The All-New Super Friends Shenanigans Round Up S2 Ep1A – “The Brain Machine”

In case you don’t know what I’m doing, here’s a recap: I find the Super Friends cartoons of the 70s and 80s hilarious, and I’ve recapped every episode of the first season and am now starting on the second.

Guess what? The All-New Super Friends Hour is split up in to 4 different, separate stories. This allows me to milk an episode for much longer than the first season. This is both a relief and cause for concern. I don’t think there will be as much unnecessary arm wrestling this time around, but hopefully I will be spared play-by-plays of Superman checking the mail (ok, that didn’t happen but may as well have). Let’s get started:

Season 2, Episode 1, Storyline A – “The Brain Machine”

Original Airdate: September 10, 1977

Short Synopsis: “On the outskirts of Gotham City, strange experiments are taking place.” Dr. Crainum has a brain machine, which advances man’s mental evolution by a million years. He tries it out on himself and becomes an extra-super genius. Note that this laser treatment does not regrow hair:

He now has the power of telekinesis and better head reflecting abilities. He decides to “borrow the huge dish antennae from the Metropolis Institute of Technology” to beam his smart rays on everybody.

It’s just the opening credits and already Aquaman looks as useful as a member of The Go-Go’s.

And, no, Super Friends, you can’t just make super heroes who can’t fly able to just because it would be cool to see them flying through space during the opening credits.

“Compared to me and my mental powers, you are all super weaklings.”
Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman decide that this is the job for them, for some reason. So they go to the Metropolis Institute of Technology and are greeted by Dr. Cranium with the above quote. Four years since season one, and some things never change:

Narrator: “Later, after freeing themselves…” and he even says it in this embarrassed-for-them way, too.

WTF Screenshots
Oops, look who got hit by the brain beam!

Batman and Robin confuse Wonder Woman by sending a dozen “inflatable dummies” that look like Robin careening toward WW in bumper cars. Where in the hell did they get twelve blow-up Robins in such a short amount of — you know what, never mind, I don’t want to know.

In the end, they change Dr. Crainum back (after Wonder Woman gets changed back), the brain machine gets dismantled, and everything is right in the world again. As far as I can tell, they managed this because of dumb luck super strength and prowess.

In preparation for next week: Wonder Twins 101
This is the beginning of the Wonder Twins era. The Wonder Twins are Zan and Jayna, and they have a pet monkey named Gleek. To explain their powers, I’m going to quote directly from Wikipedia, because it made me laugh: “The Wonder Twins powers are activated when they touch each other and speak the phrase, ‘Wonder Twin powers activate!’ This phrase is unnecessary and just a habit of theirs.” I have the same habit whenever I come in contact with anyone. I get very strange looks.

Here’s an updated version of the Wonder Twins:

This is the version we’ll be dealing with:

Zan can turn into any variation of water, Jayna can turn into any kind of animal, including animals from other planets as long as she knows the names of them. I think Zan drew the short straw as far as usefulness goes, but we’ll see. He does have the best superpower if he’s trying to trick you into thinking you’ve peed yourself.

If you would like to see these shenanigans for yourself, Season 2 is available on DVD.