


Nelson Bridwell and artist Ramona Fradon, Zan and Jayna are Exorian. Little background is provided for the Wonder Twins in the Super Friends cartoon, save that they are superheroes-in-training that are friends of the Super Friends and were born on November 6.Īccording to the 1977 Super Friends comic book by writer E. In the following August, the second six issues of the maxi-series are being released in another trade paper back titled "The Fall & Rise of the Wonder Twins".įictional character biography Super Friends In November 2019, the first 6 issues of "Wonder Twins" were collected as a trade paper back, and released under the title "Wonder Twins - Activate".
TARZAN THE WONDER CAR DC SERIES
The series was a critical and commercial success, and was extended into a 12 issue maxi-series. Following the cancellation of Extreme Justice, the Wonder Twins showed up only sporadically in the DC Universe, with their last significant appearance being in 2003.ĭC published a six-issue Wonder Twins miniseries in 2019, written by Mark Russell and drawn by Stephen Byrne. Though the twins remained with the series until its cancellation with #18, they were used only sparingly after Velez's departure. Velez, an avowed die-hard fan of the Wonder Twins, intended to begin a revival of the characters, but was taken off the series after the first issue with the Wonder Twins. The series rewrote and updated their origin story. In the 1990s, they were introduced into the main DC Universe in Extreme Justice #9 (October 1995), by Ivan Velez, Jr. Because of the different production lag times between animation and comics, the first comic book appearance is chronologically before the first television appearance.

The Super Friends comic book provided considerably more details of the Wonder Twins' background and how they came to join the team than was provided in the television series. The characters were introduced to comics in issue #7 of the Super Friends tie-in series (cover-dated October 1977, but published in July 1977), by E. However, by the final seasons, the twins were largely marginalized in favor of well established DC Comics teenage superheroes like Firestorm, and were wholly eliminated in the final season in favor of Cyborg. The Wonder Twins were the most prominently featured characters in their first season on Super Friends. The twins' personalities were heavily based on Donny and Marie Osmond, who were extremely popular at the time and had their own show on ABC as well. Jayna's distinctive hairdo was based on that of an animation checker at Hanna-Barbera, while the pointed ears were inspired by the character Spock from the Star Trek franchise. According to McNeil: "Originally Zan (Dick) had ' Plastic Man' powers and Jayna (Jane) could transform into anything, not just animals, but they were scaled back to their present powers as it made the other Super Friends (even Superman) seem almost superfluous". The names "Zan" and "Jayna" derived from the Edgar Rice Burroughs characters Tarzan and his romantic interest Jane. They were originally called Dick and Jane, and their sidekick was Mighty Monkey, before finally becoming Zan, Jayna, and Gleek. Hanna-Barbera animator Darrell McNeil recalls the twins were created by Norman Maurer, the Super Friends series developer/story editor. Unlike their predecessors, Wendy Harris and Marvin White, this pair was able to participate in combat with abilities of their own. Ward in 1984 ) are siblings from the planet Exxor (also spelled Exor) who were being informally trained by the superheroes. Zan (voiced by Michael Bell) and Jayna (voiced by Louise Williams from 1977-1983 and B. The duo made their debut in The All-New Super Friends Hour and then appeared in The World's Greatest Super Friends, Super Friends, and Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show.
TARZAN THE WONDER CAR DC TV
They have since appeared in other media, including the animated series Teen Titans Go! and the live-action TV series Smallville. They subsequently appeared in comics based on the animated series and were later introduced into the main DC Comics Universe. The pair also have a pet monkey, Gleek, who assists in their crime-fighting activities.

The pair can activate their superpowers by touching hands and saying the phrase "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" Jayna can transform into any animal, and Zan can become water in any state. The Wonder Twins ( Zan and Jayna) are a fictional extraterrestrial twin brother and sister superhero duo who first appeared in Hanna-Barbera's American animated television series The All-New Super Friends Hour.
