Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog

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"Wendy Harris" redirects here. For the lawyer, see Wendy Harris (lawyer).
Wendy and Marvin
Marvin, Wonder Dog, and Wendy on the cover of Teen Titans vol. 3 #62.
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceSuper Friends
"The Power Pirate"
First comic appearanceLimited Collectors' Edition #C-41 (January 1976)
Created byE. Nelson Bridwell
Alex Toth
In-story information
Full nameWendy Harris
Marvin White
Supporting character of
Notable aliasesMarvin and Wendy Kuttler

Wendy Harris, Marvin White and Wonder Dog are fictional characters from the 1973 American animated TV series Super Friends, based on the famous superheroes published by DC Comics. The series featured a lineup of DC's most popular characters, including Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but Hanna-Barbera, the show's producers, wanted to include young sidekick characters that the children in the audience could identify with. This led to the creation of Wendy, Marvin and their hero pet Wonder Dog, who appeared alongside their more famous friends. Because of the success of the Super Friends cartoon, a Super Friends comic book was also created, in which the trio made their first comics appearance.

Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog did not have superpowers, so they often did not add much to the story progression, and they were dropped after the show's first season. Wendy and Marvin were replaced in the 1977 series The All-New Super Friends Hour with the Wonder Twins—extraterrestrial twins with the power to transform into animals and water. Wonder Dog's comedy relief role was filled by the Wonder Twins' pet monkey, Gleek.

Wendy's voice was played by Sherry Alberoni, and Marvin and Wonder Dog were voiced by Frank Welker.

The duo has been reintroduced in the

Calculator
.

Super Friends cartoon

Wendy Harris and Marvin White are two sidekicks who were created in an era in which many cartoons featured main characters with sidekicks who were supposed to serve viewer identification. In the cartoon, the reason for Wendy and Marvin hanging around with the Super Friends was never really explained. In the comics, some additional information was given. Wendy is the niece of Harvey Harris, a detective who once trained Batman when he was still a teenager. It was postulated in an editorial column that she may have been the Earth-One version of Wendi Harris Tyler, wife of the first Hourman.[2] Marvin (who was given the last name of White in the comics) was the son of Diana Prince, the nurse whose name Wonder Woman took when she came to Man's World, and her husband Dan White. Thus, Marvin had a sort of familial connection to the Super Friends. The Super Friends were designed to help teach young crimefighters how to be superheroes. While Wendy never wore any special costume, Marvin was always dressed with a cape and a big letter "M" on his chest.

DC's superhero comics were aimed at an older audience than the Super Friends Saturday morning cartoons, and Hanna-Barbera was careful to present a bland, inoffensive version of the comics' sometimes violent approach. In the book Saturday Morning Fever, writers Timothy and Kevin Burke cite the inclusion of Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog as examples of the Hanna-Barbera aesthetic's intrusion into the superhero narrative:

Wendy and Marvin were the ultimate degenerate form of the kid sidekick, about as useful to the Superfriends as a burst appendix. They existed primarily to be rescued and to help illustrate the moral message of the week... Wonder Dog was a Fred Silverman-inspired dog sidekick, part of a shameful lineage which would eventually result in a later incarnation of Spider-Man being burdened with a little white yap-yap dog. Silverman and other kidvid producers had an idée fixe that the presence of a dog inevitably made a cartoon attractive to kids.[3]

E. Nelson Bridwell, the writer on Super Friends, shed some light on the characters' names in Super Friends #1 (Nov. 1976):

"Wendy Harris, I decided, was the young lady's full name. She is a niece, not of the Batman, but of a detective named Harvey Harris. This man gave young Bruce Wayne his first crack at real detecting when Bruce was in his teens. Years later, when Harris dies, he left a sealed letter to be delivered to Bruce, revealing that he had indeed known who he was — for Harris was certainly one of the all-time greats in the field".

"Marvin, I decided, is Marvin White — no relation to Perry White. His father is Daniel White, inventor, and his mother is the former Diana Prince".

Neither Marvin nor Wendy had any special abilities. However, once on the cartoon, Marvin was shown "practicing" flying, though not very well. In fact, in the cartoon, although very nice and very bright, Marvin was shown to be somewhat bumbling, often needing to learn the day's moral, such as looking up "

Robin
tell him. In the comics, however, Marvin and Wendy's cleverness and resourcefulness made them invaluable to the other Super Friends. The one notable resource Marvin provided to the Super Friends was his pet dog, Wonder Dog (or just "Wonder" for short), who was preternaturally intelligent, though bumbling as well.

