Super Friends #33 (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Though Super Friends sidekicks Wendy and Marvin, along with their pooch Wonder Dog, were unceremoniously replaced by the Wonder Twins when the animated series returned to TV in 1977, the trio was given a send off in the comic book adaptation. 

Siblings Zan and Jayna, along with their blue space monkey Gleek, first appeared in comic book form with issue #6 of Super Friends. In a 3-part story, the twins are given an origin story by E. Nelson Bridwell, which sees the orphans coming to Earth to warn Superman of a space bomb attack from the villainous Grax. Impressed by the alien teens' bravery, the Justice League offers them membership and training as superheroes while Wendy and Marvin leave in issue #9 for college. It's hinted that Wendy will eventually enter the FBI after finishing college.

With Zan's ability to take the form of water in any state and shape and Jayna 's mastery of transforming into animals, both real and mythical, the Wonder Twins become valuable allies to the Super Friends. In order to change their form, Zan and Jayna must make physical contact with one another. Generally, giving one another a fist bump while as humanoids. Should the twins be separated from each other, they will remain in whatever form until they can once again touch. It is that limitation of the Wonder Twins' powers that is the main plot point of this issue.

Someone is targeting the priceless collections of Gotham City's elite. Without any clue as to the culprit, Batman enlists the Super Friends to help. Believing that he knows the next target, a collector of gems and rare birds, Batman has Zan transform into a giant diamond made of ice while Jayna becomes a bird. Only she accidentally becomes a bird that has been extinct for centuries. 

With the twins in place as bait, the culprit is revealed to be the Menagerie Man, who uses trained animals to commit his crimes. When the villain notices Jayna in prehistoric bird form moving, the Menagerie Man believes that he's discovered a missing link and unknowingly steals Jayna. 

With Zan stuck in ice diamond form, the Justice League is down 2 members. But thanks to a feathery friend, Hawkman arrives with the location of the Menagerie Man's hideout. It looks like the rescue mission is going to be easy until the Super Friends are attacked by wildebeests, leopards and birds of prey carrying nuggets of deadly kryptonite!

This 1980 issue was written by Bridwell with artwork by Wonder Twins co-creator Ramona Fradon. Inks were provided by Vince Colleta.

The Super Friends comic book would continue to run through the summer of 1981; ending with issue #47. Both the Wonder Twins and the team of Wendy and Marvin and Wonder Dog would return in the 2000s as characters in both DC animated series and as official comics canon. 

Completing this review completes Task #20 (A Superhero Team Book) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Classic Toys from a Madman's Youth: Advent 2019 Day 25

Merry Christmas everyone!

It's the final day of Advent 2019! As promised I present to you my favorite toy from Santa. Actually it's a whole grouping of toys and I almost didn't get them that year!A little backstory on that.

It's December of 1980. I wanted to find my dad's comic book collection. So I went into my dad's study and opened his closet. There hiding everything was this beautiful Empire Strikes Back sheet that was hanging down like a curtain! I was in awe.

Yes- I still have the sheets!

So I tore it down, only to find my dad's closet was filled with Star Wars toys! So I grabbed something and ran to my mom in the kitchen and asked if I could have whatever it was I found.

Needless to say, my mom freaked out. She called my dad thinking Christmas was ruined. Anyways, they decided to let me have whatever the toy was thinking that I would forget about the rest in the closet- which I did. Sorta...

So let's jump to Christmas Eve. That day it actually snowed. So much that it was considered a blizzard in my state of North Carolina. We all ended up staying at my Grandmama's house for some reason. But it didn't mean that my mom got off from work. Being a nurse, someone came in a big four wheel drive thing to take her to and from. But I got to stay at my Grandparents house for Christmas. And I had snow cream and hot weenies (spicy BBQ hot dogs) for the first time ever!

What made a great Christmas even better was when I got home a few days later, my floor was covered in toys from the ice planet of Hoth! There was an AT-AT, a snow speeder, Luke and Han on Taun-Tauns; one of which had a slit in which to keep Luke warm. Plus there were several Hoth base play sets! Oh- and a Wampa!

Empire Strikes Back being the first movie I remember going to see in theatres (I had been taken to Star Wars when it first came out, but I was too young to remember!), and after having an awesome ESB themed 3rd birthday party the month prior, this just seemed to be the best Christmas ever. Plus, there was still snow outside. So I got to recreate scenes from Hoth in the snow!

