amedia

Defenders of the Earth was an attempt by King Features to cash in on some semi-dormant properties in the 1980's. They teamed up the Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Mandrake the Magician in a series set in the future. As Robot Chicken pointed out, none of these characters have any actual superpowers. (That's actually where we first heard of it.) It's a pretty silly show, but it does have the Phantom, who is one of TODS' favorite characters ever, so we've been watching it.

They've done some interesting things - Mandrake's sidekick Lothar is treated as a hero in his own right, and the Phantom (the 27th) is grooming his daughter to become the 28th Phantom someday. On the other hand, the producers decided that kids will not watch superheroes unless there are also children involved, so we have four highly irritating offspring/adoptees of the heroes underfoot, frequently providing the plot by doing stupid things and needing to be rescued (including the Phantom's daughter, alas). Flash's wife Dale has become the personality of the computer at the DOE base (long story). The animation is low-quality.

But we just saw an awesome episode!!!! King Features also owned the rights to Prince Valiant, so they put together a time-travel episode with a much better plot than usual and some surprisingly good character drawings. We get to see the Phantom meet Valiant! And Arn! And Aleta! We get to see the heroes team up for an adventure! ~~We get to see Lothar cuddle Mandrake!~~ We get to see Aleta use her kickass magical powers!

Defenders of the Earth: "Terror in Time"