For All Mankind #4

FOR ALL MANKIND #4 - SUPER FRIENDS #4

Rob and Super Friend Chris from Professor Frenzy and From Batgirl to Oracle review "Riddles and Rockets" by E. Nelson Bridwell, Ramona Fradon, and Bob Smith, from SUPER FRIENDS #4! Plus another installment of FOR ALL MERCHKIND with fellow network all-star Chris Franklin and Listener Feedback!

Check out images from this comic by clicking here!

Opening and closing themes by Hanna Barbera.

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11 responses to “For All Mankind #4

  1. A great episode covering a great story!
    I loved hearing Chris’ story about shopping for comics for him self and his friend – how great!
    We all know that Riddler can’t commit a crime without sending a riddle-clue to tip his hand – but what a great idea to have him not be able to send a riddle-clue without commenting a crime to back it up! The Glorious E.N.B does it again!

  2. Great review and discussion, as always.
    This issue holds an odd place in my heart, because for some reason I was not able to find it on the newsstands during its initial printing. For years after, my collection was missing this issue.
    When I was in high school I finally ordered it from one of those Comic Book For Sale ads that ran in all books for so many years. I do remember that it was not the very first issue I ever special ordered, because I remember the asking price was more than I wanted to spend! An old issue of JLA was the very first book I ever ordered….
    Anywho, I got this issue at about the time the series ended, and was VERY disappointed that Aquaman only appeared in THREE panels of the whole book! After waiting all those years, to eventually get such little Aqua content was heart-breaking, haha!
    And that is why SF #4 is simultaneously my most-loved and also least-loved issue of Super Friends!

  3. It’s amazing how much story got packed into a comic book back then. They don’t have nearly as much in a years worth of a title these days.
    I love how The Riddler stayed true to character, and was compelled to include clues to his own nefarious plans despite his meaning to lead the heroes to Skyrocket. I can just picture him sitting in his hideout, racking his brain to come up with riddles that would expose both his and Skyrocket’s plans! Or… maybe he gave up and picked a crime that would match his riddle.
    The Riddler (frustrated) “Sigh… guess I’m going to have to resort to dognapping!”
    I’ve been holding back my opinion on the great Wendy/Marvin vs Wonder Twins debate.
    I prefer The Wonder Twins (even though the insufferable Gleek causes more trouble than he is worth) HOWEVER! It’s not Wendy or Marvin I find I dislike, it’s the incredibly goofy episodes they appeared in. The first season of Super-Friends seemed to be aimed at a kindergarten age audience. The later seasons matured things a bit. Going for more of a grade school audience. Just my opinion. Super-Friends Forever!

  4. Just for the record, I have to disagree with Gothosmansion: I like the story World-Beater story in issue #3 better than this one.
    Otherwise, though, I yet again enjoyed the show. Another great guest, another great appearance by Mr. Franklin, and an enjoyable conversation. FAM is fast becoming one of my favorite shows on the network, right after the treasury and digest casts.

  5. Thanks for the show guys. A lot of fun to listen to on a depressing Monday workday.

    I may be misguided by childhood nostalgia, but I love this issue. I first became a Batman fan watching reruns of the Adam West show and was blown away by Frank Gorshin’s portrayal of the Riddler. This was not only the first Super Friends issue I bought off the spinner rack, but it was also my first Riddler comic. The idea of Riddler using his clues to frame someone else, but then still having to commit the crime himself was brilliant. In spite of my love for TV Riddler, I have found many of his comics appearances from the Bronze Age on to be…disappointing. I feel ENB really captured the fun in a difficult-to-write character. Too bad ENB didn’t come up with this story in time for it to be adapted into an episode of the 1966 Batman show. Gorshin would have been great in this plot-line.

    Also, as a dog fan, I enjoyed Robin’s interaction with the dogs. That was good fun for a five year old me.

