The WORST episodes of Challenge of the Super Friends
Every episode of Challenge of the Super Friends ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Challenge of the Super Friends!
Banded together from remote galaxies, 13 of the most sinister villains of all time - the Legion of Doom! Dedicated to a single object, the conquest of the universe! Only one group dares to challenge this inter-galactic threat - The SuperFriends! Challenge is a sequel to the two earlier Super Friends shows. It drops Zan and Jayna from the previous incarnation and makes several "guest stars" full members of the Justice League, giving us a membership of Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, Hawkman, Flash, Green Lantern, Black Vulcan, Samurai, and Apache Chief. Pitted against them are some real villains - the Legion of Doom: 13 of the most powerful supervillains from "remote galaxies" (well, 12 + Black Manta... :) ). Who are they? Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Solomon Grundy, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Bizarro, Cheetah, Black Manta, Giganta, Gorilla Grodd, Sinestro, Captain Cold, and the Toyman. Okay, everyone but Brainiac, Sinestro, and Bizarro was from Earth (most of the ga
#1 - Fairy Tale of Doom
Season 1 - Episode 26 - Aired 12/2/1978
The Toyman devises a way to transmit people into books. The Legion uses Brainiac, Cheetah, and Giganta to lure Superman, Hawkman, and Wonder Woman respectively into the storybook tales of Gulliver, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Alice in Wonderland, respectively. In each case the villains lure the heroes into some danger and then disappear. The other Super Friends figure things out and manage to open the portal just before the books would be sealed for good and defeat the Legion.
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#2 - The Rise and Fall of the Superfriends
Season 1 - Episode 31 - Aired 12/23/1978
The Super Friends are visited by Mr. Mxyzptlk who comes complete with a script for a movie that he wants the Super Friends to star in. The imp uses his 5th dimensional mind control to cause the Super Friends to act out the script...but Superman is not affected by the mind control but he nonetheless goes along with everything in an elaborate plot to trick Mxyzptlk into saying his last name backwards. In one scene a zombie Lois Lane shows up in a wedding dress wearing a kryptonite wedding ring.
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#3 - Journey Through Inner Space
Season 1 - Episode 29 - Aired 12/16/1978
Aquaman is exposed to a radioactive substance that turns him into a prehistoric sea creature from which he evolved. In order to cure him, Superman and Wonder Woman, inside the Super Mobile, are shrunk down to microscopic size and sent within the creature's veins to attempt to give it another dose of radiation in the hopes that it will reverse the effects of the radiation and return Aquaman to normal. In the meantime the rest of the Super Friends have to do whatever they can to limit the creature's destructive nature all over the city.
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#4 - Battle of the Gods
Season 1 - Episode 27 - Aired 12/9/1978
At the start of the episode the Super Friends are involved in an intense outer space battle. Moments into the battle Wonder Woman gets a telepathic message from Aphrodite to help save the planet from a disturbance. Afterward all of the Super Friends show up and Aphrodite praises them on their great work and good will. An envious Hera gets into an argument with Aphrodite on Mount Olympus which triggers the wrath of Zeus.
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#5 - Batman: Dead or Alive
Season 1 - Episode 25 - Aired 12/2/1978
Batman and Robin head off to a planet named Texarkana after receiving a distress alert that a local villain, The Capricorn Kid, is terrorizing the planet. After defeating the Kid and putting him in jail the Kid vows revenge. He and his group of outlaws travel to Earth, break into the Hall of Justice, and plot their revenge on all the Super Friends. The Kid's group successfully places each of the Super Friends in dangerous situations and they deliberately force Batman and Robin into freeing each person...but the catch is that each trap is timed and the object of the game is to free all the Super Friends from the various traps before it's too late. In a show-down Batman and the Kid meet up in an old-fashioned shoot out.
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#6 - The Incredible Space Circus
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 11/25/1978
A crooked space circus proprietor, Zarnum, uses a device to turn protected animals that have been illegally captured into beasts to boost attendance at his space circus. Sensing that the Super Friends are onto his scheme he uses the device to change Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Wonder Twins into space creatures. It's up to the rest of the Super Friends to track down the elusive space circus, rescue the captive Super Friends, and bring an end to the poaching that's been taking place. NOTE: Zarnum's name is loosely based on circus legend P.T. Barnum.
