Pretty Good

A Brilliant Conflict

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This series was actually pretty good. I haven't seen all the old series yet, just the original, and this is much better than that one. The stories are much more entertaining and they actually have real villains. Sadly, they just use the same three over and over(Darkeseid, Lex Luthor and Mxyzptlk). While they seem to often repeat the theme of the Super Friends easily getting captured, it's never boring. I noticed that Darkseid sounded like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget and upon doing a little research, it turns out to be the same voice actor. Surprisingly, the same guy did the voice of Marvin in the original Super Friends series. This time the episodes are only a half hour and that helps a lot. They have proved(n) they can't write a good hour long Super Friends many times. One disappointment is that they couldn't make Firestorm's hair look like fire. It just looks like a stupid hat. This series is definitely worth watching.

I turned 13 years old in 1984. The previous year the SuperFriends were wrongfully removed from Saturday mornings and the only place you could see them was in reruns on weekday afternoon syndication. But thanks to a popular toy line from Kenner called SuperPowers, the heroes were back. After waiting impatiently for the Puppies Great Adventures to wrap up, I tuned in at 8:30 for this awesome new SuperFriends series. We were treated to not one, but two episodes unless you count the two parters, Bride of Darkseid and Darkseid's Golden Trap, the only half hour shows. First off, we are introduced to Firestorm for the first time. I'd never heard of him until this series and discovered his comic book history. I was also surprised to discover that Prof. Stein was voiced over by long time Batman voice over Olan Soule for this season only. It was great to see Superman, Wonder Woman, and my favorites Batman and Robin back in action again, along with ethnic members, Black Vulcan, Samuraui, Apache Chief, and El Dorado. And no, the Wonder Twins and Gleek were not gone yet. Zan and Jayna surfaced in 3 episodes, Case of the Shrinking SuperFriends, Village of the Lost Souls, and the worst of them, Uncle Mxyzptlk. Villain wise, we are introduced to Jack Kirby's Fourth World villain characters, Darkseid (Frank Welker used his Dr. Klaw voice for him), Kalibak, and Desaad. Lex Luthor and Mr. Mxyztplk return naturally. Luthor sports his new power suit in one episode, and we see the new version of Brainiac. We also see for the first and only time, the Mirror Master in Reflection in Crime and in one episode features a villain called Robber Baron who looks remarkably like the Penguin. This episode was the Mask of Mystery.Voice wise, almost everybody was back except for three players. For the Wonder Twins, Michael Bell returned to voice over Zan but Jayna had a new voice that wasn't so great. The replacing of Shannon Farnon with Constance Cawlfield as Wonder Woman was an abomination to the series and I felt she did a super lousy job in the role. Farnon will always be the definitive voice of Wonder Woman. And it didn't take long to discover why Olan Soule was now Prof. Stein. Batman had a new voice or should I say a very familiar one. As much as I loved Olan as Batman, I love Adam West in the role so much better. Other than playing Batman on live TV for three years, West also voiced over Batman for the 1977 Filmation cartoon, so Adam was returning to familiar territory and he did very well alongside Casey Kasem's Robin, though interestingly enough, the Dynamic Duo didn't work together all that much in this season.As awesome as this series is, there are also some flaws. Namely the absence of other DC Heroes. Although they were made into action figures the same year by Kenner, it surprises me that Hawkman and the Flash were not included, though Flash is seen on the intro, and yet he's not there to take on Mirror Master. Green Lantern has nothing more than a small cameo in one episode. And the final insult is the exclusion of Aquaman, who is seen clearly on the series intro, but is nowhere to be found and it surprises me that Aquaman wasn't in the Mask of Mystery since the final battle takes place at sea.But despite these minor flaws, SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show is still an exciting series and well worth checking out if WB ever releases it on DVD.

After "Worlds Greatest Superfriends," I had pretty much given up on the Super Friends. But they brought back a new series which introduced Firestorm (a very popular character in comics) and Darkseid (major villain). There had been a lot of updating with some characters, such as the return of DC villians like Lex Luthor and Brainiac, a little more detail in characters (Wonder Woman and her boyfriend Steve Trevor), etc. It wasn't perfect, but it was a step in the right direction and a welcome relief.The Wonder Twins were pretty much gone, I think. By the way, the Twins were introduced in mainstream comics in 1995 in a Justice League-related title, EXTREME JUSTICE, with a revised origin and (thank God) no Gleek. They were last seen in YOUNG JUSTICE.

After the previous (and disappointing) Super Friends series, this was a vast improvement. The stories were once again creative and adventurous. Gone from the show were boring and dull characters. Now, there were only characters who everyone loved, like Superman and Batman, to name a couple.