Challenge of the Super Friends

1978 - 1978

Wanted: The Superfriends

9th September 1978

Episode 1

Lex Luthor uses a dream machine to control the unconscious minds of the Superfriends and make them commit crimes. Not knowing of Lex's influence, the heroes surrender themselves to the authorities. Bizarro and Cheetah have taken the place of the police and paralyze them and send them toward the Sun. Given free rein, the Legion takes over the Hall of Justice and use the Justice League satellite to transform all of Earth's inhabitants into duplicates of Bizarro and Cheetah to steal for them. The SuperFriends escape the trap when Superman spots a meteor and Wonder Woman telepathically controls her lasso to direct the cell's paralysis projector into the meteor's path. While the SuperFriends try to thwart the worldwide crime spree, Batman and Robin try to figure out how to reverse the transformation but are sent off a cliff by Bizarro-Alfred. They manage to escape at the last minute and finish their computations and reverse the polarity of the satellite and untransform everyone. They ambush

Invasion of The Fearians

16th September 1978

Episode 2

Captain Cold strikes a deal with the Fearinans that involve tricking the Super Friends into converting Earth's climate to something closer to Venus'. In return the Fearians take on the Super Friends. They suceed in trapping the Super Friends but Green Lantern tricks them into dropping the field by making himself and his comrades invisible.

The World's Deadliest Game

23rd September 1978

Episode 3

The Legion lure Wonder Woman, Black Vulcan, and Hawkman away from Earth by cloaking it and get them to the Toyman's artificial planet within a black hole. While they try and avoid the Toyman's deadly games, the Legion has the Riddler lure the Super Friends to a deathtrap in the Grand Canyon, then to a planet in Orion's belt where a tribe of women try to petrify them. The Riddler's last clue leads them to the black hole planet which is about ready to close for good. Green Lantern and Superman combine their powers to escape and return to Earth where the Legion is collecting a ransom on the missing Super Friends, but the Legion escapes thanks to the cloaking device.

The Time Trap

30th September 1978

Episode 4

The Legion use Grodd's new time-travel device to loot the past and trap the Super Friends in 70 million BC (Black Manta and Giganta vs. Aquaman and Apache Chief), Arthurian England in 500 A.D. (Sinestro and Captain Cold vs. Green Lantern and Samurai), and Ancient Rome (Solomon Grundy and Gorilla Grodd vs. Batman and Robin). Aquaman buries his communicator in the past on the site of the Great Hall of Justice to activate it in the present and contact the Super Friends, and Superman breaks the time barrier to rescue them and then travels through time with a geiger counter to locate the other missing heroes. Then the Super Friends confront the Legion at Sutter's Mill in 1848 where they are planning a gold heist. The heroes easily defeat the villains who make a hasty escape with the pre-programmed time travel device.

Trial of the Superfriends

7th October 1978

Episode 5

Brainiac, Cheetah, and Scarecrow launch an attack on Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern as they guard a Liquid Light manufacturing plant to steal their power devices. The heroes are captured and the Legion place them on trial, while sending four android duplicates out with their devices to fight them. Bizarro and Black Manta then steal the Liquid Light and use it on a defenseless city, and Superman, Black Vulcan, and Flash battle them and try to stop the Liquid Light, which dissolves anything in its path. The Flash uses his speed to redirect the Liquid Light. Meanwhile, the captive Super Friends manage to outsmart their android duplicates, recover their devices, and join back up with the others to beat the Legion, which manages to make a quick escape.

Monolith of Evil

14th October 1978

Episode 6

The Legion find out about the Monolith of Evil from Solomon Grundy, who reveals it brought him to life. The Legion trick Superman, Black Vulcan, and Hawkman to go to the center of the Earth and recover the Monolith. The rest of the Super Friends battle the Legion equipped with the Monolith. However, it is neither good nro evil, but influenced by whoever holds it. Wonder Woman telepathically controls it long enough for the Super Friends to gain the advantage.