Almost 40 years later and I still am in love with Empire. It's my favorite movie! I feel like I am on Cloud City every time I drive into a brilliant sunset. My Yoda impression is on point! And Hoth is my happy place! I love the cold and as I fall asleep, I imagine I am in a research station on that frozen planet. Man, you cannot tell my joy on those rare times it snows.

I think these toys are my favorite because Christmas of 1980 truly was a magical holiday. Nothing seemed to go wrong at that time. Sadly, as I got older, those yule tide's were more bitter as my family struggled with divorce, health issues and life in general.

But hey- this is a happy time! So as my final Advent present for you this 2019 Christmas season, here's a great video in which somebody turned the Battle of Hoth in a Christmas Parade massacre! It's great!

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Classic Toys from a Madman's Youth: Advent 2019 Day 11

For today's advent, we're continuing with the inflatables theme. Thanks to the popularity of Star Wars, Buck Rogers, and other sci-fi films featuring androids, anything involving robots was a big deal. So many kids wanted robots of their own that a number of companies starting producing inflatable remote-controlled robots! And I was one of them.

There were literally dozens of different RC robots on the market by 1979-80. The most popular was the Radio Shack exclusive Radio-Controlled Robot. Made by Tandy, this model came in red and later blue variants. Both used the same inflatable shape; standing at an impressive 3ft tall. The red model was basically an advertisement for radio shack, with the store logo on his chest. The blue one looked more stream-lined with a magnetic tape chest and the letters TC on his chest. 

As a result, many of us wanted a TC for Christmas. I remember a friend of mine or maybe a relative had this and I wanted one for myself. But I don't think I ever got one of these. But, I did however get an RC robot of my own.

The one I received was even taller than TC. It was called Starman80. He stood at 3 and a half feet tall and had a wheeled base that looked like actual robot feet! He also looked a bit more menacing than TC did. But that was cool for me as I thought that Starman looked a lot like the cult classic action figure (FAIL) of ROM Spaceknight. 

I remember how I got this gift. It was Christmas Eve at my Grandmama's. My parents and grandparents took me into the kitchen. At which point, my Grandmama opened up her walk-in pantry door and out rolled Starman80! 

It was so cool!

Sadly, that's about all I remember of this toy. But it was a gift that was often mentioned, especially around Christmas time. I wanted to share my Advent present for you, a commercial for Starman80. But I could not find one. So, I decided to share with you a video of another robot toy I got sometime for Christmas in the early 90s. I did not take this vid, but I hope you will enjoy!

A Classic TV Christmas- Advent 2017 Day 15

Even though I am a huge fan of everything Pittsburgh, I'm taking us on a road trip to a rival city. Next stop, Ohio. The city is Cincinnati. I heard that they've got a rockin' radio station on the AM side. 

So let's turn the dial to WKRP in Cincinnati and see how those loony DJs from the Queen City celebrate the holidays.

Bah, Humbug- aired December 20, 1980

It's Christmas Eve at the station, time for the annual office holiday party.  It seems like a fun time will be had by all until everyone has learned that station head Mr. Carlson, played by Gordon Jump, has forgone with Christmas bonuses! That quickly puts everyone in a bad mood and the party breaks up fast. 

Mr. Carson is the only one left and he decides to partake of some of the Christmas goodies leftover. The one thing in particular that he grabs is a brownie. As in morning DJ Dr. Johnny Fever's (Howard Hesseman) magic brownies. (They're laced with pot, okay???)

Anyways, the brownies put Carson to sleep where he ends up being visited by, you guessed it, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

The spirits in form of various cast members from the show, take him to his days as a young lad at the station when his dad ran it. Then he learns of how times are tough for his current staff. And then he learns of the horrors of automation in the future of radio before the Big Guy wakes up and has a change of heart giving out bonuses to his much deserving staff.

What I really like about this story is how it shows some of the characters when they were younger, albeit by different actors. Plus, it shows what could happen to the station in the future. True, this isn't as glorious a holiday episode as when WKRP dropped live turkeys on the people of the Pineville Shopping Center. But that was a Thanksgiving episode. 

Anyways, my Advent gift for your today is this very episode.

Well, that's all the time I have for today. Enjoy and until next time- Merry Christmas!

A Classic TV Christmas- Advent 2017 Day 11

I'm playing hard and loose with the time line today. While I am now progressing into classic TV Christmas episodes of the 1970s, I am also going back in time to the 1950s. If you've guessed that happy days are here again, then pat yourself on the back. We are going to spend the holidays with the Cunninghams of Milwaukee for a Happy Days Christmas.

