My affinity for Cartoon Network and Boomerang are common knowledge. Today, Boomerang featured shows from 1980. I caught part of Thundarr the Barbarian and Superfriends. I have been a fan of the Justice League for many years. I remember waiting to watch the various animated incarnations of the team (and the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man and… and… and…) with a bowl of cereal in hand.

Something that I never understood: The “need” to have the “Junior Superfriends” (Marvin, Wendy and Wonder Dog or Jayna, Zan and Gleek). Did the powers-that-be think that kids needed younger heroes’ perspective to be drawn into the shows? C’mon. We’re talking the big guns of the DCU. How many kids have to be prodded into watching Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and the rest? Well, I can understand needing a helpful nudge for watching Aquaman, but why quibble? And it’s not like the DCU didn’t have young heroes with decent powers, as evidenced when the Wonder Brats disappeared and were replaced with Firestorm and Cyborg. I never liked the Wonder Twins. Unless they were in mortal peril. They were like the poor man’s version of Robin the Boy Hostage Wonder!

But I digress…

Today, they showed an episode called “The Lord of Middle Earth.” I watched a few minutes of it before flagging down to suffer with me. In it the Wonder Hostages, um, I mean “Twins” were captured by “Malhavoc,” turned into trolls and forced to… oh, just read the synopsis.

This is the play-by-play of the conversation that and I had while watching it:

[14:05] : Do you have Boomerang?
[14:05] : Yeah…
[14:05] : I apologize for this, but turn it on.
[14:05] : Episode: “The Lord of Middle Earth”
[14:05] : O_o
[14:07] : Batman sounds like a pussy
[14:08] : *cracks up*
[14:08] : This just reinforces why I [heart] JLU
[14:08] : Bat-Troll
[14:08] : *cracks up*
[14:09] : THREE DEADLY TASKS!
[14:09] : Magic ring of Gandor?!
[14:09] : *FLOOR*
[14:10] : <facepalm>
*Batman/Bat-Troll gets captured by the tongue… of a cave that has become a giant mouth*
[14:10] : Bat-Vienna Sausage
*Troll-der Woman defangs the cave and she, Bat-Troll, Gleek and the King of the Trolls run into the reverted cave*
[14:11] : Wasn’t that just trying to eat him?
[14:11] : what in god’s name?
[14:11] : And they…run…in…?
[14:11] : yeah…
*insert stupid “M.O.T.O.” comment from Bat-Troll*
[14:11] : No shit, Captain Bat-Obvious.
[14:12] : Cro Mag-Bat
[14:12] : heh
[14:12] : Hera to Wonder Woman: Sit up straight! You’ll ruin your posture!
[14:12] : BWAHAHAAHHA
*Batman/Bat-Troll temporarily captures Malhavoc in a Bat-forcefield*
[14:13] : You’ve got to be kidding me…
[14:14] : That’s all it took!?
[14:14] : O_O
*HIGHLIGHT OF THE EPISODE: The Wonder-Trolls, in a cage, are being lowered into… something… that spells certain doom for them*
[14:14] : Let ’em fry!
[14:14] : Let ’em fry!
[14:14] : Superman looks a li’l gawth…
[14:16] : I can’t watch this…
[14:16] : Tolkein must be rolling in his grave.

Finding out that some of the Saturday morning cartoons that I used think were great were just pabulum shatters so many of my illusions. Granted, a lot of today’s toons aren’t much better, but I still hold out hope that more of them will reach the level of JLU or any number of anime series.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled LiveJournal reading…