Thursday, August 24, 2023

Challenge of the Super Friends: Super Friends: Rest in Peace (1978)

 



One of the best episodes. 

In this episode, the Legion of Doom gets a hold of an element known as Noxium, which is capable of killing all of the Super Friends. Unfortunately with this element they have already taken care of Batman before they can stop them. Now the Super Friends must stop the Legion of Doom before they are all dead. This may be their most dangerous mission yet. 

As corny as the idea of  Noxium is, it does a wonderful job of creating an incredibly effective threat to our heroes. Out of every episode of this show, this one probably has the greatest sense of suspense. This is not only due to how big of a threat Noxium is but also because the episode does such a wonderful job making this episode feel much higher stake than the usual episode. This is already set up perfectly from the opening scene, with Batman's funeral. This is not the way you would expect a Super Friends episode to start and the effect is quite jarring. The sense of suspense only grows as the episode progresses and the Legion of Doom finds ways to lure the Super Friends into their trap. Yet even with this the episode still keeps the series' sense of corny fun with some good gags, fun bits of dialogue and fun action sequences. 

The only problem I have with this episode is that the ending is so much of a dues ex machina that it feels like a complete cop out. Of course I don't know how else you can end a story like this for a show like this. 

All in all this is a simply wonderful episode. 

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