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#7 - Invasion of the Brain Creatures
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 11/18/1978
While in space Batman and Superman become possessed by brain creatures. The brain creatures ultimately take over the minds of Wonder Woman, Robin, and Aquaman when it appears that the Wonder Twins are successfully defeating Batman and Superman's asteroid attack of Earth. Batman and Superman, while under mind control, continue to attack the Earth by firing huge asteroids on the surface.
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#8 - World Beneath the Ice
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 11/11/1978
The Super Friends must stop the plans of a conqueror named Torhana who seeks vengeance on the people of the surface world by freezing everything in his path. Torhana and his crew travel by ship, freezing oceans and continents and people...Aquaman uses his telepathy to summon sword-fish to cut him out of the ice and take him to Atlantis. Torhana and his crew appear to have the upper hand but by episode's end the Super Friends regroup and come up with a clever plan to melt all of the ice that's engulfed the planet. This is one of the few episodes in the series that features Aquaman at his usual base of operations in the comic books: the undersea city of Atlantis.
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#9 - The Anti-Matter Monster
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 11/4/1978
In this story the Super Friends have to stop an energy draining monster which exists on computer tape and can appear anywhere at anytime. Wonder Woman and Superman, during one scene, go undercover as a science expert and Clark Kent, in an attempt to learn how the energy creature can be destroyed. One of the scientists working in the lab turns out to be the culprit responsible for unleashing the energy creature. The story borrows heavily from the national headlines of the time during the concerns of a looming energy crisis.
#10 - Terror from the Phantom Zone
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 10/28/1978
Three Kryptonian villains from the Phantom Zone escape and expose Superman to Red Kryptonite causing him to age rapidly. The rest of the Super Friends get trapped by the villains and must now escape from the Phantom Zone. Meanwhile, the Justice League Computer tells Superman the only possible antidote for his rapid aging is Blue Kryptonite. Since Blue Kryptonite is harmful to Bizarro, it may have an opposite effect on Superman. Superman must take the Supermobile to go to the site where Krypton blew up and get the Blue Kryptonite in time to save the other Super Friends. Using the ray device the three villains stole from Superman, he sends the Kryptonian villains back to the Phantom Zone.
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#11 - The Beasts Are Coming
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 10/21/1978
After an experimental satellite from Kennedy Space Center falls back to Earth it breaks releasing deadly radioactive energy. The Super Friends then receive a distress call from the west coast saying Death Valley is being overrun by giant desert beasts. Wonder Woman and the Wonder Twins stay behind to check the Justice League computer for more information while the rest of the Super Friends head to Death Valley.
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#12 - Attack of the Vampire
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/14/1978
In the remote heights of Transylvania's alps, Dracula awakes after a 100 year sleep. Dracula starts havoc by releasing a strange glowing powder that turns people into vampires. Meanwhile, Batman & Robin receive a distress call and speeds off to Transylvania. They search Dracula's castle only to get captured by Dracula himself. Later Wonder Woman and Aquaman arrived in Transylvania after the Wonder Twins reported it was taken over by bats only to be attacked by dozens of mindless vampires. Another report of vampire attacks was made and this time Superman went to Vienna to stop them.
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#13 - The Pied Piper from Space
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/7/1978
Traveling from a distant corner of the universe, a fleet of unidentified ships head towards Earth to hypnotize all children and gather them to Monument Valley, AZ. The Super Friends start to take action after the Wonder Twins became hypnotized and a call from the Justice League trouble alert. After the Super Friends tried to stop children from entering a spaceship, a UFO arose to destroy a nearby city. Batman & Robin stayed with the children as Superman and Wonder Woman stopped the UFO and the disasters it caused only to get trapped inside the space craft as it heads to the Anti-Matter Universe.
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#14 - History of Doom
Season 1 - Episode 32 - Aired 12/23/1978
Three aliens come to a ruined Earth. Travelling to the Great Hall of Justice, they find a series of memory tapes chronicling the Superfriends and the Legion of Doom. Although they find some origin tapes, they find nothing on the calamity that destroyed the Earth. They find the Legion of Doom HQ and discover that Luthor unleashed a solar flare that interacted with the Superfriends' planet-protecting shield, devastating all life on Earth. The aliens go back in time and alter the timeline with an eclipse so that the flare never makes it to Earth.
