The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians

The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from 1985 to 1986. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.

Summary
In the fall of 1985, the final version of Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends premiered. The Super Friends (now called the Super Powers Team) were once again headquartered at the Hall of Justice (which had been redesigned for this series to appear more dome-like and seemingly, larger) in Metropolis, and battled such familiar foes as Darkseid, Lex Luthor and Scarecrow.

Amidst those changes, another change in the series was the absence of a narrator on every episode. In the original series from 1973, Ted Knight was the program's narrator. William Woodson became the narrator beginning with 1977's All-New Super Friends Hour. Woodson would remain the voice of the series through the final episode of 1984's Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show. Starting with this 1985 incarnation there was no narration of any of the episodes. There is a very brief voice-over by Woodson at the start of the episode, "The Bizarro Super Powers Team", telling us about Bizarro World but afterward he isn't heard throughout the rest of the episode. Furthermore, the majority of the original recurring characters of the series were eliminated outside of Samurai and El Dorado while the DC Comics teenage superheroes, Firestorm and Cyborg, wholly replaced the Wonder Twins for the purposes of target audience identification figures.

The story lines in many of the 1985 episodes were also a bit more dramatic compared to previous installments. The only episodes that featured the old Super Friends style and charm were "The Bizarro Super Powers Team" and "The Case of the Stolen Powers".

Except where noted as a short, each episode was 30 minutes long. The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians lasted only one season on ABC, marking the end of Hanna-Barbera's 12-year run of the Super Friends.

The Super Powers Team
In the episode titled "The Fear", Batman's origin is told for the first time outside of the actual comics. In a flashback, it shows Thomas and Martha Wayne being confronted by an unidentified mugger, just after watching a Robin Hood movie with their small son Bruce. When Thomas ends up trying to fight the mugger, Bruce quotes "No Dad, he's got a..." and lightning is shown in the sky as his parents are shot. The episode was written by Alan Burnett, later a story editor on Batman: The Animated Series.

This series also marked the first ever appearance of Cyborg in an animated television series. Cyborg's origin was told via a medical journal read by Dr. Martin Stein saying Cyborg was a promising decathlon athlete until an accident destroyed most of his body and his father replaced part of his body with machine parts. Also, he is not a Titan. He becomes fast friends with teammate Firestorm. He is an affiliate of the Justice League of America under Superman. In the introductory episode to Cyborg, "The Seeds of Doom", Cyborg's abilities save Earth from Darkseid's seeds, but as Superman warns, make Darkseid a dangerous enemy to Cyborg, so Cyborg joins the League.

The Flash appeared only in "The Death of Superman" episode (the last to premiere), and never used his powers. El Dorado, even if he was not part of the official roster, also made a cameo in "The Death of Superman", and never used his powers or even spoke any lines. Also "The Death of Superman", the Fortress of Solitude more closely resembles the pre-Crisis comic-book version, including a giant yellow key whose use required the combined efforts of Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Cyborg.

This was the first time Wonder Woman was animated with white stripes on her red boots since the cancellation of Lynda Carter's live action television series on CBS six years earlier.

New Gods of Apokolips villains

 * Darkseid
 * Desaad
 * 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.
 * The Parademons – When Darkseid became a recurring villain, the Parademons followed (although the use of the word "demon" on television was often protested by parents' groups). Thus Darkseid's minions were always referred to as "para-drones" on that show. Their vocalizations are provided by Frank Welker.

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.

