Tooned In: The Super Powers Team – Galactic Guardians (1985)

Superfriends grows up.

Last time we checked in at the Hall of Justice, we just began the show’s tie-in phase with Kenner’s Super Powers collection (covered brilliantly in the second volume of The Toy Collector’s Wish Book), and the numerous changes that brought about. Including a gradual maturing of its tone and storylines, and upping the general faithfulness to the comics. Well, the next – and ultimately final – season turned that up by SEVERAL notches.

Starting, obviously, with a name change. While the 1984 season tried to have its cake and eat it too by still calling it Superfriends, yet having a new subtitle with the Super Powers branding, the 1985 one brought about a total rebranding of the protagonists as the “Super Powers Team”. Along with this came a new look, as the Alex Toth designs were abandoned for updated ones inspired by DC artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, bringing the animated heroes closer to their comics counterparts. And the team itself was tweaked to mostly go back to basics and stick with actual comic Justice League members.

Except Martian Manhunter, enjoy this picture of Lex Luthor covered in Kryptonite to imagine what J’onn would have looked like…

Flash and Aquaman would return in episodes, albeit usually in brief roles (Aquaman in one infamous scene is just there to job to The Penguin, who obtained Superman’s powers). We’d see Hawkman and Green Lantern appear too. The Wonder Twins were gone, and only Samurai and El Dorado remained of the Hanna-Barbera originals.

Ah, this was probably when the Superf…er, Super Powers Team claimed they were doing budget cuts, but fired Black Vulcan for complaining about always being paired with a white Superfriend. Sadly Apache Chief was gone too, leading him to fall on hard times and losing his ability to grow after an unfortunate accident involving coffee…

But another addition was coming, on the heels of Firestorm’s 1984 debut. This time, we get Victor Stone, aka Cyborg, who most modern readers will know from the Teen Titans cartoon (which ended after five seasons in the 2000s and did not, I repeat, DID NOT have a juvenile humored kiddy spinoff). His origin story was explained on the premiere episode, “The Seeds of Doom,” where he started as a reluctant superhero who helped disabled youths and didn’t want to call attention to his robotic appearance. After helping the Super Powers foil another Darkseid plan, he agrees to join them.

In a neat little nod to their partnership that I only noticed now, the intro has Robin and Cyborg dodging laser blasts…

When there’s trouble, you know who to call…

The Super Powers Team season also got a chance to explore a few stories that were right out of the comics, as you will see from today’s selection. Including finally bringing one of the best-known origin stories in superhero history to television.

I compare the Legendary Super Powers Show and Super Powers Team seasons to the differences between New Scooby-Doo Mysteries and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, also from 1984 and 1985 respectively. The former obviously wanting to make changes, but still in the previous style before everything is given a makeover in the latter. One difference between the Scooby and Superfriends examples is that Scooby started their “change” earlier, as the 1983 season brought back Daphne and tried to do an altered version of the mysteries format.

Nonetheless, MeTV started airing the Super Powers season on December 14, 2024. The two-hour block of episodes is where we get these entries from.

First up? (or am it not last down?)

It am not F O’Clock. You not hug a Bizarro yesterday?

THE BIZARRO SUPER POWERS TEAM : Since I can’t put it better myself, I’ll transcribe Bizarro’s plan: “Me almost late enough for important meeting, at Hall of Injustice…Reason me got you here is because us much too powerful, and because us too powerful, we need protection…Me take this duplicator ray to Earth and make Bizarro Super Powers Team!” Which he proceeds to do, making Bizarro versions of Cyborg, Firestorm, and Wonder Woman. And if that wasn’t enough, Mr. Mxyzptlk appears and causes more mischief by agreeing to train the new imperfect superheroes, wreaking havoc all over Metropolis that the Super Powers Team must stop.

