Dedicated to Conquest of the Universe Quiz

Answer: Bizarro

The men of the world are transformed into Bizarro clones. It is surprising that Lex Luthor (voiced by Stanley Jones), who created the device, would want to create billions of Bizarros. Two scenes in this episode stand out. First, Batman and Robin return to the Batcave where they are fired upon by their butler, Alfred, who has been transformed into a Bizarro clones. Later the Super friends disguise themselves as ten Bizarro clones and one Cheetah clone to sneak into the Hall of Justice to confront the Legion of Doom.

In the episode, Lex Luthor uses a device to control the dreams of the Super friends to compel them to commit crimes. First, Superman (voiced by Danny Dark) breaks into Fort Knox to steal the US gold supply. The two guards who attempt to stop him sound suspiciously like Batman (voiced by Olan Soule) and Robin (voiced by Casey Kasem). Next Batman and Robin break into the US Mint (specifically named) to steal some of the paper money supply. One of the guards who attempt to stop them sounds suspiciously like Superman. Other crimes follow in quick succession: Flash steals the Crown Jewels from London, Black Vulcan steals King Tarom's (specifically named) treasures from Egypt, and Wonder Woman steals priceless paintings from Paris.

Framed by the Legion of Doom, the Super friends turn themselves into jail. The Legion of Doom paralyzes the Super friends and launch them on a rocket towards the sun. After a narrow escape, the Superfriends return to Earth to defeat the Legion of Doom. This episode introduces the series. It is left unclear in this whether the Legion of Doom is new or not. On the one hand, a structure like the Hall of Doom must have taken some time to build. On the other hand, Lex Luthor goes through an elaborate role call of the Legion members as if is the first time they are meeting. In a later episode, however, we see a meeting of the Legion of Doom before they move their Hall of Doom to the swamp.

Answer: Captain Cold

Captain Cold (voiced by Dick Ryal) was working with the Ferians. It seems strange that a villain whose gimmick is a freeze gun would collaborate with aliens from a world where the surface temperature is over 800 degrees Fahrenheit. On the plus side, the three-headed design of the Ferians we see is pretty cool. The Ferians will conquer the Earth once it is hotter, damper, and with more vegetation.

Captain Cold first uses a large scale version of his freeze gun to freeze several locations including San Francisco and New York City. When Flash (voiced by Jack Angel) uses his super speed to melt the ice, a large amount of steam is released into the atmosphere. Black Manta (voiced by Ted Cassidy) starts a fire on the surface of the ocean that heads towards an inhabited island. When Aquaman (voiced by Bill Callaway) uses a tidal wave to put out the flames, a large quantity of sea water travels inland. When Sinestro (voiced by Vic Perrin) puts comets on a collision course with Earth, Green Lantern (voiced by Michael Rye) moves the Earth out of the way. These three actions make the Earth hotter, wetter, and more covered with wild vegetation.

It is also worth noting that the opening sequence for each episode referred to the Legion of Doom members coming from remote galaxies. In reality, at least 10 members were native to the Earth. Only Brainiac, Sinestro, and possibly Bizarro (also voiced by Bill Callaway) are from other planets. It is unclear whether this Bizarro is from Bizarro world or an attempt by Lex Luthor to clone Superman.

Answer: Pinball

The three heroes find themselves in a giant pinball machine. At one point, Wonder Woman finds herself inside a ball inside the game. Because the game is located in an area of extreme gravity, the heroes are unable to simply fly out of the game.

In this episode, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, and Black Vulcan (voiced by Buster Jones) are helping to repair a NASA satellite. Brainiac (voiced by Ted Cassidy) uses a magnetic device that makes it appear the Earth has vanished. Toyman (voiced by Frank Welker) then intercepts a Justice League radio message and with his voice disguised as Superman leads the Three Super friends to a faraway planet located in a black hole.

Several super heroes were created for the "Superfriends" cartoons in an attempt to increase the cultural diversity of the show. Black Vulcan was not exactly created for the show. In the 1970s an African-American character who could manipulate electricity called Black Lightning was created by DC Comics. Due to an internal dispute at DC, Black Lightning was not available for use in "Superfriends". Black Vulcan was created as a close substitute.

