Starkville’s House of El Podcast

In a very highly anticipated episode, The WonderTwins Zan and Jayna come to Smallville and judging by the responses they were very well received. The only consistent complaint there they were not in the episode enough, which I agree with. Although I don’t know what I would have cut to make room for more WT scenes. The characters of Zan & Jayna are known mostly in pop-culture because of their role on The All-New Super Friends Hour which debuted on tv September of 1977. The cartoon show took on many different names over the years, but the formula for the show was essentially the same. The Justice League fights bad guys. (Remember this was the late 70’s and early 80’s , not the most complex of story lines)

The Wonder Twins possess shapeshifting abilities that allow Zan to take the shape of anything made essentially of water. He could even form complex machinery  such as an ICE JET!!! Jayna could take the form of any living creature, mythical or natural, and even alien. The combinations these two would come up with could be very effective yet corny.They also were described as having telepathis abilities with one another which allowed them to use strategy when taking different forms and shapes. Their powers would only work if the twins “bumped fists” and verbally called out the form or shape they wished to take. If necessary, Gleek could provide a connection between the two allowing their powers to work if they both were touching him. I can remember one episode where they were tied up and Gleek’s nose bridged the gap so they could change. The WT existed only in the Super Friends TV show and in the Superfriends comic book series. It was not until the 1990’s that the twins were heavily revamped for the “Extreme Justice” comic book and brought into full DC continuity. Althugh they have hardly been seen since that run.  Many believe that the WT are the originators of “the Fist Bump”.

The DC Comics history for this duo is that they are aliens from the planet Exxor. Having lost their parents at an early age and possessing ancient shapeshifting abilities which made them outcasts, the two were orphans. They were picked up by a traveling space-circus and adopted by the owner of the circus to appear as sideshow freaks. The clown that was in the circus was a kind soul who took the job of raising them. He was the one responsible for giving them their trademark space monkey “Gleek”. Once they were teens they escaped the circus with Gleek and went into hiding on a planet that was headquarters to one of Superman’s villians, Grax. Grax was preparing to destroy the earth with hidden superbombs. So the WT travel to earth to warn the Justice League of Grax’s plans. This is how they came to be a part of Justice league as sidekicks. They were placed under the care of  anold scientist by the name of Professor Carter Nichols and assumed secret identities by Zan having a disguise of a blond wig and Jayna taking the form of a human.  They attended Gotham High School as John and Johnna Flemming.

For those of you who have never seen any Superfriends episodes here is 6 minute clip of an episode.

In the 90’s they were revamped as I mentioned before, and these twins much like everything else in the 90’s were EXTREME. They were given a much harder look with more muscles and an edge about them. This version retconned the previous version as these twins were slaves to an alien villian. Their powers were also much more intense. Not being able to speak english they accidentally attacked some civilians and the Justice League. They then join a new faction of the Justice League called “Extreme Justice”, who’s leader was Captain Atom . In the attack Zan took the shape of an Ice Golum, an ice monster, and a demonic lookng whirlpool. Jayna took the shape of a griffin, a werewolf, and a sea serpent. I did mention they were EXTREME didn’t I? They are still currently considered “alive and well” in the DC universe, however they are rarely seen. They appeared in “Young Justice ” #49-51 wearing costumes much like Connor Kent wears today which is a t-shirt and jeans. File this one under “ok if you say so” : They like the taste of CD’s as they have eaten a number of Wonder Girl’s cd’s.

In the Cartoon Network series Justice League Unlimited, there was a short glimpse of the classic look Wonder twins as statues in the episode titled “Injustice for all”. Then later in the series they were paid a homage when the Ultimen were introduced. The Characters were “Downpour” and “Shifter”, I think you know who is who. (they are on the right)

Now that we know their history we can breifly look at Smallville’s interpretation of the Twins. We never got a full backstory on them, but I think it’s safe to assume they could be meteor freaks. While we did not get a lot of Wonder Twins in this episode, we did see that they are inherently good people who want to do good with their powers and help people. The speech from Clark at the end was AWESOME! The way the episode was handled, I think it is quite possible we could see them again on the show. We did get a good nod to Gleek being a sticker on Jayna’s phone and we got  to see Zan save Lois by transforming into a dense fog.

I have very fond memories of the Wonder Twins and I for one was pleased with how they were protrayed on Smallville. What did you think? Leave a comment below. Next SHoE File will be about Zod and I’ll get that together sometime during the hiatus. Thanks for reading!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Character History. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.