All-New Super Friends Hour: The Mind Maidens (1977)

 This is the third segment of the tenth episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour, unlike most other Super Friends formats, this one had hour long episodes that were made up of various shorter cartoons. The first segment would be an adventure staring two members (or three in some cases as Batman and Robin would often team with another Super Friend) of the Super Friends. The second would be a morality play staring the Wonder Twins. The third would be a typical half hour Super Friends adventure. The fourth and last segment would feature one of the main Super Friends teaming up with a special DC Comics guest star.

In this episode, the evil Medula hypnotizes every woman to get rid of all men. She does this so she can create a society controlled by women. The Super Friends do all they can to stop Medula. 

This is a wonderful episode. While the delivery of the message may be a little didactic, the message itself is a very good and smart one. The message about the importance of feminism but that important change cannot come through immoral means at the expense of others (which here not only includes getting rid of men but trying to control women to do what she says). Medula is a wonderful villain. She has a wonderful otherworldly design. The eyeballs without pupils for both her and the women she is controlling lends a wonderfully creepy atmosphere (as do the robotic voices of those she is controlling). The voice acting for Mwdula herself is wonderful and quite memorable. She also feels like truly believable threat, and we always feel like our heroes are in danger. There is especially a great sense of suspense when Medula is controlling both Wonder Woman and Jayna. Medula is truly one of the most memorable Super Friends original villains. This episode also benefits from some great and atmospheric background art and some fun action scenes. The way the heroes save the day (I would say spoilers, but this is Super Friends, you know the good guys are going to win) is very clever and perfectly set up. 

A wonderful episode.