• In a historic moment, this is the last time we hear Bill Woodson’s voice as narrator in the Superfriends/Super Powers franchise, introducing the Bizarro World. The SPT season has no other narration as a matter of fact, ending a long-standing tradition for the series that many remember when they think of Superfriends. He’ll be back to do the intro to the 1988 Superman cartoon.
• Bizarro now has his comic designation of “Bizarro #1,” but more importantly, also his characterization as a well-meaning goof who’s just a super powered nuisance to Earth. Contrast with the card-carrying villain we saw in the Legion of Doom. And boy does it pay off in this episode, which I can recite in my sleep after years of watching and being obsessed with it. Back in the day, I totally wore out my flea market VHS of off-air SPT recordings from ABC.
• Danny Dark is now doing Bizarro’s voice, now a goofy version of his Superman of course. And the regular and Bizarro versions of each character are likewise done by their same VAs, which includes Ernie Hudson, who does Cyborg’s voice and who most of us know as Winston from Ghostbusters (but not on The Real Ghostbusters, oddly enough…)
• And Wonder Woman has since changed voices yet again. She is now B.J. Ward, among other roles, also the voice of Princess Allura on Voltron. And she is a vast improvement over Connie Cawfield, who was to Diana what Marla Frumkin was to Velma on 1979 Scooby-Doo episodes.
• Since Bizarros generally have pale complexions, this leads to the unfortunate image of Bizarro Cyborg being WHITE. For those types who troll “What if they recasted a white Black Panther?” you had it already, okay???
• Someone must have loved the Mxy/Bizarro team-up, we get another in the DCAU Superman series of the ‘90s.
• Mxy’s “lessons”: How to Patrol Metropolis (the Bizarros “rescue” a traffic cop from said traffic, plug up a “leaking” statue – actually a water fountain, and save a burning building – actually just smokestacks); A Crash Course on the Hall of Justice (what it says on the label…and I guess ANYONE could walk in at this point? By the way, the Hall has a new, domed look for the SPT season); and Caring for Criminals (to put it in Bizarro Wonder Woman’s words, “If prisoners escaping, that mean they unhappy!”).
• Whenever I hear the screeching tires/car crash sound effect, my mind immediately goes to “LONGSHOT!” It takes you directly to level 6, but your opponent is going to place his secret block on either $200, $350, or $500…
• Mxy’s plan backfires when Wonder Woman commandeers the Duplicator Ray and creates Mr. Kltpzyxm, who threatens to make Bizarro World perfect, thus giving the Bizarro Super Powers Team a reason to go home. With the added bonus of making Mxyzptlk so flustered, he tells the Bizarros to forget about his duplicate…only he does so by name, and Bizarro Kltp IS Mxy backwards…right down to his name.
• And the best way I can think to end this section, is to list some notable quotables from the Bizarro Super Powers Team. But really, the performances of Dark, Ward, Hudson, and Mark Taylor make anything that comes out of a Bizarro’s mouth classic. From the verbal tics right down to Bizarro Firestorm’s laugh before he says anything…
  • “Attention, attention! Fellow Bizarro Supermen, this meeting will come to disorder!”
  • “Have a bad trip!”
  • “Because they am dynamic new Bizarro Super Powers Team!” “We am?”
  • A Mxy quote, but “I’ll teach you everything there is to being a superhero…not that there’s that much to it!”
  • “OH MY GOSH! Statue am leaking! Me fix!” (incidentally…Superman had “Great Scott” – this Scott is loved by both Clark and by Dr. Emmett Brown, he must be real powerful, so why is HE not a Superfriend? – Wonder Woman had “Great Hera!”, and Firestorm has “Oh my gosh!”)
  • “Me was hoping for an F!” (Bizarro Cyborg after Mxy gives the Bizarros “A’s” for their first lesson)
  • “Me like funny TV show!” (Bizarro Cyborg watching static on the Hall of Justice monitor)
  • “Hey Mr. Mxyzptlk! Me learn about technology! Watch, me interface with computer!” (Bizarro Cyborg then proceeds to smash a desktop into his head)
  • “Yes, convicts so happy, it bring a tear to Bizarro’s eye!”
  • “Ha ha ha! Us travel in that piece of junk? No way! Us superheroes travel second class!”

Overall high marks for this segment. Bizarro the way he should be, leading to high Saturday Morning comedy.

Well, we had a lighter story to ease us into our main event for the day…

But first, this review is brought to you by A Flintstone Family Christmas, the 1990s special that not only had a Charles Manson reference, but the implication that Fred needed cable to watch porn. This might outrank:

• Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad mentioning I Spit On Your Grave.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks covering “Time Warp.”
• Iron Sheik’s nephew Ollie Akbar on Rock ‘n’ Wrestling.

Shit just got real.

THE FEAR :When chasing The Scarecrow and his men, Batman is paralyzed with fear when he follows the villain to an all-too-familiar alley in Gotham City. The Master of Fear recognizes the Achilles’ Heel and uses his technology to exploit it against the Caped Crusader. His trickery allows him to capture Robin and Wonder Woman. Can Batman overcome the most traumatic experience in his life to bring the Scarecrow to justice?

