Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show

Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from 1984 to 1985 on ABC. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.

Format
Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show was the first Super Friends series in a new format since 1979's The World's Greatest Super Friends. Continuing the previous three years' policy of producing short stories, this series' format was two stories per half hour, so all the separate stories were ten minutes long each. Furthermore, the Wonder Twins were largely supplanted as audience identification figures by Firestorm, a well established teenage superhero in the DC Comics Universe.

Toyline tie-in
Unlike previous series, Super Friends: The Legenary Super Powers Show was produced to tie-in with the toyline of the same name produced by Kenner. The general story, as detailed in the mini-comics that accompanied the figures, was that the major heroes of Earth had teamed up to fight Darkseid and his villains.

Super Friends/Justice League of America
Thirteen heroes made up the Super Friends. They were:


 * Superman – In the episode, "Darkseid's Golden Trap", gold Kryptonite appears, which is stated to have an effective range of 20 ft (6.1 m). In "Uncle Mxyzptlk", the Wonder Twins find a red, glowing stone and take it to the Hall of Justice. They show it to Superman, who immediately reacts to it. Samurai knocks the red kryptonite to the floor but the effects of the red kryptonite cause Superman to decrease in age, becoming a young child. The rest of the Super Friends refer to the kid as 'Super Brat'. Lois Lane makes two cameo appearances in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show in the episodes "The Bride of Darkseid" and "Reflections in Crime".
 * Batman
 * Robin
 * Wonder Woman – Steve Trevor is mentioned in the episode "Darkseid's Golden Trap Part 2", when Wonder Woman announces: "I have a date with Steve Trevor tonight...which dress should I wear?" He is also seen in the episode "Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Magic Lamp," although only a brief cameo, he has no dialogue. He later appears in an episode of The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, where he is revealed to be an astronaut. That episode was called "The Darkseid Deception."
 * Green Lantern
 * Firestorm – The crew responsible for the first series depicted the flames on Firestorm's head as a static, fire-shaped ornament. The second series' (The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians) authors made another change, transforming the hair into a waved haircut.
 * Black Vulcan
 * Gleek
 * Apache Chief
 * Samurai
 * El Dorado
 * Wonder Twins (Zan and Jayna)

According to DC writer/historian Mark Waid, Aquaman's sole appearance in The Legendary Super Powers Show comes via his appearance within the opening credits. The same is true for The Flash and Hawkman. This was the first time Wonder Woman was animated with the =w= symbol on her costume instead of the eagle design, this carried over into the final series Galactic Guardians, which led to Justice League in 2001, where she wears a modified version of the =w= symbol.

The series was also noteworthy for using Adam West as the voice of Batman, two decades after the end of the 1960s live action Batman series. West replaced Olan Soule and would continue through the subsequent Galactic Guardians series.

Villains

 * Darkseid – Outside of the comic books, Boom tubes have been seen on a number of occasions. They are first seen in the last two seasons of the Super Friends animated series, Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians on a number of occasions. Here, they are referred to as "Star Gates," and they are used by the natives of Apokolips, though without the sonic boom caused by boom tubes. New Genesis was never shown or mentioned.
 * Kalibak – His appearance was not as brutish a later TV incarnations, more like the original Jack Kirby design for the character. He was almost always depicted as boastful, dull-witted and ineffectual against the heroes.
 * Desaad
 * Brainiac – The mechanical version of Brainiac appeared in the episodes "The Wrath of Brainiac" and "The Village of Lost Souls". In "The Wrath of Brainiac," Brainiac reveals that he shed his earlier appearance when he worked alongside Darkseid.
 * Mirror Master – Mirror Master appeared in an episode entitled "Reflections in Crime". Interestingly enough the Flash doesn't appear in this episode. In the episode, Mirror Master sets about trapping the Super Friends in this particular episode inside mirrors called the sixth dimension. The Super Friends managed to escape and trap Mirror Master in a House of Mirrors.
 * Lex Luthor – He appeared in the opening and the episodes "No Honor Among Super Thieves" (in which acquires his power suit from the comics of then), "Case of the Shrinking Super Friends" and "The Mask of Mystery".
 * Mister Mxyzptlk – In this series, Mxyzptlk's name is pronounced as Miks-ill-plik (backwards, Kilp-ill-skim) and he takes to tormenting all the members of the team, even when Superman is absent.
 * The Robber Baron and Sleeves
 * Dollmaker

For this series, Lex Luthor and Brainiac were completely revamped to resemble their comic book counterparts.

Cast

 * Jack Angel – Samurai
 * René Auberjonois – Desaad
 * James Avery –
 * Michael Bell – Zan, Gleek, Captain Mystery/Sidney Wanamaker (in "Mask of Mystery")
 * Gregg Berger –
 * Arthur Burghardt –
 * Howard Caine –
 * Connie Cawlfield – Wonder Woman
 * Danny Dark – Superman
 * Fernando Escandon – El Dorado
 * Patrick Fraley –
 * Liz Georges – Jayna
 * Buster Jones – Black Vulcan
 * Stanley Jones – Lex Luthor, Sleeves (in "Mask of Mystery")
 * Casey Kasem – Robin, Mirror Master (in "Reflections in Crime")
 * Mary McDonald-Lewis – Lois Lane (in "Mister Mxyzptlk and the Magic Lamp")
 * Mickey McGowan –
 * Stanley Ralph Ross – Brainiac
 * Michael Rye – Apache Chief, Green Lantern
 * Olan Soule – Professor Martin Stein (Beginning with this version, Adam West replaced Soule as the voice of Batman)
 * Mark Taylor – Ronald Raymond/Firestorm
 * Frank Welker – Darkseid, Kalibak, Mister Mxyzptlk, Dollmaker (in "The Case of the Dreadful Dolls")
 * Adam West – Batman
 * Bill Woodson - Narrator

Crew

 * Gordon Hunt - Recording Director

DVD release

 * Warner Home Video released The Complete Series of Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show on DVD on August 7, 2007.