The Giants of Doom

21st October 1978

Episode 7

Bizarro comes up with a scheme to use three elements that will let them become giants. Sinestro already has the first element, then he and Sinestro split the moon open to get the second. Superman, Batman, and Robin capture them. The Toyman and Captain Cold launch an attack on the Parthenon to get the third element and Green Lantern stops them (while Aquaman cheerleads). Their capture is all part of the plan: Bizarro needs the SuperFriend computer to assemble the elements and create the giant-creating formula. The four giant-sized villains easily defeat the SuperFriends and Captain Cold freezes them in an ice block and sends them into Saturn's core. Batman's automatic utility belt defroster thaws them out and they escape gas monsters to return to Earth. Returning to Earth, Superman, Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern become giants themselves and thwart the giant-sized Legion villains. Of course, Luthor bails them out at the end and they all escape with the aid of a decoy Legion HQ.

Secret Orgins of the Superfriends

28th October 1978

Episode 8

Lex Luthor learns the origins of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern and takes the Legion ship back in time to alter their origins. Cheetah sabtoages Wonder Woman's attempts in 1941 to become Wonder Woman at Aphrodite's request, while Lex Luthor takes the place of Hal Jordan and receives the power ring of dying Green Lantern Abin Sur. Those two missions compelted, the entire Legion deflect Kal-El's rocket to a planet with a red sun where he will grow up powerless. The remaining Super Friends are easy prey. While Aquaman, Apache Chief, Samurai, and Hawkman fight each other under the influence of Lex's hypno-ray, Batman, Robin, Flash, and Black Vulcan manage to escape and travel back in time to correct the past. The Flash sabotages Cheetah's winning the championship, Black Vulcan sends Hal Jordan on his way, and Batman and Robin deflect the beam meant for Kal-El's rocket with their Batplane. With their three most powerful members restored, the Legion is easily defeated by they esca

Revenge on Gorilla City

4th November 1978

Episode 9

After a failed takeover of Gorilla City, Grodd goes to the Legion for help. With the help of Brainiac's brainwave amplifier, Grodd takes over Gorilla City and his old nemesis King Solovar. Solovar flees and recruits Batman, Robin, Flash, and Apache Chief to help him. Black Manta captures them all and Lex Luthor strips them of their powers and Sinestro and Giaganta hunt them down with the mind-controlled gorillas. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Black Vulcan battle Black Manta, Toyman, and an army of mind-controlled gorillas who are invading the rest of Africa and manage to get themselves captured. Solovar and the Flash manage to nullify Brainiac's mind control device and the gorilla help the Superfriends to emerge triumphant although the Legion escapes again.

Swamp of the Living Dead

11th November 1978

Episode 10

On their day off the Legion terrorize an old woman wandering through their swamp. She summons an evil swamp demon to give them the power to create zombies if they deliver the SuperFriends to it. They do so by luring the heroes one by one to the swamp, starting with tricking in Batman and Robin with the Scarecrow disguised as Hawkman. When the real Hawkman shows up he and Green Lantern go to investigate and get captured as well. One by one the rest of the SuperFriends get captured. The Legion gets the zombie power and send their minions to rob a plutonium plant. But when they demand even more power and capture the swamp demon, they miscalculate and he turns the unstoppable zombies loose on the Legion and they are forced to aid the Super Friends to gain their help. The witch tells the Super Friends how to triumph - by tying them to dead trees with dead vines. The Friends capture the Legion but the witch helps out the other side to balance things out and the Legion escape once more.

Conquerors of the Future

18th November 1978

Episode 11

The Legion of Doom becomes the Legion of Good! But it's a distraction while they conquer the Earth of 3984. However, the Super Friends put together the Riddler's cryptic clues and Superman, Flash, and Green Lantern travel to the future to defeat them there.

