David del Real
____The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985-86)___
---- TV Animated Show. " SuperFriends " Last Season.---
This season or show (how you like to see it) of the Superfriends had a superior quality in its drawings and animation by a mile. This last incarnation of the Justice League of the eighties had the most definite and precise drawings ever used to that date to depict heroic characters. Even today, we can notice how good work of art if was. Nevertheless, the improvement on the side of the story-lines is not as clear as on the side of the drawings...or maybe it is, it depends a lot on the episode you are referring to and your personal taste.During last season, Firestorm became a regular member of the team of super-powered heroes, same as Cyborg became a regular member in this one and both seasons had evil Darkseid, ruler of a planet named Apokolips that he already had under his boots, as the most powerful adversary of our team of heroes. While Firestorm and Cyborg didn´t seem in my opinion as characters interesting enough despite how powerful they were, mostly Firestorm, having Darkseid as a recurring villain, among other good elements, made the show worthy of its "Galactic Guardians" title.Two historically important Episodes:Episode 4: THE FEAR; it was the first time that the origin of the BATMAN was told in the screen media, that is, outside comics or graphic novels, after that, pretty much every version of the character mentions that origin, pretty much unaltered. Episode 8: THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN; Based on an "out of sequence" story by Jerry Siegel (the original creator of the Man of Steel), it tells the tale of Superman being apparently poisoned by an enormous dose of Kryptonite. In the early nineties, a series of comics and their respective Graphic Novel by the title of "Death of Superman" became among the greatest bestsellers in the field.Thanks for reading.David del Real.
2018.
voicemaster71
I voted Challenge of the SuperFriends as the best series for the SuperFriends with the All New SuperFriends Hour as second best. But the Super Powers Team beats all of them in terms of story lines and animation quality. In fact, I could consider the Super Powers Team a complete series by itself away from the SuperFriends shows because of new animation and updated character designs to resemble the Kenner toy figures as well as the current 80's look of the heroes designed by Garcia Lopez. With the exception of four shows, most of these episodes were all full half hour stories. The Ghost Ship, Bizarro Super Powers Team, Brainchild, and the Case of the Stolen Powers were shorter in length. We see more characterization in this series. I was already familiar with the newly introduced Cyborg from reading the New Teen Titans comics. Ernie Hudson did a great job as a distraught bionic being who initially wanted nothing more than to be left alone. And his friendship with recent recruit Firestorm is most memorable. His introduction in the Seeds of Doom was well done. Wonder Woman has had another change of voice again. But this time, it was for the better. BJ Ward has voiced over many heroic female characters, so it's no surprise that she would voice over Wonder Woman at some time or another and in this show, her voice actually fits the newer character design. We also get to see Steve Trevor in an active role in the Darkseid Deception. We see the return of Darkseid, Kalibak, and Desaad and we encounter the Parademons in this series. Lex Luthor makes an appearance as does Brainiac and Mr. Mxyztplk. Bizarro returns only this time he's more likable and voiced over by Danny Dark and he is known as Bizarro number one. The Scarecrow also returns and the for the first time ever, which we never saw on the SuperFriends, we see the Joker, The Penguin, Felix Faust, and the Royal Flush Gang. In addition, another element that was never seen on the SuperFriends but included in this show, were Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, Batman and Robin's secret identities along with Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, and Professor Jonathan crane (Scarecrow). In this series, there is only one flaw. While the Wonder Twins, Black Vulcan, and Apache Chief have been wisely removed fro this series, the Justice League members, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman were reinstated, but they were barely used. Flash only said some lines in one episode, but we never saw his super speed. And the others were active one episode each with Aquaman appearing in the final episode, Escape From Space City. Oddly enough, Samuraui and El Dorado (in cameo only) were a part of this series while the other ethnic players from the SuperFriends were removed. The two best episodes you'll ever find in this series are: The Death of Superman, an excellent dramatic story and the only one with every single Super Powers member present. Even the Flash and El Dorado. The other one is my all time favorite one. The Fear, which tells the origin of Batman on film for the first time. And even though we're used to seeing him play a comical campy Batman, Adam West has proved in this series that he can portray (at least in voice) a more serious, slightly grimmer Batman, whose new design has the longer ears and the cape billowing over him. I really felt Adam West voicing over Batman really gave the Super Powers Team as well as the previous SuperFriends show some real value and this series needs to be released on DVD.For the most part, the stars of the Super Powers Team are Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Firestorm, and Cyborg while the other heroes are merely in the background more or less. I never could understand "Galactic Guardians" in the title. The Super Powers Team is enough. It's also a shame this particular series did not run a second year. But it is still a great series in terms of animation quality and story lines. I give it two thumbs up.
klhawki
I, too, loved this show because for the first time, the characters on this series were far more realistic than any series previously made of this genre. All too often, cartoons of this nature tended to be far too one-dimensional to be truly entertaining. The plots and scripts from action cartoons of this genre from the 60's and 70's had virtually effort put into them by the writers. The D.C and Marvel-based cartoons from those earlier eras were really nothing more than carbon-copies of other similar shows from the Saturday morning lineups. Shows such as "The Herculoids", "Space Ghost", "The Avengers", and others were entertaining to a degree, but they all had one thing in common- they lacked realistic and good character-driven plots that could keep viewers interested from week to week. It was a pleasant surprise to many of us to see this trend slowly end with the newest incarnations of the Justice League in the late 70's and 80's. For the first time, the "Galactic Guardians" shows in 1985 were a refreshing change from what we were used to seeing from the standard fare Saturday morning shows in the 1960's and 70's. The characters were not nearly as one-dimensional, and the plots actually had some thought put behind them. For cartoon lovers like myself, it was a time to finally rejoice in watching superheroes in a cartoon that actually were "human", and had something of substance that we could, and would, want to relate to. The other thing that needs to be said, is the work of outstanding voice-over legends in the business like Michael Bell, Michael Rye, Danny Dark, and others that were the best at what they did. Without great voice talents like those, no cartoon can truly be successful and "legendary" like this one is.
Op_Prime
Along with 'Challenge of the Super Friends' & 'Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show', this was one of the best Super Friends show. The stories were at their peak, being very creative and adventourous. It was classic eighties cartoons, like The Real Ghostbusters and Inspector Gadget. Catch the reruns on Cartoon Network.