Super Friends (TV Series) Episode: Secret Origins of the Super Friends

"Secret Origins of the Super Friends"
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Super Friends  Season 3: Episode 14
October 21, 1978
Directors	Ray Patterson · Carl Urbano
Writers	Jeffrey Scott
Producers	William Hanna Joseph Barbera Iwao Takamoto
Previous Episode	"The Beasts Are Coming" (October 21, 1978)
Next Episode	"Terror from the Phantom Zone" (October 28, 1978)

Priscilla Rich as Wonder Woman

Lex Luthor takes the Legion of Doom on a trip through time to disrupt the origins of three of the most powerful heroes of the Super Friends: Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Superman. In Wonder Woman's origin

Secret Origins of the Super Friends is an episode of season 3 of Super Friends. It premiered on October 21, 1978.

Synopsis for "Secret Origins of the Super Friends"

Priscilla Rich as Wonder Woman

Lex Luthor takes the Legion of Doom on a trip through time to disrupt the origins of three of the most powerful heroes of the Super Friends: Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Superman. In Wonder Woman's origin, Cheetah disguises herself as one of the Amazon contestants on Paradise Island for the winner to become their representative champion in the outer world known as Wonder Woman. With only her and Diana left as the final contestants, both face each other in a duel with stun rays that they must successfully block with their silver bracelets. Though Diana manages to block Cheetah's stun rays, Cheetah's own bracelets (radio-controlled) cause Diana's stun rays to bounce back and strike Diana, causing her to be the winner instead of Diana. As Cheetah sails away and rejoins the Legion of Doom with the costume and armaments of Wonder Woman, the Wonder Woman in the present time fades away as she helps Batman and Robin put out a forest fire (The Dynamic Duo immediately forgets her existence).

Next, Lex Luthor disrupts the origin of Green Lantern by appearing where Hal Jordan was working as a test pilot inside a simulator pod when a green energy beam surrounds the pod. Luthor tells Hal to get out of the simulator, and as he does, Luthor takes his place inside it as it is carried to a crash-landed spaceship piloted by Abin Sur, who then gives Luthor the power ring and energy lantern of the Green Lantern. With this power now in Luthor's possession, the Green Lantern in the present time fades away as he helps Hawkman and Black Vulcan finish repairing the Justice League satellite (forgetting GL's existence).

Finally, the Legion of Doom disrupts the origin of Superman by causing the rocket carrying Jor-El's infant son Kal-El to Earth to be diverted to a planet where he would grow up having no powers at all. With this change in history, the Superman in the present time fades away during a service honoring his heroism (while the homage is retconned as being to Hawkman, who was along next to Superman).

With the Justice League now without its most powerful members, the Legion of Doom now abduct its remaining members and force them to do battle among themselves for the villains' personal entertainment. However, the Flash manages to help Batman, Robin, and Black Vulcan escape from imprisonment inside the Hall of Doom and transport themselves secretly to the Hall of Justice, discovering along the way records of three missing Justice League members whom none of the Super Friends have any memory of. Using various forms of time travel, the four heroes go forth to restore the origins of the three missing Super Friends.

Flash arrives at the tournament on Paradise Island just in time for Diana to face off with Cheetah with the silver bracelets and stun rays. As Cheetah uses her bracelets to bounce Diana's stun rays back unto herself, the Flash blocks the rays at super-speed, defeating the Cheetah's efforts. Diana is declared the winner and is rightfully given the costume and armaments of Wonder Woman.

Black Vulcan arrives when Hal Jordan is in the test pilot simulator pod when the green energy grabs the pod. Luthor arrives to tell Hal to get out, but Black Vulcan blocks Luthor's efforts to disrupt the Green Lantern's actual origin by using a lightning bolt as a force field around Luthor. Hal meets with the dying alien Abin Sur, who then gives him the power ring and energy lantern to use as Earth's Green Lantern.

Batman and Robin in their Batrocket arrive after Kal-El's rocket has been launched from Krypton prior to its destruction. As the Hall of Doom fires a repulsion beam to divert the rocket to travel to another planet, Batman makes the Batrocket be the repulsion beam's target, protecting the rocket as it carries its infant passenger to Earth, landing in a Smallville field and catching the attention of the Kents, who decide to call him Clark Kent.

With all three heroes' origins restored, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Superman appear in the present again and find out that the Legion of Doom still has the other captured Super Friends in their custody. Together with the help of the three most powerful heroes on Earth, the Super Friends stop the Legion of Doom and rescue their comrades.

Appearing in "Secret Origins of the Super Friends"

Featured Characters:

• Super Friends
  • Apache Chief
  • Aquaman
  • Batman
  • Black Vulcan
  • The Flash
  • Green Lantern (Origin)
  • Hawkman
  • Robin
  • Samurai
  • Superman (Origin)
  • Wonder Woman (Origin)

Supporting Characters:

• 
  

Antagonists:

• Legion of Doom
  • Bizarro
  • Black Manta
  • Brainiac
  • The Cheetah
  • Captain Cold
  • Giganta
  • Gorilla Grodd
  • Lex Luthor
  • The Riddler
  • The Scarecrow
  • Sinestro
  • Solomon Grundy
  • The Toyman

Other Characters:

• Abin Sur (Dies)
• Amazons
  • Queen Hippolyta
• Aphrodite
• Kryptonians
  • Jor-El (Dies)
  • Lara (Dies)
  • Kryptonian Science Council
• Jonathan Kent
• Martha Kent

Locations:

• Earth
  • 1978
    • Metropolis
      • Hall of Justice
    • Slaughter Swamp
      • Hall of Doom
  • 1941
    • Paradise Island
  • California
    • Coast City
      • Ferris Aircraft
• Krypton
• Timestream

Items:

• Green Lantern Power Battery
• Green Lantern Ring
• Troubalert

Vehicles:

• Abin Sur's Starship
• Batplane
• Kryptonian Rocket
• Wonder Woman's Invisible Plane

Concepts:

• The Magic Bracelets Against the Stun Ray

Notes

• This was the first animated depiction of Wonder Woman's origin (and the second televised depiction overall, after the 1975 television series' pilot movie).

Bloopers & Inconsistencies

Even in a fictitious reality that accepts the notion of super-powered individuals, this episode still demonstrates several logistical improbabilities.

• A plot irregularity that is not explained is that why weren't three or four of the Legion of Doom's members erased from history when their archfoes were removed? For example, with no Superman why would there still be a Bizarro (you could argue that Luthor would become evil regardless)?

• As with many time travel stories the mechanics of how things work are all over the place. After the Superfriends prevent the Legion of Doom from interfering with history they confront the Legion of Doom. However, Scarecrow comments about how the three whose histories they originally changed don't exist...why doesn't he remember the failures?

• According to the Narrator the Legion of Doom arrives off the shore of Paradise Island in 1941 which implies that is when Diana became Wonder Woman and left the island as the alternative is they simply sat there for over a decade. On Earth-One there was no Spear or Grail to prevent superheroes from going in and single handily defeating the Axis powers.

• Queen Hippolyta's hair is brown as on Earth Two; on Earth One and in the comic tie ins her hair is blond.

Trivia

• The Legion of Doom's computer lists this as file 17G Superfriend elimination plan 12.

See Also

• 7 Images from Super Friends (TV Series) Episode: Secret Origins of the Super Friends
• Episodes of Super Friends (TV Series)
• Images from Super Friends (TV Series)
• Gallery for the Super Friends (TV Series) series

Recommended Media

• None.

Links and References

• None.

Footnotes