Tooned In: Superfriends – The Case Of The Shrinking Superfriends and The Mask Of Mystery (1984)

Cox Marijuana Drink?

Feeling generous today, and I did make references to these episodes before, at least in the comments sections of my other reviews. So returning to the BOD for some more Exciting *&^%ing Superfriends Action. We’re going back to the Super Powers era of the show with perhaps a look at Hanna-Barbera attempting to create their own version of the Teen Titans, and more.

The closed captioning exists five seconds in the future too, apparently.

THE CASE OF THE SHRINKING SUPERFRIENDS

The planet Cromulon is anything but a perfectly cromulent place right now. Seems like an interesting but not out-of-the-ordinary setup. But SWERVE, BRO, back at the Hall of Justice, Superman informs the team of the rescue mission to Cromulon, and he will only take the team of Batman, Wonder Woman, Black Vulcan, and Green Lantern (with his one and only line of the season). This leaves the teen members of the Superfriends, Firestorm, Robin, and the Wonder Twins, for whom somehow the mission is “too dangerous” for, so they are left to watch the Hall. I mean, Firestorm and Robin have faced off with FREAKING DARKSEID this season alone, they could probably take it. And how long does it take to get a Justice League Diploma anyway? I’ve already talked about the Wonder Twins’ woes, but maybe Exxorians go through multiple puberties and regressions, so they stay teenagers forever? It’s the only kayfabe explanation I can think of for Zan’s voice being higher in 1984, and Jayna’s being…totally different now. And yet they had it easy compared to Robin, who’s been on the team for 11 years (and played the same role since *1968* if we count the Filmation Batman and Robin as being the same as the Superfriends Dynamic Duo). But he is still considered a junior member and the “Boy Wonder”. If Bruce claimed that Dick had some kind of chronic illness, this whole “youthful ward” thing would totally be a case of Munchausen by Proxy. And the comics version probably would have become Nightwing and have at least one Batman substitute gig under his utility belt during this timeframe, just saying. On the upside, we get a Professor Stein appearance, because he says that at least Ronald will be able to catch up on his studies. But not for long, because elsewhere, at a conspicuously L-shaped hideout, Lex Luthor is forming his latest cunning plan. If MeTV’s scheduling changes of Superfriends has been any indication, this may be all we see of him on the channel if they’re skipping Challenge episodes now. Here, he has invented a contractor ray to shrink the Hall of Justice, where presently, the Wonder Twins are basically being us and watching the other Superfriends’ adventures on TV, while Ronnie and the Professor are studying (and Gleek tries to sap any cool factor Firestorm had by hanging out with them!). And speaking of rays, Lex’s ship looks like a giant manta ray, which he surely won custody of from Black Manta in the breakup of the Legion of Doom…

He shrinks down the Hall, and Robin exits ironically asking, “What’s the big idea?” Not as humorous as the “I’m a big man around here!” bit in the 1973 episode, but it does its job. He intercepts Robby Poo’s batrope and turns the Boy Wonder into a yo-yo, borrowing from yet another fellow Doomer, since Toyman did the same gag in the Giants of Doom episode of Challenge. The Wonder Twins try to hold off Lex as a condor (again with Zoar sounds from He-Man) and a storm cloud, to no avail, so it’s time for the highest powered member of the teens to take over, only for Luthor to laugh him off as a “Firefly” while shrinking a fire hydrant so the remaining water stream washes the heroes away.

Being carried down a sewer, Firestorm transmutes some of the water into an ice raft, which I guess keeps Zan’s back from getting sore. They end up in front of what I assume was supposed to be Blue Wave Marina, but something got lost in the translation, maybe literally knowing the occasional outsourcing tactics of these cartoons :

Once there, Firestorm goes back to slightly more sophisticated transformations when he turns a piece of drift wood into a speed boat. Meanwhile, Lex takes the Hall of Justice back to his HQ, not knowing that Gleek is still there, and he actually does something useful when he jumps on the buttons that shoot off the lair’s protective devices. One of which includes…

What would Luthor do with a “COST” button? Raise the prices everywhere till the Superfriends surrender? What kind of super villain would do that? Don’t answer that. He catches the mini Gleek and throws him in the cage where the tiger he tested his contractor ray on is kept. Only both animals are cowards that run away from each other. The Titan Friends arrive, but Luthor shrinks them further and puts them up against spiders. He gets overconfident like a wrestling heel pointing to his head before being rolled up, when he decides to get his magnifying glass to enjoy the Superfriends vs. the spider and his amazing friends match-up. In the meantime, Firestorm comes up with a game plan to reverse the ray while the others take care of the wall crawlers. Probably not intentional, but Ronnie coming up with the plan feels appropriate considering he’s part of the high school football team in the comics. The Wonder Twins take the form of ice and a butterfly, which shows strategic thinking of their own because spiders apparently eat butterflies, thus they’ll get distracted as Robin stops their threat. And with the Professor’s help, Firestorm is able to figure out how to change the ray’s effects in order to restore himself and his teammates. With that and with Lex captured, Zan proposes to go restore the Hall of Justice too. But Jayna says that’s not the only thing, and points out Gleek still caught in the cage’s hamster wheel. And for a moment I feared us being back to Gleek Making A Monkey Out Of Himself endings, but no…we see the Hall being returned to its actual size, and Superman and company returning to a gift of a shrunken Luthor in a jar.