Answer: King Tut's Tomb, 13th Century BCE

The fourth past time and place visited with the Interspatial Time Coneyer was not King Tour's Tomb, but prehistoric Earth approximately 70,000,000 BCE. Black Manta and Giganta travel back into the Age of Dinosaurs with Aquaman and Apache Chief in pursuit. The villains collect diamonds from what will become South Africa and trap the heroes in the past. At one point, Aquaman and Apache Chief arrived at the future site of the Hall of Justice and buried it after setting the distress signal to go off 70,001,978 years in the future. This allows Superman to find them in the past and rescue them.

Sinestro and Captain Cold lead Green Lantern and Samurai (voiced by Jack Angel) back to Camelot in about 527 AD (as per the show) to steal King Arthur's treasure. Solomon Grundy and Gorilla Gross lead Batman and Robin back to Ancient Rome (The time is uncertain, but Caesar is referenced by name and called emperor) to steal Rome's treasures. In a final segment, several villains travel to Sutter's Mill in 1848 to steal the gold of the California Gold Rush before it was discovered.

The character of Samurai was created for the show and appears to be ethnically Japanese His powers include invisibility and manipulating winds and he is able to activate them by speaking Japanese phrases. Apache Chief was also created for the show and appears to be ethnically Native American. Upon speaking the word "in UK chuk" (big man), he is able to greatly increase his size.

Answer: Black Vulcan's Lightning Bolt

No object is taken from Black Vulcan during the episode. Cheetah takes Wonder Woman's Magic Lasso when she tricks Wonder Woman into lassoing a rocket powered Cheetah decoy. Brainiac is able to use a vacuum-like device to take Green Lantern's Power Ring. The Scarecrow uses trained crows to assist him in taking the utility belts from Batman (and Robin).

Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern are then captured by the Legion of Doom and forced to battle android duplicates created by Brainiac (voiced by Ted Cassidy) who are armed with the power devices. Of course, being Superfriends are heroes are still able to defeat the androids and the Legion of Doom. This is partnered with a second plot line involving the theft of liquified light from a remote science research facility.

On a side note, the Legion of Doom would have probably been better served selling the effective teleportation device that was successfully demonstrated several times in the episode rather than trying to steal the liquid light and fight the Superfriends.

Answer: The United Nation Building

Brainiac and Lex Luthor create the illusion that they have shrunk the United Nations Buliding and taken it to the center of the Earth. Too late the Superfriends discover the building has not been shrunk and moved but made invisible.

We discover in this episode that the Hall of Doom can not only fly but also dig thousands of miles down into the Earth. At the Earths core, Cheetah, Riddler (voiced by Michael Bell), Solomon Grundy, and Gorilla Grodd--none of whom are crushed the intense pressure that should exist there--discover bubbling pools of magma, fire-breathing dragons, and creature made of liquid rock. When Superman, Black Vulcan, and Hawkman (voiced by Jack Angel) attempt to rescue the "United Nations Building", they encounter the same challenges.

The Monolith turns out to be neither inherently good nor evil (despite blasting the Superfriends earlier in the episode) but instead simply a power source that reflects the will of its user. Like many "Superfriends" episodes, this one shows why the program was called radio drama with pictures. The characters often use precious sentences to verbally describe what is appearing on the screen.

Answer: Aquaman v. Black Manta

The growth Ray idea was suggested by Bizzaro. He already had the rare fictional element "Sorium". Bizarro and Sinestro retrieved "Robalt" from the interior of the moon. Roman and Captain Cold retrieved the "Introbium" from Greece.

If Aquaman and Black Manta had become giants, their face-off would probably have occurred at sea. Batman battled Roman and his giant toy soldiers in the streets of London. Captain Cold struggled against Flash in the vicinity of the Egyptian Pyramids. Sinestro went against Green Lantern in Beijing. Superman defeats Bizarro in the heart of Washington, DC, and in prisons him inside the Lincoln Memorial.

Investigating the story line of this episode further, one could wonder why Apache Chief (voiced by Michael Rye) did not hook up the other Superfriends with the magic powder that allowed him to grow in size. One could also wonder why Giganta (voiced by Ruth Forman) did not assist the Legion of Doom in a similar manner.

