill/steal/conquer
because I'm evil" that characterized many of the later SuperFriends episodes.
Not having any powers, the Junior SuperFriends actually had to use
initiative and their wits to solve the crises. This was quiet different from
the Wonder Twins' approach, which was to simply use their powers --
ineffectively, at that.
We got to see more of the SuperFriends than just their powers. We saw
Marvin relate the story of Superman's origin, and his early years on Earth.
Wonder Woman was shown to have brains and scientific savvy, instead of merely
being the resident lasso-bearer. Aquaman was more than just a man who talked to
fish; instead, he was often shown to be an expert on ocean geography and marine
life, and on some occasions, was depicted as having superhuman strength, in
keeping with his comic book portrayal. Batman used his analytical skills as
often as he used his bat-gizmos. And Robin... Robin got to reminisce about his
aborted circus career, and was shown to be a vital member of the team—not
just some kid who took orders from the man in black.
Okay, so the show was hokey. Okay, so it was flawed. Still, I think there's a
lot to appreciate about it, when contrasted with
the years of predictable, one-dimensional SuperFriends stories that came in its
wake.
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