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#15 - Superfriends: Rest in Peace
Season 1 - Episode 30 - Aired 12/16/1978
The episode opens with...Batman's funeral! We soon find out that the Legion of Doom have a substance, Noxiam, that allows them to kill any Superfriend. In flashback we see Lex trick Superman into opening the krypton-steel box. Then the Riddler lures Batman into an ambush in Gotham City and kills him, leading to the funeral at the beginning. The Legion then takes the Daily Planet, Perry White, and Lois Lane hostage and kill Superman, and Paradise Island hostage to force Wonder Woman to confront them and be killed as well. The other Superfriends flee Earth but come back and are killed. Luthor then tosses the Noxiam into the sewer, its use at an end. A protectively garbed figure recovers it and shoots the crystal into space--it's Apache Chief. It's all a ploy to lure the Legion out. The dead Superfriends were actually robots.
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#16 - Doomsday
Season 1 - Episode 28 - Aired 12/9/1978
The Legion of Doom launch an attack on an aircraft earlier. Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Apache Chief battle their Legion counterparts Sinestro, Black Manta, and Giganta and capture them when the other Legion of Doomers leave their comrades to their fate. Sinestro manages to escape from the Hall of Justice with the others and substitute anti-matter robots. When Superman touches them he is briefly transferred to the anti-matter universe of Qward and fights an anti-universe Krypton knight. Meanwhile, the three renegades steal a matter-transmutation device from the Flash and Black Vulcan. They use the device to gain revenge on their Legion of Doom comrades by transmitting them into bowling pins and billard balls before deciding things are even. With the aid of the device they manage to defeat most of the Super Friends but Superman manages to get to the transmutation device and stop it, leaving the Legion to be captured once more.
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#17 - The Final Challenge
Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 11/25/1978
Wonder Woman and Aquaman are under attack by five of the Legion of Doom (Scarecrow, Riddler, Cheetah, Black Manata, Bizarro) in Black Manta's Manta-ship. Batman, Apache Chief, and Superman come to their aid, but they all disappear as the rest of the Justice League and Legion arrive. The missing members are teleported to a planet by a being called Vartu who places them in contests to end their battle once and for all. Batman and Riddler vie in a maze, with Batman winning. Black Manta and Aquaman must cross the Lake of Terror and Manta wins when Aquaman has to rescue him. Cheetah and Wonder Woman must climb a volcano and Wonder Woman wins. Apache Chief and Scarecrow must best a two-headed serpent and Scarecrow wins by being better with a lasso. Superman and Bizarro must stop a giant space robot with kryptonite beams and Superman wins. Vartu dumps the five Legion members into a pool of acid but the Justice Leaguers rescue them. While the missing members struggle against each other, the re
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#18 - Conquerors of the Future
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 11/18/1978
The Legion of Doom becomes the Legion of Good! But it's a distraction while they conquer the Earth of 3984. However, the Super Friends put together the Riddler's cryptic clues and Superman, Flash, and Green Lantern travel to the future to defeat them there.
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#19 - Swamp of the Living Dead
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 11/11/1978
On their day off the Legion terrorize an old woman wandering through their swamp. She summons an evil swamp demon to give them the power to create zombies if they deliver the SuperFriends to it. They do so by luring the heroes one by one to the swamp, starting with tricking in Batman and Robin with the Scarecrow disguised as Hawkman. When the real Hawkman shows up he and Green Lantern go to investigate and get captured as well. One by one the rest of the SuperFriends get captured. The Legion gets the zombie power and send their minions to rob a plutonium plant. But when they demand even more power and capture the swamp demon, they miscalculate and he turns the unstoppable zombies loose on the Legion and they are forced to aid the Super Friends to gain their help. The witch tells the Super Friends how to triumph - by tying them to dead trees with dead vines. The Friends capture the Legion but the witch helps out the other side to balance things out and the Legion escape once more.
