For All Mankind #7

FOR ALL MANKIND #7 - SUPER FRIENDS #7

Rob and Super Friend Chris Franklin review "The Warning of the Wonder Twins" by E. Nelson Bridwell, Ramona Fradon, and Bob Smith, from SUPER FRIENDS #7! Plus another segment of "For All Merchkind" and Listener Feedback!

Check out images from this comic by clicking here!

Opening and closing themes by Hanna Barbera.

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19 responses to “For All Mankind #7

  1. Now that the Wonder Twins are taking over, will the opening music turn over to the New Super Friends Hour Opening?
    I was always more of a Marvin and Wendy fan but I’ll admit I was happy to see the Wonder Twins re-admitted into the DCU Continuity in EXTREME Justice! (Ducks rotten vegetables!) Seriously though, I like the fact that Jayna assumes alien animal forms to start before she really gets a feel for Earth animals. I wish they had shown her doing more alien animals on the cartoons as it would have been a cooler aspect of her powers.

  2. Another GREAT episode! Welcome to the podcast proper, Chris!

    These three issues are my very favorite story arc in Super Friends for all of the reasons that you mentioned on the podcast. It really does feel like a JLA/JSA team-up. The inclusion of the international heroes was fantastic and at the time I didn’t realize that this was their first appearance. I thought that they were all heroes who had been around just as long as the Super Friends themselves.

    Every time I read a story that features Interlac in it I always think of Esperanto and lament that fact that it never really seemed to catch on. I think it’s just such a terrific idea.

    I’d LOVE to hear you speak to Ramona Fradon – if only so that she gets to know that SO many people love her work in this book and are still talking about it and admiring it more than 40 hears later!

    As far as Godiva’s power set – I think it’s cool and no more goofier than either Plastic Man or Elongated Man – but I will tell you – it really bothers me that, she is able to make a bit of her hair transparent (?!?!?!?!?!?!) THAT just seems to be one of her powers to make it easier to tell this story! I guess it’s funny what we will and won’t accept as believable when it comes to the super power skill set someone has.

    The Super Friends coloring book is one of those lost Holy Grails that I don’t think I’ll ever get to own, but it’s great to see the pages online and of course, to hear you guys talk about it!

  3. This show has fast become one of my favourite podcasts and I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve so far forgotten to wrote a review at Apple Podcasts, I shall sort that out sharpish.

    Meanwhile, thanks to you and Chris for another top episode. For All Merchkind is always especially fun, apart from the fact it makes every Britisher listening feel they’ve had a deprived childhood cos we couldn’t get any of this stuff.

    I did, though, get this issue of Super Friends, my first exposure to the concept in any form. And yeah, Zan and Jayna really seemed like school bullies on the cover, pushing the non-powered kids out of the way. Happily, everyone got along inside and Chris isn’t wrong, Marvin and Wendy were indeed the heroes of this particular beach, for all the reasons outlined. Mind, they were boring for Britain on that last page, going on and on about the great cultural things the Wonder Twins could learn about, Shakespeare and David and… John Ross? Ewing?

    Given how rotten Dick Grayson was to Aquaman last time, he probably tied stinging jellyfish to the cushion before giving Robin his JLA satellite seat.

    I love that this likely was Zan and Jayna’s first appearance anywhere, thanks for pointing it out. The big legacy of this particular issue, though, is the introduction of characters who would come to be part of the Global Guardians. It’s still incredible to me that DC have never so much as given this world-beating team their own miniseries. I suppose the closest we’ve got to that was Primal Force.

    Despite talking like Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage, Godiva is a great favourite of mine, she’s just so silly… mind, she was pretty awesome in the underrated Justice League International series by Dan Jurgens. And I adore the original Owlwoman design, she’s so cute – I want a plush version.

    Rob, I wonder if reaching out to Ramona might actually help wipe away any bad Super Friends memories… let her know how many of us loved her work there. Just a thought. Aha, just read the comments, Shawn is thinking the same thing!

  4. Interesting: I didn’t know the ‘international’ heroes who later became the Global Guardians had appeared this early. I think I first saw them in a later issue (in the 20s – it was one where the Super Friends turned bad for some reason so the global heroes fought them). Otherwise, I share Rob’s view about Godiva – she does seem a bit silly, but why is Medusa from the Inhumans so cool, then? And yeah, Seraph should have definitely gotten a Who’s Who entry!

    For the record, on the subject of Native American superheroes, Marvel had two that preceded Owlwoman: Red Wolf, who first appeared in Avengers in 1970, and then even had his own, brief series in the early 1970s; and then the X-man Thunderbird, who first appeared in 1975. American Eagle first appeared in 1981. If you count Man-of-Bats, though, DC had a Native American costumed hero in the 1950s.
    Also for the records, Shields and Yarnell were indeed (rather creepy) mimes…

    1. I didn’t hear Rob say “Thunderbird” when we were recording, but I can’t believe I forgot him, and went instead to “American Eagle”. Maybe it’s all the money I spent on kids clothes at that store, or maybe it’s my exposure to him in OHOTMU, which left an impression.