Ah, but as we all know, no one in the Superfriends Universe stays in captivity for long, and this episode alone sets a record for this, as you’ll eventually see in…

THE MASK OF MYSTERY

In an odd moment, the first line of narration is spoken by a different person: Stanley Jones, the voice of Lex Luthor, whose only other narration experience was the intro to Challenge of the Superfriends. Bill Woodson is back as usual otherwise. I don’t think even Will Rodgers knew what happened there, as per his Superfriends Guide books. Did they need to do a re-take of that first line and Woodson just wasn’t available? Speaking of strange replacements, the Metropolis (or “Metropolitan” as per our confused animators) Bank is being held up by what seems to be a familiar figure…

…but no…

This Temu Penguin, as the kids would say nowadays, is Robber Baron. What, was Filmation still barely grasping Batman’s villains in case they ran out of Masters of the Universe characters for He-Man to defeat? Was Penguin going to terrorize Fat Albert’s gang? Fat Albert Visits Arkham Asylum would have been a good gimmick for that Scared Straight episode. Regardless, Baron is Penguin enough to trigger Batman and Robin, who ambush the crooks inside a bank vault. The day appears saved, until a younger, dopey masked guy appears, only for his oil slick weapon to misfire and cause the Dynamic Duo to slip, and speaking of Filmation, no doubt have flashbacks to 1977…

He even uses Bat-Mite’s catchphrase!

The Baron blows off the new hero, but Firestorm fortunately is on hand to make the save. We learn that the newcomer calls himself Captain Mystery. I guess Corporal Capeman and, well, Marvin, were taken already. Speaking of, if I didn’t know better, from the hair and “M” emblem, this could have been Marvin returning after graduating the Superfriends. Would have made an interesting callback, and hey, Wendy may or may not have changed her identity, as we recall from The All-New Super Friends Hour. What am I talking about now? Join the Patreon to find out! But, Lex Luthor apparently visited Willy Wonka and got put through his taffy puller or something, because he’s already back and probably recognizes what a klutz this new Superfriend is, and plans to use the “weak link” to destroy the team. I guess Black Manta had a change of heart and decided to take back his ship, so now Lex is piloting what looks like some Transformer’s vehicle mode…

At the Hall of Justice, the Superfriends remain just as curious about who Captain Mystery is, and Robin talking about how they don’t need that kind of help again eerily sounds like a line from the New Adventures of Batman, about Bat-Mite, of course. Superman suggests the team find out the 411, as the kids probably no longer say nowadays, about the Captain.

As luck would have it, Ronnie Raymond is going to the high school library, and get it? He doesn’t like studying. He runs into Sidney Wanamaker, a very familiar looking kid with red hair and who happens to be a bit clumsy. Ronnie asks if he can come over later to borrow his geometry notes. Back at the Wanamaker residence, we learn Sidney hacked into the Justice League Computer and catches all the Trouble Alerts. Seeing one such alert about a breaking dam, he changes to Captain Mystery…and Ronnie catches him flying out the window as he arrives for the notes. At the dam, Superman after making the rescue finally meets the Captain, and with Firestorm’s help brings him back to the Hall of Justice. Batman: “Well, if it isn’t Captain Mystery!” You have to recite that line in a sardonic Adam West tone to appreciate it. Sidney explains himself and how he knew everything, even the plans to Batman and Robin’s anti-gravity belt. Connie Cawfield cements herself as the Marla Frumkin of Wonder Women by saying “So THAAAAAT’S how you know!” And seeing as we have yet to see neither Batman nor Robin use an anti-gravity belt, can we say that Sidney outdid both of them by making a semi-usable version now? Unless anti-gravity Bat Belts are how Batman flies in the 1977 intro. Anyway long story short, the Superfriends tell him their work is dangerous and to promise not to try his own heroing again. The same Superfriends, again, who allowed the likes of Wendy and Marvin in their inner circle…

Wait! Brainstorm! On the cartoon, we don’t see Wendy and Marvin again because between 1973 and 1977, they all got horribly murdered on a mission by, I don’t know, Professor E. Ville Genious, or some band of aliens who burned people alive because their energy sources ran out and only the ash of human flesh could refuel them? Thusly, the Justice League has carried the guilt of their deaths all along, ala Batman with Jason Todd. Hence why they won’t allow any inexperienced, un-powered kids into the Superfriends…

…back to the story, Firestorm goes with Sidney to make sure he erases the codes he took from the Superfriends’ computer. In a dare I say Nolanish moment, Firestorm tells him he took some great geometry notes. But levity ends when Luthor used Firestorm’s appearance to finally track down Captain Mystery and take the disc containing the codes for himself. When he gets free, Captain Mystery sees an SOS (complete with Shirt Tales Alert sounds) about a super tanker in peril. He Admiral Ackbars to himself and indeed, it is a trap. The Superfriends are dropped down a trap door in the sinking ship, where they’re disoriented by those credit card reader gronking noises and Kryptonite. Trying to make good, Captain Mystery is on the scene and tries to jam the copter computer, but it winds up being his garage door opener, which fortunately extends to all doors including the trap door keeping the Superfriends in the sinking tanker. Not knowing this, Luthor again uses energy beams to tie up Captain Mystery, saying that he’ll soon be joining his friends in Davy Jones’ locker. Well seeing as Sidney is not too far off from his Brady-inspired predecessors, he might consider that a reward. But…the freed Superfriends save the day as Firestorm prevents Lex’s escape by changing his copter into a wooden boat.

Moral time: Sidney admits his real talent is computers, and the heroing gig wasn’t for him after all. He denies a lift home just before his belt malfunctions again, so he changes his mind…only we never see Sidney Wanamaker nor Captain Mystery again. The rest of the Superfriends too probably changed their mind about giving him a lift out of the ocean and he probably f—ing ki…er, drowned. The Superfriends are Trash.

Well, the first segment was probably the most credible that Robin and the Wonder Twins were ever written, and again, it would have been a halfway decent backdoor H-B Titans pilot. Which oddly enough they DID plan, only without Robin (those pesky Bat-Embargoes…) As for the second story, well it’s good to see exasperated super heroes and Ronnie Raymond.