The Final Challenge

25th November 1978

Episode 12

Wonder Woman and Aquaman are under attack by five of the Legion of Doom (Scarecrow, Riddler, Cheetah, Black Manata, Bizarro) in Black Manta's Manta-ship. Batman, Apache Chief, and Superman come to their aid, but they all disappear as the rest of the Justice League and Legion arrive. The missing members are teleported to a planet by a being called Vartu who places them in contests to end their battle once and for all. Batman and Riddler vie in a maze, with Batman winning. Black Manta and Aquaman must cross the Lake of Terror and Manta wins when Aquaman has to rescue him. Cheetah and Wonder Woman must climb a volcano and Wonder Woman wins. Apache Chief and Scarecrow must best a two-headed serpent and Scarecrow wins by being better with a lasso. Superman and Bizarro must stop a giant space robot with kryptonite beams and Superman wins. Vartu dumps the five Legion members into a pool of acid but the Justice Leaguers rescue them. While the missing members struggle against each other, the re

Fairy Tale of Doom

2nd December 1978

Episode 13

The Toyman devises a way to transmit people into books. The Legion uses Brainiac, Cheetah, and Giganta to lure Superman, Hawkman, and Wonder Woman respectively into the storybook tales of Gulliver, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Alice in Wonderland, respectively. In each case the villains lure the heroes into some danger and then disappear. The other Super Friends figure things out and manage to open the portal just before the books would be sealed for good and defeat the Legion.

Doomsday

9th December 1978

Episode 14

The Legion of Doom launch an attack on an aircraft earlier. Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Apache Chief battle their Legion counterparts Sinestro, Black Manta, and Giganta and capture them when the other Legion of Doomers leave their comrades to their fate. Sinestro manages to escape from the Hall of Justice with the others and substitute anti-matter robots. When Superman touches them he is briefly transferred to the anti-matter universe of Qward and fights an anti-universe Krypton knight. Meanwhile, the three renegades steal a matter-transmutation device from the Flash and Black Vulcan. They use the device to gain revenge on their Legion of Doom comrades by transmitting them into bowling pins and billard balls before deciding things are even. With the aid of the device they manage to defeat most of the Super Friends but Superman manages to get to the transmutation device and stop it, leaving the Legion to be captured once more.

Superfriends, Rest in Peace

16th December 1978

Episode 15

The episode opens with...Batman's funeral! We soon find out that the Legion of Doom have a substance, Noxiam, that allows them to kill any Superfriend. In flashback we see Lex trick Superman into opening the krypton-steel box. Then the Riddler lures Batman into an ambush in Gotham City and kills him, leading to the funeral at the beginning. The Legion then takes the Daily Planet, Perry White, and Lois Lane hostage and kill Superman, and Paradise Island hostage to force Wonder Woman to confront them and be killed as well. The other Superfriends flee Earth but come back and are killed. Luthor then tosses the Noxiam into the sewer, its use at an end. A protectively garbed figure recovers it and shoots the crystal into space--it's Apache Chief. It's all a ploy to lure the Legion out. The dead Superfriends were actually robots.

The History of Doom

23rd December 1978

Episode 16

Three aliens come to a ruined Earth. Travelling to the Great Hall of Justice, they find a series of memory tapes chronicling the Superfriends and the Legion of Doom. Although they find some origin tapes, they find nothing on the calamity that destroyed the Earth. They find the Legion of Doom HQ and discover that Luthor unleashed a solar flare that interacted with the Superfriends' planet-protecting shield, devastating all life on Earth. The aliens go back in time and alter the timeline with an eclipse so that the flare never makes it to Earth.

Top Cast

Casey Kasem•Jack Angel•Don Messick

Animation Sci-Fi & Fantasy Action & Adventure

Challenge of the Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from September 9, 1978, to December 23, 1978, on ABC. The complete series was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for Warner Bros. Television and is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics and created by Julius Schwartz, Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. It was the third series of Super Friends cartoons, following the original Super Friends in 1973 and The All-New Super Friends Hour in 1977. It continues to air on Boomerang in the United States.

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Joseph Barbera

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