W is for Wonder Twins
The “Wonder Twins” kind of suck with lame powers, but, they can suck less. Here’s how.
In case you haven’t guessed from our motto, my twin brother and I are big fans of the Wonder Twins from Super Friends. There aren’t many twin superheroes out there, so we kind of jumped on their bandwagon. But in later years, we became aware of the amount of scorn most people have towards the Wonder Twins.
Some of it is valid.
“Form Of…!”
First of all, their powers are kind of stupid. That is to say, half of their powers are cool, and the other is not. In case you’re not familiar with them, Jayna can turn into any animal, and Zan can turn into any water-based object, including ice. The animal thing has possibilities, but the water thing usually came lame.
You’d have episodes where Jayna would go “Form of a seven-foot Xymorgian Death Dragon with three-inch long poison fangs!” And Zan would go “Shape of an ice sled!” Then Jayna the Warrior Monster would jump on Zan, who looked like a toboggan with his little head sticking out, and ride him into battle while Zan tried not to melt.
Okay, that was an exaggeration, but close to the truth. For example, whenever they had to go somewhere, Jayna would turn into an eagle, and Zan would turn into water and jump into a bucket for her to carry. That part wasn’t a joke.
But even Jayna’s power sucked, because she could only use it when she touched her brother’s hand. If they couldn’t reach each other or he wasn’t around, then she was out of luck. All the bad guys had to do to make them powerless was keep them slightly out of arm’s reach.
How Can They Suck Less?
I still think the Wonder Twins can work, though. In the original run of the Super Friends comic book, they were more interesting. Their tragic origin was revealed as aliens whose parents died in a plague. Rejected by their people for their shapeshifting powers, the Wonder Twins were held captive in a space zoo until Superman helped them escape. They also got to expand their powers. Zan turned into more complex ice-related objects like rockets and even an ice giant. Jayna once turned into a Kryptonian animal, which gave her animal abilities as well as Superman’s powers.
Today, people have been revisiting the Wonder Twins. Check out Alex Ross’ realistic painting of the Wonder Twins that made them look haughty, arrogant, tough, and even cool. Even made Gleek look hardcore. The Wonder Twins have also made recent appearances on other media. They appeared as shapechanging twins in an episode of Smallville. They also appeared in some episodes of Justice League Unlimited as albino superheroes named Shifter and Downpour.
If I could write a comic, I would do an updated version of the Wonder Twins. If they can turn Sandman, Shade, and Animal Man into great comics, there’s certainly room for the Wonder Twins.
Do you think the Wonder Twins can ever be cool? Let us know in the comments.
This post is “W is for Wonder Twins,” part of the “A-Z Blogging Challenge.” We’ll be posting something on our blog every day in April except for Sundays. The challenge is hosted by Arlee Bird , Jeffrey Beesler, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Jen Daiker, Candace Ganger, Karen J Gowen, Talli Roland and Stephen Tremp. Visit them today and every day for the next month!
