Happy Anniversary Super Friends

50 years ago, on this date, the Super Friends cartoon premiered on ABC, introducing the world to Marvin, Wendy and the Wonder Dog, who worked alongside the World's Greatest Super Heroes....Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, who had been in animation before (but not paired as the Super Friends).

Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice (or, DC Comics), always on the lookout for more comics to produce, decided to make comics based on the Super Friends animated series, with the first issue of Super Friends cover dated November, 1976, and the title lasting 47 issues to August, 1981.

Along the way, the comics gave some back story to the animated series (Marvin White was the son of Daniel and Diana White, Diana being the lady who gave Wonder Woman her Diana Prince identity, while Wendy Harris was the niece of detective Harvey Harris, who helped train Batman).  The comics even facilitated the change from Marvin/Wendy to the Wonder Twins (Zan and Jayna from Exor, with their monkey, Gleek).  

The comic also had the Super Friends operating as a subset of the Justice League of America, though the whole team did appear (at least up to Hawkgirl), as well as other heroes like Plastic Man, Supergirl and Black Orchid, as well as new international heroes like Green Fury, Ice Maiden, Rising Sun, Jack O'Lantern, Tasmanian Devil and more (who became the Global Guardians).

They also faced established DC villains not in the cartoon (like the original Toyman, Poison Ivy, Human Flying Fish, Grax, Time Trapper, Chronos, Hector Hammond and Queen Bee), a few solo villains who made it into the cartoon (like Penguin and Mirror Master) and even some of the members of the Legion Of Doom (though not together...individually, Cheetah, Riddler, Scarecrow, Bizarro, Solomon Grundy, Grodd, Giganta and Sinestro), as well as villains only for the comic, like Menagerie Man and the Overlord.

Here's a few places that Super Friends tales were reprinted in....

Best Of DC #3 (January-February, 1980) 

This Digest, with cover by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Bob Smith, reprints Super Friends #3, #4 and #10...

...as well as Justice League of America #57 and Teen Titans #18.

Super Friends (July, 2001)

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This trade, with cover by Alex Ross, reprints Super Friends #1, #6, #7, #8, #9, #14, #21, #27 and the Toth stuff from the Limited Collector's Edition.

...and, in two volumes, all 47 issues were reprinted here, along with the Alex Toth Limited Collectors' Edition wraparound for two JLA tales!

Star Trek 56th Anniversary

On September 8th, 1966, fans were treated to the first episode of Star Trek.

Now, 56 years later, time to celebrate that science fiction classic, with a look at comic covers from Star Trek's long history in comics, with one being a little sadder than the rest.

Gold Key was the first to publish Star Trek, and IDW is the current license holder, and here are the covers of their 56 issues of their respective series....with art by an unidentified artist (October, 1978) and Tony Shasteen (April 2016).

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DC had two concurrent series running with Star Trek, one on the original series and one based on The Next Generation, with covers by Rod Whigham and Carlos Garzon and by Deryl Skelton (both issues cover dated January, 1994)

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But, the sad part of this anniversary, is this, the 56th (and last issue) of DC's original run of Star Trek comics, with cover art by Jerome Moore (November, 1988....and read more on the history of Star Trek comics here).  

But, not unlike Spock, Star Trek would return to comics, including the Next Generation and beyond!

A Few Special Star Trek Issues

Star Trek has had a few comic series over the 5 decades of its existence, but there are a few that stand out.

Here's a couple of them from DC's first run at the cast of the Enterprise....

...and why these two issues have stood the test of time (in more ways than one!).

 Chekov's Choice

It is a rare thing when television actors get a chance to write comics, especially about their own character on a beloved show, but Walter Koenig got that chance for Pavel Chekov with DC Comics' Star Trek #19 (October, 1985) and the story of "Chekov's Choice", with art by Dan Spiegle and cover by series regulars Tom Sutton and Ricardo Villagran.

This issue is important, as it focused on the era of Star Trek between the original series and the majority of original Star Trek movie era, set at a time after the original Star Trek motion picture but well before the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Chekov was faced with a choice (thus, the title), and had to lead the crew of the Enterprise in a mutiny to save the ship from a collision with an asteroid.

This issue also showed that DC Comics had, wisely, gotten legal rights from Paramount to cover all eras of Star Trek at the time (unlike the previous Marvel Comic series, which only covered the era of Star Trek: The Motion Picture).

Vicious Circle

The comic took advantage of that fact with Star Trek #33 (December, 1986) and "Vicious Circle" by Len Wein, Tom Sutton and Ricardo Villagran (and cover by Jerry Bingham), when the original series crew met with the movie era crew in a special, 20th Anniversary story!

Thanks to an early time travel adventure of the Star Trek crew from the episode, "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", Kirk and crew came from the 1960s, overshooting their own time to the time and ending up in the time between Star Trek III: The Search For Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  This caused many time anomalies and both crews had to work together to get the original Enterprise crew to their rightful place in time.  The crew used another time travel device to help them out (which won't be spoiled here, but it was from an episode fans remember forever)...and special note, you can see the differences in the crews, because Chekov wasn't around during those early, first season episodes, yet Yeoman Janice Rand was.

This points out a problem from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan....in how does Khan recognize Chekov, but that's one anomaly beyond our reckoning.  The issue is also special, as writer Len Wein had written original Gold Key Star Trek issues, making him the first Star Trek comic writer to have written Star Trek comics to go from Gold Key to DC (with Mike W. Barr the first in doing duty from Marvel to DC).  Then, in 1991, Walter Koenig wrote a book, detailing his experiences on making Star Trek: The Motion Picture, entitled "Chekov's Enterprise".  Quite a vicious circle of time travel for both writers!

Happy 48th Star Trek

On September 8th, 1966, Star Trek premiered on NBC with an episode entitled "The Man Trap".

...first boldly taking us where no man has gone before with Captain James T. Kirk, Spock, Bones and the crew of the Enterprise....


Then came the comics...

...first from Gold Key, starting July, 1967, then Marvel Comics from April, 1980...

...then DC starting February, 1984, and finally with IDW Publishing from 2007 to now.

Even with a few twists and turns along the way, still continuing to explore strange new worlds!