Answer: Flash

Flash's origin is not addressed in "Challenge of the Superfriends". Lex Luthor travels back in time using the Legion's time conveyor (a seemingly separate device from the time travel device developed by Gorilla Gross in an earlier episode) to reach a dying Abin Sur (the previous Green Lantern) and is given his power ring rather than Hal Jordan. Cheetah (voiced by Marlene Aragon) defeats Princess Diana in the tournament to see who will leave Paradise Island and become Wonder Woman. The space craft that carries the infant Kal-El is diverted by the Legion of Doom away from Earth towards a planet orbiting a red sun.

With the Three Superfriends missing, the Legion of Doom is easily able to defeat the remaining eight members. The remaining eight members discover what the Legion of Doom has done and work to undo it. Flash secretly involves himself in the Paradise Island tournament to neutralize Cheetah's cheating. Black Vulcan prevents Lex Luthor from stopping Hal Jordan from becoming Green Lantern. Batman and Robin use the Bat Rocket to reset Kal-El's path to Earth.

On a side note, this episode seems to make time travel far too easy to accomplish as Batman and Robin, Black Vulcan, and Fladmsh are all able to separately travel backwards in time. A better sense of continuity would explain why time travel is not used more often to solve problems.

Answer: Solovar

Solovar was the leader who made the decision to previously banish Gorilla Grodd. He later escapes the city after Gorilla Grodd's takeover and seeks help from the Superfriends. Strangely in this episode, Solovar sounds very similar to Green Lantern.

When the Superfriends attempt to defeat the Legion of Doom the first time, several of the Superfriends are captured. The Legion of Doom uses a "depowering" device on them that, among other things, takes away the Super speed of Flash and neutralizes the utility belts of the Dynamic Duo. Roman, off all villains, trains the hypnotized gorillas to be soldiers and they begin conquering nations.

In this episode we learn that Gorilla Grodd's home is Gorilla City which is located somewhere in Central Africa (along the banks of the Congo River).

Answer: Tie them to dead trees with dead vines

With the limits on cartoon violence in the 1970s, it is unlikely that the Superfriends could have used any of the other methods. How painful and ironic for the Legion of Doom that the Superfriends had to save them from the zombies.

The Legion of Doom discovered a witch travelling through the swamp where the Hall of Doom is located. After they confront her, the witch conjures a devil-like being who promises a source of great power to the Legion of Doom. In return, the Legion of Doom must trap the Superfriends in the swamp. The power of Evil the Legion of Doom receives turns out to be an army of zombies from the swamp. When the Legion of Doom became too greedy, the devil-like figure turned the zombies on the Legion of Doom.

The old witch informs the Superfriends how to defeat the zombies. At the very end of the episode, it is strongly hinted that the witch and the devil-like being are the same person.

Answer: Green Jordan (Hal Jordan)

The episode opens on a Paris subway line. Hal Jordan stands in a train car reflecting that he is glad that he can take some time off and relax on vacation. Of course the train almost immediately has a problem. While Superman was shown on "Superfriends" as Clark Kent and Batman at least interacts with Alfred the butler, I do not believe Flash was ever shown out of uniform in any "Superfriends" episode.

The main storyline involves the Legion of Doom travelling approximately 2000 years into the future. The Earth of 3984 CE has most of humanity living in walled cities (at least the ones we see) and fighting off attacks from beings called Barlocks who have some strange powers. (It is unclear whether the Barlocks are mutated humans or aliens from another world.) The Legion of Doom joins forces with the Barlocks to take over first the Earth and then to begin conquering other planets in the galaxy.

The Superfriends are eventually able to defeat the Legion of Doom after they get past the Riddler's red herring of traveling 10,000 years into the future (1,978 + 10,000 = 11,978 approximately) and facing off against a giant spider-like creature. I give the writer of this episode credit for at least sending the villains and heroes into the future and not having to worry about the grandfather paradox.

