LEGENDS OF THE SUPERHEROES - BLECCCHHHHH!!!

It may come as a surprise to a few people, but ADAM

WEST and BURT WARD reprised their BATMAN and

ROBIN roles more than once over the years, and not just for

cartoons either.  In 1979, they appeared alongside other DC

heroes and villains in a couple of TV Specials called - wait

for it - LEGENDS Of The SUPERHEROES.

The other heroes were CAPTAIN MARVEL, The

FLASH, The HUNTRESS, BLACK CANARY, GREEN

LANTERN, and HAWKMAN, while the super villains were 

MORDRU, SOLOMON GRUNDY, The RIDDLER (yup,

FRANK GORSHIN), The WEATHER WIZARD, Dr.

SIVANA, SINESTRO, and GIGANTA.

The ATOM and AUNT MINERVA turned up in

the second Special, but I have to be honest and say both

episodes are excruciatingly awful and you should all count

yourselves lucky if you've never seen them.  Shot on video-

tape, with a laugh-track (yup, they're meant to be funny -
but aren't) these two low-budget shows are the way
not to do superheroes.  And here's why:

You never see The Flash run, Hawkman fly (or

even flap his wings) and Green Lantern merely points his

power ring at himself and disappears.  Captain Marvel does

a spot of flying, but it's a poorly executed piece of back (or

maybe front - what do I know?) projection for a few seconds.

You have to hand it to Adam West for throwing himself into

things, but he really should have tucked the neck of his

mask inside his cape, like in the '60s TV show.

Take it from me, you can safely give these two shows

a miss - unless you're a fan of 'car-crash' TV.  They're gen-

uinely execrable, although the second one, The ROAST is

even worse than the first, The CHALLENGE.  I suppose if
there's anyone you really hate, you could give them this as
a present, secure in the knowledge that they'll lose the
will to live while watching it.

But no - that would surely be too cruel!  (Remember
the rumours of torture at GUANTANAMO BAY?  They
 were true - they showed this DVD to the detainees.)

Posted in: Cartoons