There's a small part of me that thinks my interesting morning of developments with employment searches... positive developments I SHOULD clarify... somehow ties into my choice of the FFF entry. I KNOW that I did select it deliberately to coincide with my week-long schedule that starts tomorrow, and continues all the way into next Saturday, the 17th. I figured it ties in to two specific eras for a cartoon... and by proxy, comic... series that helped me identify what I enjoyed, and what drove me up the toddler walls, as a budding comic universe fan. Because like most children of the late 70's and early 80's, I grew up on new episodes, and syndicated episodes of "Super Friends". They could rename the series all they liked, from the initial "Super Friends", all the way to the path that led to "Galactic Guardians", but if you were exposed to these cartoons as a kid, they REALLY did influence what you enjoyed about superheroes! You began to pick your favorites from the Justice League of America memberships, and wondered where the token multinational characters came from. (Or you were a painfully ironic Generation X'er who LIVED to rip on Aquaman as often as you could from the series.) But one thing we could all agree on: the Justice League members, proper, were AWESOME! The teenage "trainees" they took under their wings? Er... Yeah... Let's begin with the first generation!
From the get-go, with "Super Friends" being a Hanna-Babera production, we HAD to have practicing teen superheroes on the team! And a canine companion? DUH! Those elements made "Scooby Doo" a massive cultural hit! Which brings us to Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. So, what made them prime candidates to become apprentices to the WORLD'S GREATEST SUPERHEROES? Was it power to rival Superman's? Deductive skills to make even Batman and Robin blanch? Connections to the gods that not even Wonder Woman had on speed dial? Or were they REALLY heirs apparent to the Seven Seas over Aquaman? ... How about none of the above, and they were just meant to be "funny" comedic relief/viewer avatar characters?
And that's honestly it. They had no special powers... well, outside of maybe the power Marvin had for getting such a cute girl like Wendy to hang out with this lanky jerk. (By the way, from all the episodes I watched, Wendy ALSO had an intelligence level FAR beyond anything Marvin possessed. Which makes me think Marvin must've had evidence of "Tijuana Bibles" featuring Wonder Woman to have even gotten him nominated for the training program.) And as for Wonder Mutt... er, I mean dog? ... Let's face it, people: Scooby Doo... no, even SCRAPPY DOO... were far more special than Wonder Dog. But since this was a HB production, there HAD to be a "funny dog" inclusion for the team. Still, give the goofball teens and their flea-bitten cape-wearing hound credit; they not only featured predominantly in the first few seasons of "Super Friends", they ALSO found life in the DC comic book based off the series!
As they were shunted away in the place of our latter subjects, Wendy and Marvin and Wonder Dog were lost to the mists of time. You see, "Super Friends" was never considered to be part of the DC Universe proper, so characters created for the cartoon were not inserted into the comics continuity for the longest time. However, in the post "Infinite Crisis" era, the Annoying Trinity DID have a cameo in "Teen Titans". ... But that was just a glorified cameo, where Marvin could be grotesquely killed off, and Wendy to then serve as an intelligence gathering member of the team... and another piece of legs to stare at. And while I've not worked my way through the entire series, I did notice a still from "Young Justice" that DOES show that the legacies of Wendy and Marvin have carried on into our current times.
I guess it does pay off to have bribed your way into a team of galactic champions, even though you only EXIST on the team to be the "dummies" that have to learn the lesson of a given episode. ... And so that your stupid dog can make lame attempts at physical humor. But while the notion of a universally recognized team hiring on unpowered... and not very special... teens into their ranks is odd enough, then is it any better that their follow-ups ARE powered, but in VERY limited and ridiculous ways?
Say hello... or hell no... to Zan and Jayna, the Wonder Twins... and their space chimp Gleek. Twin alien siblings with the abilities to shape change. ... And that's where the ridiculousness begins.
You have to give credit to the Justice League for guiding the destinies of ACTUAL SUPER POWERED BEINGS for their run in "Super Friends", but the actual usefulness of those abilities can be debated. Once more, I think the feminine equation of the duo gains the better half, because after fist-bumping each other, and saying the magic words, "Wonder Twin powers, ACTIVATE!", Jayna can transform into any animal she can name. We're not just talking Earth-based animals; if she's seen it and knows it exists, she can change into that animal, terrestrial or not. Of course, the whims of fate... or not-very-detailed writers... seem to grant Jayna's animal abilities with a bit MORE special enhancement than they normally possess, but hey, it's still a practical ability in terms of crime fighting and citizen saving. Zan... Oh Zan... Outside of copying your sister's hairstyle, your half of the power activation centers on forms of water. Yep. He only has mastery of constructing a form that has a solid or liquid basis on H20. Ice saws? Check? Water buckets? You got it. Swimming pools? I'm sure he has that covered. ... I bet Lex Luthor woke up in cold sweats thinking about that fearsome ability.
As for Gleek, the poor monkey was just a courier for Zan's liquid forms. Still, this is based off of a DC property, and as history has shown for the company, SIMIANS SELL BOOKS/CARTOONS. But at least Gleek had a prehensile tail. Whereas all Wonder Dog could manage was not streaking doggy doo on his rather stylish cape. And like Wendy and Marvin, the Wonder Twins made the transition over from the cartoon onto the printed comic page. The one HUGE difference is that Zan and Jayna didn't have to wait for two "Crisis" situations to occur before they saw a post-modern comic take. According to my research, they DID make an appearance in the "Extreme Justice" comic series, and also appeared in the "Young Justice" comic series. (Not to be totally confused by the previously mentioned "Young Justice" animated series Wendy and Marvin appeared in.)
One quick latter media mention was a FORM of the Wonder Twins did appear in a "Justice League Unlimited" episode called "Task Force X", which dealt with an army of cloned super beings under the command of Amanda Waller. They did have on their team a duo of similar-appearing male/female twins that did have transformative abilities. (Yes, the female actually kept the animal changing portion, while the male was sadly still saddled with the power to invoke fears of wet dreams.) But the episode was also neat in that it featured riffs/tributes to the multinational team members of post teen-trainee seasons of "Super Friends". At the very least, today's blog illustrates that just because you're promoted to the top-tier organization, if you've started off as a lame duck, you may well just end up stuck in that position.
But you know, this subject has me feeling a little mean. A little wicked. Maybe even a little... Evil? We'll see where that carries on for the opposite side of the coin for one PARTICULAR season of "Super Friends" for tomorrow's entry that kick-starts the theme week. Stay tuned...
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