Super Friends Appreciation Week Celebration: Casting Call for Heroes

Over the years that it aired (1973 -1986) there were numerous iterations and cast members to the Super Friends, who perform the same function as the Justice League of America in the comics. Headquartered out of the Hall of Justice, they stopped evildoers (0ften from other galaxies, dimensions, etc. but also along the lines of a Scooby Doo villain in some cases) from wreaking havoc.

Original Members (Who Need No Introduction)

Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman


Teen sidekicks Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog (how come Robin gets to kick ass and they don't?)

NOTE: Wendy and Marvin (sans Wonder Dog) are currently supporting members of the current Teen Titans comic.

Unfortunately, by the 3rd season, our sidekicks were replaced by the alien Wonder Twins (Zan, Janya, and their blue monkey Gleek). When crashing fists together and exclaiming "Wonder Twins Activate" Jayna would take the "form of" some sort of animal and and Zan took the "shape of" water in a variety of states (steam, ice, flowing, etc.).

Also during the same season, there were occasional guest star heroes that included Flash, Plastic Man, Atom and Green Arrow.

A few years later, Hawkman, Green Lantern, and the Flash joined the cast full-time. Hawkgirl and Superboy also joined the ranks of occasional heroes.

Soon after, three non-comics characters joined the heroes.

Black Vulcan (which looks to be based on Black Lightning and shot electricity bolts and flew),

Samurai (who could turn invisible, wielded a sword, and controlled a mini-tornado that flew him around),

and Apache Chief (who, when exclaiming "Inuk-Chuk" grew to towering heights; interestingly, Manitou Raven and Dawn Raven had similar utterances when invoking spells in the JLA comics)

Eventually, the group was joined by El Dorado, who had powers all over the map like teleportation and laser eyes. Like the previous 3, his characters was a very clunky attempt at diversity. The problem is that all of the characters were walking stereotypes with bad exaggerated accents and cultural traits.

Finally, there was Rima the Jungle Girl joining the group of occasional heroes, though she appeared only a few times.

Finally, in the last few seasons Cyborg from the Teen Titans

and Firestorm joined the cast.

Tomorrow, we'll take a look at the villains.