    I should probably mention that one of my gateway drug comics was Super Heroes vs Super Gorillas, which I bought for Batman and then became fans of Superman and the Flash after reading their adventures in it. I was thrilled to get a comic with both Batman and Superman in it, appearing together. Yeah, that bit with Superman singing is a bit weird, but no weirder than that 60s Jimmy Olsen with the Krypton Crawl dance that someone bought me for my birthday.

    April 1977 cover dates were big for me: In addition to my first Super Friends & Riddler comics (this one), I got my first Brave & the Bold (first Aparo!), first proper Joker comic (Batman 286, although I had the awful baseball issue and I may have had Stacked Cards by this point) and my first three Marvels in a three-pack. That was another gateway drug to Spider-Man and Hulk fandom.

  6. Fun episode! Robin’s line to Wonder Woman reminded me of when Jason Todd met Wonder Woman in Superman Annual #11, “For the Man Who Has Everything”, (“Think clean thoughts, chum.”).

    Nice to hear another Chris on the show! I like the way you think! And yes, if comic Marvin was on the TV series, this Chris wouldn’t hate him. Not only do I not have to hear the voice (I love Frank Welker besides this folks), but he’s not as arrogantly stupid as his toon counterpart.

    Chris

  7. Cheers for another lovely episode, with a great guest in Chris, I love his cheery voice, and that he’s vintage like me. The same can be said for t’other Chris! This issue appeared before I could get SF in the UK so I’ve not read it, but it sounds fun.

    Every issue of the Power Company had me singing ‘Skyrocket in flight, afternoon delight’, I liked that character and her pals.

    In the intro to the cartoon, what the heck does ‘created from the cosmic legends of the universe’ actually mean? It sounds very Grant Morrison!

    Ah yes, Al Schroeder III… the man who gave DC the idea for Superman #330 with Clark Kent’s subliminal super-hypnosis convincing people he looked nothing like the Man of Steel. Hold your head high!

    1. I grew up with the show Martin, and I have always wondered what the heck “created from the cosmic legends of the universe” means. It just sounds good with Ted Knight (not Starman) narrating it.

      Chris

      1. I’m envisioning a Hanna-Barbera staffer being given the task of writing the intro even though he or she doesn’t understand who these superheroes are or even that they have well-established origin stories. But that person did sit in on meetings where the words “DC Universe” and “DC Comics” kept getting brought up … “Comics” got misheard as “Cosmic” … the universe and cosmic are associated words, and you end up with “cosmic legends of the universe.” It is a pretty great-sounding phrase, yes. So on that basis, I allow some leeway to compensate for it sounding like a bit of B.S. otherwise.

  8. Really enjoyed this latest installment!
    Skyrocket’s look was interesting to me, so I attempted to recreate it in my DC Universe Online game.

    I like that Aquaman gets his share of the action in this series.

    Recently, in the DC Universe Community, A question had come up as to who the next big three were after Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. My response was:
    “I’d say Aquaman, Flash and GL. Largely because (until Challenge at Least) Super Friends always opened with Aquaman as one of the big four. Granted, Super Friends is historically regarded as having hurt Aquaman’s reputation more than it helped him, but it still stands that he was a central member and not just an occasional visitor.”

    Anyway I’m looking forward to the next episode.

  9. Great Episode! Being a child of the 70s/80’s, I too immediately thought of the song Midnight at the Oasis when the song about the Andes was brought up. Skyrockets in Flight (afternoon delight) is an excellent point out as well that I din’t think of but…yes, 10 points to Griffindor!. Loved seeing the new letters page in the back of this issue and the truth and “bravery” to publish the negative letter as well was a hoot.
    Thinking about the Merch-Kind segment, and in seeing the package phooto on your link to this episode I wasn’t thinking of it so much as a slap in Aquaman’s face that he was missing from the Super Friends logo. I was immediately struck with the thought that it was kind of cute and clever that Aquaman had dove from the Superfriends logo up top and was now swimming below on the packaging near the swim gear. It seemed to me more like his missing from the log was spotlighting Aquaman for this product because he is clearly missing from the logo with the negative space being there. However, Aquaman SHOULD have been shown a bit larger

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