Answer: Plasticman and Magneto have a sword fight

While engaged in a conflict in outer space, several members of the Superfriends and the Legion of Doom are transported to a parallel universe. The remaining members of the two groups collaborate to find their missing comrades--at least when the Legion of Doom members are not conspiring to doublecross the Superfriends. While Plastic Man did appear in a 1973 episode of "Superfriends", he did not appear in the "Challenge of the Superfriends" season. He did, however, star in his own program: "The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show" (1979-1981) where he was voiced by Superfriends regular voice actor Michael Bell. In the 1973 "Superfriends" episode, Plastic Man was voiced by Norman Alden. Magneto is a super villain character from Marvel Comics.

In the first challenge, Batman and Riddler are racing each other through a maze. Disappointingly, both manage to fall into the same hole in one of the maze paths, although Batman at least fell into the hole after Riddler covered it with some giant ferns. Aquaman and Black Manta are transported to an iceberg in the middle of the "Lake of Terror" and are instructed to swim to the shore. Cheetah and Wonder Woman compete in climbing a volcano in order to cap the opening at the top. Apache Chief and Scarecrow (voiced by Don Messick) compete to capture a two-headed serpent. In the final challenge, Superman and Bizarro compete to defeat the giant space robot Golatan.

The Superfriends win the challenges three to two. Vartoo attempts to sink the Legion of Doom members in a acid lake. Superman rescues the Legion of Doom members and the other Superfriends subdue Vartoo before returning to their own universe.

Answer: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

The key to this question is to remember that the episodes of "Challenge of the Superfriends" first aired during the 1978 television season and "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was not published until over a decade later. The episode opens with Toyman exploring the world of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". After coming out of the story, he informs the rest of the Legion of Doom that if you do not leave the world of the story within twelve hours you are stuck there forever.

Using the machine Toyman leads Hawkman into "Jack and the Beanstalk". A memorable moment of this subplot is when Hawkman--who has the power of flight--chooses to climb the beanstalk in pursuit of Toyman. Cheetah leads Wonder Woman into "Alice in Wonderland" (properly "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland") Brainiac leads Superman into "Gulliver's Travels". (properly "Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships". On second thought, I get why they abridged that title.) While the three Superfriends are initially trapped in the stories, the other Superfriends are able to trick the Legion of Doom into helping get them out of the stories.

The idea of transporting into a work of fiction is a nice switch from going backward or forward in time or travelling to a parallel universe. I wonder which other stories the episode could have also used?

Answer: Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor appeared to be the leader of the Legion of Doom (much as Superman appeared to the leader of the Superfriends). If the Legion had left Lex Luthor it would probably have been presented as more of a mutiny by the other members. Members of the Legion of Doom were attempting to capture a nuclear-powered naval vessel.

Eventually members of both team end up in the alternate universe of Quard where the "disgraced" members of the Legion of Doom get their revenge on the other members by using a device called the "Actualizer" encasing them in energy shield that are shaped like bowling pins which they knock down with a ball-shaped energy shield. Eventually the Superfriends capture the members of the Legion of Doom by using the Actualizer to encase them in an energy shield shaped like an egg carton.

Answer: Dr. Natas

Early in the episode, Lex Luthor states that Dr. Natas created the Noxium crystal. Dr. Natas was only described as being a past member of the Legion of Doom. He was the only member ever described this way. Spell Natas backwards and you can see how Hanna-Barbera was skirting the edge of what was acceptable in the 1970s.

This episode is interesting because it suggests that the Superfriends can actually die. While they may not use the words "die" or "death", it is heavily implied. The episode opens at Batman's funeral. How do we know it is Batman's funeral? The large "bat-shaped" grave marker with the words: "Batman died Dec. 1978". He was killed by the Riddler using the Noxium Crystal.

The Noxium Crystal includes an element that is lethal to each of the Superfriends. For Superman, it is kryptonite. For Green Lantern, it is yellow radiation. It is not stated what the lethal element is for the other Superfriends. One by one the other Superfriends are eliminated. Once they are gone, the Legion of Doom throws the Noxium Crystal away. This is a big mistake. Shortly thereafter, a person in a gray and white full-body suit retrieves the Noxium Crystal and sends it into deep space to never return.

The Superfriends then reappear. It turns out that the Legion of Doom killed android duplicates of the Superfriends. Some people people feel that this is a cop-out for the episode. I feel that it is still a scary episode for the young children that would probably have been the target audience for "Challenge of the Superfriends".