Saturday, November 12, 2011

"Super Friends" Super Post!

Batman: The Animated Series wasn't the only series to contribute a lot of DC canon, Super Friends introduced its fair share of concepts as well.  But what's interesting is that these additions don't start happening until the 90s and 2000s, around the same time that kids who grew up watching the show would be old enough to work their childhood memories into the stories they told.  Make of that what you will.

Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog

The Wonder Twins

Gleek

Gleek, the pet alien monkey of the Wonder Twins, first appeared in the first episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour (segment: "Joy Ride" (1977)), alongside the Wonder Twins.  His first appearance in comics happened as a member of the Super Friends in the "Crisis One Million" section of DC One Million 80-Page Giant #1 (August 1999).

Black Vulcan

Black Vulcan made his first appearance in the first episode of the All-New Super Friends Hour (segment: "The Whirlpool" (1977)).  His only comics appearance so far was as a member of the Super Friends in the "Crisis One Million" section of DC One Million 80-Page Giant #1 (August 1999).

Apache Chief

 Apache Chief made his first appearance in the second episode of the All-New Super Friends Hour (segment: "The Antidote" (1977)). His first comics appearance was as a member of the Super Friends in the "Crisis One Million" section of DC One Million 80-Page Giant #1 (August 1999, see Black Vulcan's entry). He later appeared in mainstream continuity - in an altered form - as Manitou Raven, starting in JLA #66 (July 2002).

Samurai


In addition to characters, several other things first appeared in Super Friends:

Hall of Justice

Legion of Doom

The Legion of Doom now has its own page. Check it out here!

Hall of Doom

The Hall of Doom now has its own page. Check it out here!

Giganta's powers

Originally, Giganta just had super strength; that is, until Challenge of the Super Friends (1978), when she gained the ability to change size as well.  This ability first manifested in comics in the issue Wonder Woman #126 (October 1997).
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5 comments:

  1. thedarknightJuly 5, 2016 at 12:53 AM

    For Samurai, would his appearance in the Super Powers comic book series drawn by Jack Kirby himself not actually count as his first appearance in comic books? Very impressed by everything researched here btw

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  2. Chad WaltersJuly 5, 2016 at 3:59 PM

    Thanks! And great question. That's on me because I didn't explain it as well as I could have. So here goes: I'm only worried about in-continuity appearances. The Super Powers tie-in comic is completely separate from other DC comics. The DC One Million 80-page giant is in continuity, but the Samurai is from an alternate universe, so I included it but also included his first appearance in the main universe. But *that* was as a somewhat different character in the past with a different look, so I also included his first appearance in the present with his regular look.

    I hope that makes sense; these can get complicated sometimes (see my upcoming post on trying to figure out the different versions of the Batman Beyond characters).

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  3. austinpopdanJuly 7, 2016 at 7:49 PM

    Does the Legion of Doom showing up in Alex Ross' Justice count as canon immigration since it takes place in a different continuity?

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  4. Chad WaltersJuly 8, 2016 at 12:36 PM

    I wouldn't count it, but others might.

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  5. austinpopdanJuly 19, 2016 at 7:23 PM

    Two things:
    1: I love how Samurai just shows up in Brightest Day with no explanation as to who he even is. Samurai was in the DCU the whole time! Didn't you notice?
    2: On a more serious note I really want the Hanna-Barbera Super Friends characters to show up in Rebirth, but that's probably not going to happen.

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