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Saturday, April 11, 2009

Super Friends #13 - Sept. 1978

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Comics Weekend "The Mindless Immortal!" by E.Nelson Bridwell, Ramona Fradon, and Bob Smith

I thought we'd spend this Comics Weekend with the Super Friends, and that's always fun!

This issue opens up with another hero issuing a desperate plea for help to the Super Friends:
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The hero--Doctor Mist--explains that there is a beast, the last of its kind, living inside a cavern deep inside the Earth. The beast encountered a multi-colored flame that Mist calls The Spirit of of Life, which took over the beast, "Endowing it with immortality and unimaginable power!"

The beast is now smashing its way underground, which, if allowed to go unabated, could cause major destruction all over the world!

Doctor Mist tells the Super Friends that the creature is currently in the American Southwest. The Super Friends just how they're supposed to stop this creature:
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...Doctor Mist has one cool hangout. I bet even Batman was jealous.

The Super Friends are now spread out over the southwest. Wonder Woman and Robin encounter the beast in Death Valley, where it manages to escape their attempts to stop it. It even wriggles out of Wonder Woman's magic lasso!

It makes its way to the Grand Canyon, where Superman spots it making its way towards Aquaman:
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Aquaman and Superman also try their best, but the beats escapes again.

Next, it makes its way to the Carlsbad Caverns, where Batman and the Wonder Twins are waiting for it. But where sheer force didn't work, Batman's brain power saves the day: he has Jayna change form into a duplicate of the beast.

Batman figured the beast would be lonely, being the last of its kind. Seeing another creature just like it mollifies it enough for the rest of the Super Friends to arrive and cart it off to Doctor Mist's HQ.

Mist tells them they must take the creature to The Place of Life, a valley deep inside a volcano, where Mist says the effect of the Spirit of Life will be nullified.

They do as instructed, and make their way down. But when they get there, they find the Spirit of Life having an effect on them:
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But Doctor Mist projects himself in the minds of the Super Friends, which wakes them from their stupor. Superman grabs the beast, and hurls it into the mystical flame.

The beast emerges unhurt, but now not under the flame's control. It happily wanders off, as the flame dies out.

Later, the Super Friends comisserate with the mysterious Doctor Mist:
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...the end!

Aquaman doesn't get a whole lot to do here, but at least he gets a page of action to his own. And Aquaman drawn by Ramona Fradon is always a good thing.

3 comments:

james said...

Thanks for the trip down memory late. Aquaman was my favorite member of the Superfriends back in the day!

Russell said...

This was never my favorite issue of SUPER FRIENDS. It was too cerebral for my young mind, haha. I think ENB was trying to be philosophical here, but it was over my head. Maybe I should re-read this....haha!

Diabolu Frank said...

Yay! Dr. Mist! Who has far, far fewer fans that Martian Manhunter, much less Aquaman!