Super Powers- Galactic Guardians

For fans of the classic Super Friends cartoon series, the 1985-86 Super Powers Team Galactic Guardians is a much more sophisticated series. Gone are the Wonder Twins Zan and Jana and their space monkey Gleek, making the Saturday morning series much more interesting and relying on the actions of the super heroes instead of the teen aliens to solve any problems the team encounters.

Whereas the previous cartoon depictions of the DC Comics super stars were based on Alex Toth’s (Space Ghost, Birdman, Johnny Quest) designs, this series used character designs provided by Jose Garcia Lopez, leaving viewers with a much more dynamic and modern-looking group of heroes to watch. This, along with other advancements, is a double-edged sword and it makes the Super Powers Team cartoon a well-crafted series it has little of the charm that the corny Super Friends series had.

New to the team is the character of Cyborg who closely resembles the character that viewers would find waiting for them in the comic book series at the time. This level of detail to match the DC comic books is much appreciated but sadly futile as DC Comics was to drastically re-think the entirety of their comic book line with their Crisis on Infinite Earths, making any attempts to honor the comic creations a nearly pointless effort.

The newly released DVD set is a bit slim on content as the new format consisted mainly of 22 minute-long stories rather than the previous 11 minute-long mini-episodes. With the exception of four episodes, this makes the Super Powers Team series much healthier in plot and character development than any other DC cartoon series seen up to that time. In many ways, this is a precursor to the Bruce Timm Justice League series to follow many moons later.

While there are no real clunkers in the collection (aside from the fact that two stories rely heavily on Darkseid’s attraction to Wonder Woman), the stand-out episode has got to be ‘The Fear.’ Originally planned as a pilot for a revamped Batman cartoon series, this marks the first time the caped crusader’s origin was told in full in cartoon form. A spooky story involving the Scarecrow, this story is such a treat for Batman fans and completely blindsides viewers who were more used to Gleek’s corny jokes in this series. One scene in particular featuring Batman hallucinating his own screams as a child of ‘Mommy! Daddy!’ as he re-experiences his parents’ brutal murder in Crime Alley. I can’t help but wonder what kids made of this one!

Another high-point is the Bizarro World story which is a love/hate episode starring twisted Bizarro versions of Cyborg, Wonder Woman and Firestorm being trained by Mxyzptlk to be better ‘heroes.’ I understand why some consider this one a groaner, but personally I thought it was lots of fun.

Another unexpected surprise is the ‘Death of Superman’ episode that challenged the production team’s ability to stretch the restrictions of the Broadcasting Board.

All in all, this is a very well-done series that lives up to its reputation as a high watermark for the people that would much later return to deliver Batman, Superman and the Justice League cartoons. I was stunned to see names such as writer Alan Burnett and voice director Andrea Romano who are both still working on these characters in The Batman Saturday morning cartoon series and the DC Universe animated films.

Recommended

The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (DC Comics Classic Collection)
Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show - The Complete Series (DC Comics Classic Collection)
Challenge of the Super Friends, Volumes 1-2 (DC Comics Classic Collection)