• So Scarecrow too gets an upgrade. On Challenge of the Superfriends, he was just some whispering dude in a costume. He was less useful than the Riddler or Toyman. No, here we get the whole ball of wax: the double identity as Professor Jonathan Crane (posing as an assistant to Commissioner Gordon to work on the case) and especially the fear powers. Since hallucinogenic gasses and such are probably too drug-referencey for SatAM TV, his main attack is to use skull-shaped “fear transmitters” that induce various phobias.
• And now a historic first: after 12 years, we finally see Bruce Wayne in the Superfriends/Super Powers universe. Dick Grayson and Alfred (as himself, not a Bizarro) too. We’ve got Clark Kent before, ditto Diana Prince (who appears in this episode too, attending Bruce’s policeman’s ball at Wayne Manor), and even Hal Jordan. But until then, we strictly only saw Batman and Robin in costume.
• At the Hall of Justice, Superman is concerned about Batman not appearing at the Super Powers strategy session, and Robin explains how he hasn’t been himself since the Crime Alley encounter. Another first: brooding, emo Batman appearing on the series, albeit offscreen. Anyway, Wonder Woman agrees to attend Bruce’s party to find out what’s going on.
• And this is why we’re all here. For the first time in other media, the now ubiquitous origin story of Batman is told. On a Superfriends episode. Narrated by Adam West. And it all works perfectly. Of course, the concession of NOT showing firearms or murder had to be made, but again it still works. B.J. Ward I believe plays young Bruce Wayne, and that truthfully adds a bit of unintentional humor because she uses the same voice she gave Barney Rubble’s kid brother on The Flintstone Kids.
• The other thing this episode is infamous for: giving Batman the nickname “The Man With No Fear.” (Except for one…Matt Murdock and his crack legal team. Oh sorry, I meant his parents dying, of course)
• Another oddity: Robin/Dick is surprised at what Crime Alley meant. You’d think Bruce would have told him about his parents, etc. by now. Or did he just know Batman’s origin, just not where it played out?
• For all the gravitas of this episode, and despite his good job mentioned above, West still brings the hammy delivery at times. “Where am I? Ohhhhh…YES!” “No, no, the nightmare’s just begun!” “He’s WAITING for me!”
• So Crane is playing both sides as the painfully obvious suspect in a Scooby-Doo disguise role. In one scene, he dissuades interrogating one of his own henchmen, due to post-hypnotic suggestions by the Scarecrow. Including stopping Wonder Woman from using her Lasso of Truth on him. As Superfriends typically used the magic lasso as just a typical weapon or means of carrying heavy items, it’s always a treat to see its obedience-compelling powers acknowledged.
• Scarecrow’s final death trap involves tying Robin and Wonder Woman (remembering that binding her bracelets takes away her powers) in a cornfield, where another fear transmitter that brings Crime Alley to Batman awaits. Luckily, Batman had the foresight to radio the Super Powers Team, and Superman, Samurai, and Green Lantern arrive to help round up the Scarecrow’s men, after Batman crushes the transmitter, overcoming his fears to help rescue his companions.
• GL’s one line, “Better late than never!” is another hammy bit delivered by Michael Rye, and was an obsession forming part of the episode back in the day. Brings to mind Hawkman in the season premiere being there to just utter, “You fiend!” at Darkseid.
• As for the Super Powers radios…despite the rebranding, it still has the JLA emblem, which also held true on Superfriends episodes. I did fanon the “Superfriends” being a side program of the Justice League to train young heroes, which is why we had them mentoring Wendy and Marvin, then the Wonder Twins. I like to think Robin was the first junior Superfriend and he just decided to go for League membership after he passed. W&M, who knows? Wonder Twins probably went back to defend Exxor. We see Firestorm get a bit of training in the 1984 season premiere, but by this one, Cyborg is given instant membership and isn’t treated like a trainee. Maybe when they become the Super Powers Team, they did away with the Superfriends program and just settled for on the job training? Anyway, now that it’s the Super Powers Team…it’s basically the Justice League anyway, so what gives with the double branding?
• So Batman and Batman alone has to face the Scarecrow. Now that he broke his one fear, he corners and menaces the villain, before unmasking him as Jonathan Crane. And he would have gotten away with it too if it hadn’t been for those meddling superheroes! No, really, as much as I like this episode, I can’t see this scene and Batman’s exposition about how he knew it was Crane, and not picture Scooby-Doo background music playing behind it.

Another HIGH recommendation, of course. The NEWZ was, this was kind of a background pilot for a Batman standalone series. It wasn’t The Animated Series, and as I said there were things here and there that were still very 80s Hanna-Barbera, but we were getting closer. In fact, Scarecrow’s first appearance on TAS involved causing Batman to hallucinate Thomas Wayne calling him a failure, which in turn leads to Bats saying….THE LINE.

Overall, “The Fear” and even “Bizarro Super Powers Team” are episodes you can point at to show what the series in its new incarnation got right. Like the ‘84 season, it was all too brief and things like this make you wonder what we could have got.