Individual villains

 * Lex Luthor – Lex Luthor only appeared briefly at the beginning of "The Seeds of Doom".
 * The Joker - The Joker made his only apparition on the entire Super Friends saga in the episode "The Wild Cards". He wasn't included on the original Legion of Doom because he was already used in Filmation's "The New adventures of Batman" cartoon of the late 70's.
 * The Royal Flush Gang – The Royal Flush Gang is seen in the episode "The Wild Cards". They are a quartet of thieves recruited by the mysterious Ace (here not an android). Ace is revealed to not only be in league with Darkseid, but also to be The Joker in disguise, as deduced by Batman upon realizing that the Joker's house of cards was missing his namesake card. By the end of the episode, Ten (who feels in over her head) switches sides and the rest of the gang and the Joker are captured.
 * Scarecrow – The Scarecrow appears in the episode "The Fear". Along with Professor Jonathan Crane, Commissioner James Gordon is trying to find and arrest The Scarecrow. Gordon and Batman are both unaware that Crane is the Scarecrow. Also in "The Fear", Wonder Woman suggests using the Lasso of Truth to get a confession out of one of Scarecrow's victims, though Professor Jonathan Crane (out of costume) warns her against it for fear of trauma.
 * Brainiac – The mechanical version of Brainiac appeared in an episode called "Brain Child".
 * Felix Faust – Felix Faust appears in the episode "The Case of the Stolen Powers". He was shown in a prison with the Penguin as his cellmate. Faust was about to cast a spell to escape by transferring Superman's powers into himself, but Penguin seized the opportunity, stole the Superman powers, and broke out easily, leaving Faust behind. Faust later stripped Penguin of Superman's powers, and gained them himself after he had his spirits apprehend Penguin. He also proved vulnerable to Kryptonite when Firestorm changed his headwear into it. Wonder Woman used her lasso to force Felix Faust into relinquishing Superman's powers. The two were again jailed in the same cell much to the dismay of both.
 * The Penguin
 * 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.
 * Bizarro
 * Mister Kltpzyxm (Mister Mxyzptlk Bizarro) – In the episode titled "The Bizarro Super Powers Team" Mister Kltpzyxm, a Bizarro Mxyzptlk is created, who promptly speeds off to turn Bizarro world into a beautiful planet like Earth, much to Bizarro's horror.
 * Bizarra (Bizarro Wonder Woman) – In the episode titled "The Bizarro Super Powers Team", Bizarro decides that his world of Bizarros needs more heroes than just Bizarro Supermen. He takes a duplicator ray to Earth and makes Bizarro duplicates of Wonder Woman, Firestorm, and Cyborg. Planning on taking them back to protect Bizarro World, Mister Mxyzptlk convinces Bizarro to train his new friends on Earth, which causes havoc for the real Super Powers Team. In the episode, Bizarra is called Bizarro Wonder Woman and is voiced by actress B. J. Ward, who also voiced Wonder Woman.
 * Cyzarro (Cyborg Bizarro)
 * Firezarro (Firestorm Bizarro)

Both The Joker and The Penguin made their first (and only) Super Friends appearances in two different episodes. While Batman and Robin appeared in Joker's debut episode, they were not present in Penguin's.

Cast

 * Jack Angel – Flash/Barry Allen, Hawkman, Samurai
 * Rene Auberjonois – Desaad
 * Joe Baker - Joe Chill (in "The Fear")
 * Steve Bulen - Teenager Bruce Wayne (in "The Fear")
 * Danny Dark – Superman, Bizarro #1
 * Bob Doqui - Robotic Cyborg (in "Brainchild")
 * Patti Glick - Young Bruce Wayne (in "The Fear")
 * Arlene Golonka - Sarah Simms (in "The Seeds of Doom"), Queenie (in "The Wild Cards)
 * Darryl Hickman - Moko (in "Escape from Space City")
 * Jerry Houser - Jack (in "The Wild Cards")
 * Ernie Hudson – Cyborg, Bizarro-Cyborg (in "The Bizarro Super Powers Team")
 * Stanley Jones – Lex Luthor (in "The Seeds of Doom")
 * Casey Kasem – Robin
 * Paul Kirby - Thomas Wayne (in "The Fear")
 * Lucy Lee - Martha Wayne (in "The Fear")
 * Sidney Miller - Steve Trevor (in "The Darkseid Deception")
 * Haunani Minn - Kiri (in "Escape from Space City")
 * Lynne Moody - Ten (in "The Wild Cards)
 * Bobby Morse – Commissioner Gordon (in "The Fear")
 * Stanley Ralph Ross – Brainiac (in "Brainchild")
 * Michael Rye – Green Lantern
 * Ken Sansom - Professor Martin Stein
 * Mark Taylor – Firestorm, Bizarro-Firestorm (in "The Bizarro Super Powers Team")
 * Frank Welker – Darkseid, Kalibak, Joker/Ace (in "The Wild Cards"), The Penguin (in "The Case of the Stolen Powers"), Mister Mxyzptlk (in "The Bizarro Super Powers Team"), Mister Kltpzyxm (in "The Bizarro Super Powers Team")
 * Adam West – Batman
 * Eugene Williams - King (in "The Wild Cards)
 * Bill Woodson - Narrator

Note: William Callaway, Peter Cullen, Andre Stojka and Betty Jean Ward also provided voices for the show, but are not credited.

DVD release

 * Warner Home Video released The Complete Series of The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians on DVD on October 23, 2007.