Challenge of the Super Friends, Episode 10

Episode 10: "Swamp of the Living Dead"

Hanna-Barbera dips its toe into the (light) horror genre this time around, with the Super Friends taking on...zombies!

In the same murky swamp that is home to the Legion of Doom, a creepy old woman skulks about, picking up various creatures (like a big spider) and putting them in her sack. She is being watched by the Legion of Doom, and Black Manta thinks she is a spy for the Justice League! Some of the bad guys, convinced of this logic, go out and confront her:

The "Old Hag" (which is what they call her), says if they let her go, she can give them the key to unspeakable power. At first they are skeptical, then master tactician Scarecrow says "What have we got to lose?" They then follow her to the Old Hag's home, where she brings forth a strange being:

In exchange for unlimited evil power, Anton La Vey here demands something in return: an equal amount of good power! Solomon Grundy realizes the Legion has no such power to give, but then the rest realize that if they lure the Super Friends into a trap, then they can receive the demon's power and get rid of their enemies all at once!

Later, the Super Friends receive a distress signal from Hawkman, who is trapped in the swamp. Batman and Robin head there to rescue him, but they are sucker-punched (not literally) by Cheetah and Scarecrow, who is disturbingly posing as Hawkman:

The Dynamic Duo is apprehended, and placed into glass boxes like giant action figures. At the Hall of Justice, Hawkman wanders in, and everyone wants to know where Batman and Robin sure. Shortly everyone realizes something bad has happened, and Green Lantern and Hawkman go looking, only fall prey to Sinestro and Solomon Grundy. Chalk up two more for the demon's Super Friends collection!

Night falls, and now the Super Friends have four members missing. Superman now goes looking, telling the others to "come in with full force" (I guess that means get Samurai) if he doesn't return by midnight. Thanks to some Kryptonite vines, he too falls to the Legion of Doom. The remaining Super Friends--Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Black Vulcan, and Samurai--finally decide to get off their duffs and take this seriously.

But soon they too fall to the demon, and the Legion of Doom is overjoyed--their foes are now out of commission! In a classic case of not knowing when to quit, the Legion then demand "absolute power" from the demon (why they couldn't just go on a rampage since there are no Super Friends to stop them, I don't know). An army of the living dead(!) rise from the swamp, who will do the bidding of the Legion of Doom. Luthor sends the swamp zombies to a nearby plutonium reactor, and within hours it is overtaken.

Pushing their luck, the Legion of Doom decide they now to have to capture the Old Hag and the demon as well! They place the Big Head inside a containment bubble and bring him back to their HQ, but he escapes with nary an effort, laughing the whole time. He then turns the zombies against the Legion of Doom, and they're all messed up:

The Legion of Doom close the inner bulkheads of their headqaurters (kinda cool, actually), but the zombies smash through them. The bad guys are forced to flee, and decide the only way to save themselves is...you guessed it, release the Super Friends!

Green Lantern tries to stop the zombies with his ring, but somehow they are able to teleport through the floor, out of the power bubble, and keep approaching. The Old Hag tells them the only way to stop the zombies to tie them using dead vines to swamp trees. The Super Friends do this, returning the zombies back to Hell (I'm assuming).

While the Legion of Doom is replenishing their fuel supplies at the nuclear reactor, the Super Friends catch up, ready to stop them. But the Old Hag shows up again, saying that since she did a solid for the good guys, she now has to do one for the bad guys: she teleports all of the Legion of Doom away, transforming into the demon, leaving the Super Friends to stand there, fuming:

Aquaman literally does nothing in this episode: he says nothing, and doesn't participate in any of the action, despite most of it taking place in the swamp. He probably missed some of the fight by switching to orange trunks, as seen above.

Sure, I'm kidding this episode quite a bit, but you have to give H-B credit: this kids' cartoon features actual zombies, plus a scary demon who gets away at the end! It's as if Lucio Fulci was brought in to guest direct. I just wish the Sea King had had the chance to paste a zombie one.

This episode's Aqua-Content: Low