      The thing I remember most about Shields and Yarnell was the Wonder Woman appearance. Yarnell played a woman who could control ants, as I recall, making her one of the few “super” villains on the show. I also recall the rather catty comments made by Shields in Back Issue magazine regarding their time on that episode. He claimed Lynda Carter was jealous of Yarnell for her figure. I’m not buying it.

      Chris

      1. Well, I generally I find mimes more obnoxious and annoying rather than creepy; perhaps I should have specified that even for mimes they were creepy – like animated department store mannequins. Yeesh.

  5. I was initially upset to see the Wonder Twins pushing Marvin and Wendy out of the way on the cover. Then, I realized that I was bringing my Terran bias to the their actions. For all I know, shoving is considered polite behavior on Exxor.

    I also like that this story gives us the transition from Marvin and Wendy to Zan and Jayna that we never got in the cartoon show. So, I’m curious to see how that plays out.

    Thanks for another remarkable episode. The more I see of this series, the more I regret missing it when it first came out. I’m looking forward to the rest of this story, and learning more about the nascent Global Guardians.

  6. How do these comics align with the tone of the animated series? They seem to be more sophisticated.

    Also, is there a Rima appearance?

    1. DAG, they’re definitely more sophisticated than the cartoon, much to the readers’ benefit. I don’t think Rima appeared, I assume due to copyright issues.

      1. To David and Entropy,

        In the letter column of issue #20, reader Dave McFadden asked “Who are Black Vulcan, Apache Chief and The Samurai? Are they ever going to be added to the comic?”

        ENB replied “Black Vulcan seems little more than a hyped-up version of our own Black Lightning, Apache Chief an Indian version of Colossal Boy, and Samurai? His power seems rather vague, though last season he was turning into anything he said in Japanese.”

        In the letter column of the next issue (#21) reader Al Schroeder III also asked about Black Vulcan, Samurai, Apache Chief, and this time added Rima to the list.

        ENB replied “My comments on the LoD and the ethnic heroes in the last issue still stand – with one addition. Rima first appeared in W. H. Hudson’s novel “Green Mansions” in 1902. That puts her too far back to join the Super Friends today.”

  7. Thanks for bringing us another great podcast about Super Friends.

    As a kid, I always felt that you could see the 5 main heroes pretty much everywhere, but only on Saturday mornings could you see Black Vulcan, Samurai, Apache Chief, Rima, El Dorado (added later) and the Wonder Twins, so I was glad to see Zan & Jayna and the international heroes added to this run. The international heroes weren’t exactly the same as the HB created heroes, but original enough to pique my interest.

    I also really enjoyed the detail the comic series went on with Wendy & Marvin leaving, and Zan & Jayna appearing. They also addressed the matter of the Twins not knowing Earth life, and not knowing English.

    Looking forward to the next podcast!

    Chuck

  8. FYI I just picked up the great hardcover Super Friends comics collection & it has a nice introduction from Ramona Fradon where she comments on her relationship with ENB & her fondness for the series.

  9. I remember reading and re-reading this issue SO many times. I really liked Owlwoman and Impala, and thought Seraph was cool. I did think Godiva was silly, though.
    I had read about Grax in the Earth-Shattering Disasters reprint (DC Special?) from about a year before this. I kinda thought that ENB re-printed that story to use Grax here, or saw him there and decided to use him here. Causitive in some way, IMO.
    And I had that Super Friends coloring book as a kid! I colored all the pages and threw it away. I bought a new, unused copy as an adult a few years ago. Maybe I need to take the time to scan in all the uncolored pages for everyone’s enjoyment?

  10. Impressive podcast. Most impressive. Oy Elastic Man…. after what happened to actor who plays him on the Flash and his…comments …oy. Gonna be a moment before I will look at Ralf the same way. He says it was a way to get attion and he didn’t mean it for real, but oy bad choices. Any way Gadavia looks cool. Hair changes a bit. But, if they didn’t do that she’d be a Madusa rip. Sadly Ice and Fire aren’t in this yet. I know Ice at lest shows up in this comic latter. Still a cool start. The Issarale guy seems cool. Ah sadly I never saw those Bible heroes made from mago, but I do have a fake dagger that looks like a Solman sword or dagger.

    t’s kind of cool. Though that had to be cool toys. Hmm maybe if it had Petter or King David they could be added to an action line they were well armed enough. Cool seeing Jan and Jace here. Donna and Marie huh? Ah well cool. My cousin had dolls of Donny and Marrie. Huh so guess we kind of played with Zan and Jace action figures. 😀 Though yeah glad to see Wendy and Marven gone. KIngdom Come was funny. With Marven flipig out and getting punched out lol. Impala working with Barry was cool. Owl Woman and the Hawks was cool.

    Did she ever appear in the mane DCU? Any way The Artist did a great job on this comic. She really did a great job here. Ah the coloring book. I wonder if this the one ware Jerry Ordway did? I know he brought his opening in omics was when he brought his WW drawings to Joe Orlando. And Paul Levitz showed up and hired Jerry on the spot when he came to get Joe on the plane. The peace had WW ware you could draw the stars on her hot pants. I think I heard this when Jerry was on Mike’s Super Man pod cast. And he interviewed Jerry.

    The Bat Man drawing is cool. I had a pin of the Neal Adam’s version it was pretty cool.

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