Happy Days was an extremely popular TV show on ABC. It was set in the 1950s and focus on the life of Richie Cunningham and his family. Well, that is until a certain greaser named the Fonz became the de facto star of the show. 

The series ran for 11 seasons from 1974-1984 and had several holiday episodes. But my favorite was from Happy Days' eighth season. Titled White Christmas, the episode aired on December 19, 1980. 

It's Christmas Eve and a major blizzard has crippled Milwaukee. Mr. Cunningham and his daughter Joanie are stranded at Cunningham hardware. Mrs. Cunningham and Richie's pregnant wife Mary Beth are at home where the power has gone out and one of the upstairs windows has broken mysteriously (don't worry, it was just a bird...) Meanwhile Fonzie and some of the gang are stuck at Arnold's Drive-In thanks to Potsie screwing up and getting everybody snowed in thanks to a snow plow. 

It looks like everybody is going to be spending Christmas away from each other. But thanks to a Christmas miracle of either the snow clean-up crew of Milwaukee being able to plow through 2-feet of snow or a stroke of coincidental genius by the writers, everyone is able to make it home in time for Christmas. Well, except for Richie who can't fly in because of the blizzard. (Although in reality, actor Ron Howard had left the show prior in order to become a big time door-to-door shoe salesman or something, forever forsaking Hollywood and it's wantonous beckoning call.

On paper, this isn't really be one of my favorite episodes. In terms of a Christmas episode it's rather sad. Mr. Cunningham laments how soon Joanie will moving away for college. Mrs. Cunningham and Richie's wife are all sad that Richie got delayed. The only funny things are the scenes at Arnold's with Potsie getting on Fonzie's nerves. 

But what I love so very much about this episode is the snow! I am a winter weather junky. I am a Northerner born in a Southern state. As I write this post, it's snowing in North Carolina and it's not officially winter yet! And I could not be more thrilled. I just love getting snowed-in and this episode is all about being snowed-in! 

Since this post is all about snow and my love for it, I am forgoing a clip of the episode and instead giving to you for Advent a video of holiday tunes set to falling snow. It is 3 hours long, so if you don't sit through the whole thing, it will not hurt my feelings. So enjoy and until next time- Merry Christmas!

The 18 Days of a Star Wars Christmas Miracle +7: Day 3

   In 1980, there was one toy on every boys wishlist- a Boba Fett action figure from the Empire Strikes Back. The figure at first was offered as a mail-away offer from Kenner. That meant you have to buy 3 or 4 other Star Wars action figures, cut the UPC code off the back and wait 3-4 years (okay, it was months, but it felt like years) for the figure to arrive in the mail in a very small nondescript brown cardboard box.
 
    By the way, this willful destruction of mint-in-package figures in why an unopened Yoda figure is worth the price of a small car.

   Anyways, the main thing that made this toy so awesome (besides it being of Boba Fett) was that the figure was supposed to come with a feature on the back in which you could fire the missile on his jetpack at your little sister. It also meant you might shoot her eye out. Kenner realized this and instead removed the firing pin, glued the rocket into the jet pack and mailed the bounty hunter far and wide to disappointed kids everywhere. (BTW- a prototype Boba Fett with Firing Jet Pack is worth the price of 4 small cars.)

   For today's advent, I have included a link of several Star Wars toy commercials from 1980 along with the one telling kids to cut up their action figures, plus a great article about the whole firing missile debacle.


    So fill up a glass of egg nog, snuggle up in your vintage Star Wars comforter and enjoy being 5 again...

 

The 18 Days of a Star Wars Christmas Miracle +7: Day 2

 

 It just wasn't Christmas without this LP. I don't know how many year's in a row would be put up the Christmas tree watching 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' and listening to this album. 

   Produced in 1980 by Meco, the techno whiz behind the disco version of the Star Wars theme and the Cantina Song. Featuring Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, R2-D2, and Chewbacca, the majority of the album took place in a droid factory making toys for an 'S. Claus.' 

   The album is hard to come by, with the cassette version being especially rare. But another reason that makes this album so collectible is that it features the first profession recording of Jon Bon Jovi. Recording under his birth name 'John Bongiovi' the future rocker landed the lead vocals on the song 'R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas' as his cousin, who was a producer on the project, ran the studio that John worked at as a custodian. 

    So as my advent present to you, here is a recording of that first Bon Jovi, er Bongiovi masterpiece...