"Banded together from remote galaxies, 13 of the most sinister villains of all time - the Legion of Doom! Dedicated to a single object, the conquest of the universe! Only one group dares to challenge this inter-galactic threat - The Super Friends!"
Once upon a time, this was one of the coolest intros to an animated series ever. Now, it's hard to listen to without thinking "Banded together? And aren't they all from Earth except three of them?" It would be easy enough to fill an entire review with all the similar blunders and silliness in these stories (though that's been more ably done by the brilliant "SeanBaby" at http://www.seanbaby.com, and the errors are all detailed at http://www.tvtome.com), but that would be denying just how surprisingly good these stories are, despite the poor animation and even after 27 years. (And to think I remember these when they first ran - god, am I that old already?) Even story editor and writer Jeffrey Scott admits that these episodes were strictly for children and were not written to please adults as well, as animated series these days increasingly are geared to do. The plot contrivances are really no worse than some of Gardner Fox's most famous excesses, and he carried on with those from the Golden Age right up through to the end of the Silver Age without anyone putting up too much of a fuss, and without devaluing the comics those stories appeared in by a single red cent. Besides, this was the absolute best incarnation of the Super Friends produced up to that date, not to mention the most nearly accurate depiction of these heroes on television - and there was no damn Wonder Dog or alien teen sidekicks turning themselves into buckets of water, either. If you can accept all those weird little inconsistencies, then this collection can be a lot of fun.
The best in the pack is "Secret Origins of the Super Friends," in which Lex and the Legion of Doom subvert history and prevent Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman from ever existing. Sure, it's got some of the worst plot holes of the bunch (Lex Luthor knows the origin of Superman well enough to prevent him from existing but doesn't know his secret identity, and Lex himself wouldn't be a villain without Superman's existence), but it's a fine retelling of the heroes' origins, and one only wishes they'd had time to do some of the others, as well. "Trial of the Super Friends" is equally interesting, as the Legion of Doom put the Super Friends on trial (duh) for doing what they do anyway: putting the bad guys away. But the way they do so is by having Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Batman face off against android counterparts of themselves without what the villains think gives them their abilities: Wonder Woman's lasso, GL's ring, and Batman's utility belt. Scott explains in his intro that he wanted to show that what makes these folks heroes goes far deeper than their accoutrements, a lesson pretty obvious to us in our thirties but probably not so obvious when we were eight. (Just dated myself, didn't I? Oh, well.) The collection is rounded out by the surprising "Monolith of Evil," in which the villains get the heroes to nab for them what they think is an evil energy source (are you seeing a pattern here yet?); and "The Giants of Doom," in which (you guessed it) the rest of the Legion of Doom follows a plan (cooked up by Bizarro!) to make themselves into bigger giants than Giganta. In some areas, anyway.
It's a bit of a sweet trip down memory lane to hear the familiar voices of Danny Dark as Superman, Shannon Farnon as the almost too butch Wonder Woman, and Olan Soule as Batman - which makes it all the more surprising that the DVD producers never thought it worthwhile to give us bios of these prolific but little known voice actors. Among the rest of the cast, only Ted Cassidy, Vic Perrin, and, of course, Casey Kasem are familiar to those who don't regularly watch the voice actor credits from that era - what about the familiar voices of Don Messick and Frank Welker, whose voices everyone would easily recognize if they'd watched enough episodes of FLINTSTONES or THE TRANSFORMERS? Instead, we get cute bios of each member of the Justice League, with a lot of illustrious alliteration provided by announcer William Woodson, each with their own short music video. Some of the videos aren't bad at all - Green Lantern's has a kick-ass techno-sounding background, for instance - but others are ill-suited to the characters, or perhaps a bit too well-suited in a negative way, such as the SHAFT-sounding music for Black Vulcan. Ugh. The only other extra apart from Jeffrey Scott's informative yet brief intros to each episode is the trivia "challenge," a collection of questions gleaned from the episodes, with a video clip following each right answer. Not hard to get through, but certainly hard to get out of if you decide you don't want to risk mental exhaustion after all.
Basically, the extras are not the best reason to buy this DVD. The best reason is to see some fairly cheesy animation in better shape than it's ever been before, and to watch heroes we haven't seen in ages partying like it's 1978. That may just be reason enough, actually.
Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at feedback@cinescape.com.
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