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#20 - Revenge on Gorilla City
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 11/4/1978
After a failed takeover of Gorilla City, Grodd goes to the Legion for help. With the help of Brainiac's brainwave amplifier, Grodd takes over Gorilla City and his old nemesis King Solovar. Solovar flees and recruits Batman, Robin, Flash, and Apache Chief to help him. Black Manta captures them all and Lex Luthor strips them of their powers and Sinestro and Giaganta hunt them down with the mind-controlled gorillas. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Black Vulcan battle Black Manta, Toyman, and an army of mind-controlled gorillas who are invading the rest of Africa and manage to get themselves captured. Solovar and the Flash manage to nullify Brainiac's mind control device and the gorilla help the Superfriends to emerge triumphant although the Legion escapes again.
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#21 - Secret Origins of the Superfriends
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 10/28/1978
Lex Luthor learns the origins of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern and takes the Legion ship back in time to alter their origins. Cheetah sabtoages Wonder Woman's attempts in 1941 to become Wonder Woman at Aphrodite's request, while Lex Luthor takes the place of Hal Jordan and receives the power ring of dying Green Lantern Abin Sur. Those two missions compelted, the entire Legion deflect Kal-El's rocket to a planet with a red sun where he will grow up powerless. The remaining Super Friends are easy prey. While Aquaman, Apache Chief, Samurai, and Hawkman fight each other under the influence of Lex's hypno-ray, Batman, Robin, Flash, and Black Vulcan manage to escape and travel back in time to correct the past. The Flash sabotages Cheetah's winning the championship, Black Vulcan sends Hal Jordan on his way, and Batman and Robin deflect the beam meant for Kal-El's rocket with their Batplane. With their three most powerful members restored, the Legion is easily defeated by they esca
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#22 - The Giants of Doom
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 10/21/1978
Bizarro comes up with a scheme to use three elements that will let them become giants. Sinestro already has the first element, then he and Sinestro split the moon open to get the second. Superman, Batman, and Robin capture them. The Toyman and Captain Cold launch an attack on the Parthenon to get the third element and Green Lantern stops them (while Aquaman cheerleads). Their capture is all part of the plan: Bizarro needs the SuperFriend computer to assemble the elements and create the giant-creating formula. The four giant-sized villains easily defeat the SuperFriends and Captain Cold freezes them in an ice block and sends them into Saturn's core. Batman's automatic utility belt defroster thaws them out and they escape gas monsters to return to Earth. Returning to Earth, Superman, Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern become giants themselves and thwart the giant-sized Legion villains. Of course, Luthor bails them out at the end and they all escape with the aid of a decoy Legion HQ.
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#23 - Trial of the Superfriends
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/7/1978
Brainiac, Cheetah, and Scarecrow launch an attack on Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern as they guard a Liquid Light manufacturing plant to steal their power devices. The heroes are captured and the Legion place them on trial, while sending four android duplicates out with their devices to fight them. Bizarro and Black Manta then steal the Liquid Light and use it on a defenseless city, and Superman, Black Vulcan, and Flash battle them and try to stop the Liquid Light, which dissolves anything in its path. The Flash uses his speed to redirect the Liquid Light. Meanwhile, the captive Super Friends manage to outsmart their android duplicates, recover their devices, and join back up with the others to beat the Legion, which manages to make a quick escape.
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#24 - Monolith of Evil
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 10/14/1978
The Legion find out about the Monolith of Evil from Solomon Grundy, who reveals it brought him to life. The Legion trick Superman, Black Vulcan, and Hawkman to go to the center of the Earth and recover the Monolith. The rest of the Super Friends battle the Legion equipped with the Monolith. However, it is neither good nro evil, but influenced by whoever holds it. Wonder Woman telepathically controls it long enough for the Super Friends to gain the advantage.
#25 - The Time Trap
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 9/30/1978
The Legion use Grodd's new time-travel device to loot the past and trap the Super Friends in 70 million BC (Black Manta and Giganta vs. Aquaman and Apache Chief), Arthurian England in 500 A.D. (Sinestro and Captain Cold vs. Green Lantern and Samurai), and Ancient Rome (Solomon Grundy and Gorilla Grodd vs. Batman and Robin). Aquaman buries his communicator in the past on the site of the Great Hall of Justice to activate it in the present and contact the Super Friends, and Superman breaks the time barrier to rescue them and then travels through time with a geiger counter to locate the other missing heroes. Then the Super Friends confront the Legion at Sutter's Mill in 1848 where they are planning a gold heist. The heroes easily defeat the villains who make a hasty escape with the pre-programmed time travel device.
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