Wendy and Marvin meet the Wonder Twins in the Super Friends comic book.

After two seasons of the Super Friends cartoon, it was cancelled, though re-runs were shown through 1976. When the show returned as The All-New Super Friends Hour in 1977, Wendy and Marvin had been replaced by two other teenagers, Zan and Jayna, the Wonder Twins, along with their pet, the alien monkey Gleek. Marvin and Wendy did not appear on TV again for another 35 years, and they were also replaced by the Wonder Twins in the Super Friends comic after "graduating" from the Super Friends as full-fledged superheroes.[4]

Super Friends comic book

Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog were first introduced in DC Comics with the January 1976 tabloid comic Limited Collectors' Edition presents: Super Friends #C-41, in which the newcomers are welcomed to the Hall of Justice to meet the entire Justice League of America, including characters who didn't appear on the show. Their story was mostly a frame to bookend reprints of older Justice League comics, but each character got their own spotlight. Superman tells Wonder Dog about Krypto, the Dog of Steel, to reassure him (and the readers) that there's a precedent for canine superheroes adventuring with the Justice League.[5]

Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog then appeared in the first nine issues of the

the Wonder Twins, were introduced in a story called "The Warning of the Wonder Twins!" The cover showed the new characters literally pushing the old trio to the side, shouting, "Your time is past, kids -- this is a job for the new Super-Friends!" The three-part adventure ended in issue #9, with Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog retiring from the team to go to college, as the Wonder Twins are accepted as new members of the team.[6]

According to the comic book, Marvin went on to study at

Ivy University, the fictional university where fellow superhero the Atom worked as a professor. Wendy moved to Paradise Island to attend an Amazon university and continue her training. Wendy and Marvin appeared again in a later issue of the Super Friends comic to aid the Wonder Twins, posing as Zan's and Jayna's human disguises, "John" and "Joanna", to fool a criminal who had deduced the Wonder Twins' secret identities and tried to use them to learn Batman's.[7]

In Wonder Woman vol. 2 #186, an unnamed character identical to Wendy appears on Paradise Island as a tutor to Lyta (daughter of

Circe
).

DC Universe

In 2006, a new version of the Wendy and Marvin characters debuted in the

Cyborg
was damaged and inactive since his return from space, but Wendy and Marvin repaired him and gave him new capabilities.

Wendy and Marvin meet a stray dog that Miss Martian names Wonder Dog. In reality, Wonder Dog is some sort of demonic monster in the service of a new villain called King Lycus, who appeared at the end of the issue after the beast has killed Marvin and severely mauled Wendy.

the Calculator), who swears revenge on the Titans for allowing this to happen to his children.[9]

Marvin's soul is later summoned by Kid Eternity, the Titans' newest recruit, to provide him with information on what being part of the Titans means. Marvin warns Eternity against association with the team, citing the many deaths they have suffered.[10] Later, Eternity is captured by the Calculator and forced to summon Marvin repeatedly.[11]

In Oracle: The Cure #3, Wendy recovers from her coma while being visited by her father who was trying to use alien technology to help her. However, she is unable to feel or move her legs. The similarly disabled heroine Oracle promises to help her while aiding in the Calculator's arrest. In the new

Stephanie Brown, the new Batgirl, defeat her father the Cluemaster and save Barbara from him. Afterward, she takes on the codename of Proxy, acting as a junior version of Oracle.[12]

Other versions

An animated-style image of Marvin appears next to

Atom Smasher
.

In other media

Television

Film

Video games

Wonder Dog appears in DC Universe Online.

Miscellaneous

Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog appear in the Adult Swim web series The New Adventures of the Wonder Twins episode "Be Kind, Rewind". These versions are part of s rock band. Additionally, following the end of Super Friends, Marvin put on weight and grew a beard.

Further reading

  • The Ultimate Super Friends Companion, Volume 1: The 1970s! by Will Rodgers with Billie Rae Bates, BBRTV (2016)

References

  1. ^ a b Teen Titans (vol. 3) #34 (May 2006)
  2. ^ Super Friends #1 (November 1976)
  3. ISBN 978-0312169961
    .
  4. ^ Super Friends #6 (August 1977)
  5. ^ Franklin, Chris (December 2012). "The Kids in the Hall (of Justice): A Whirlwind Tour with the Super Friends". Back Issue!. 1 (#61): 24–28. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  6. ISBN 978-0132755610
    .
  7. ^ "Superfriends".
  8. ^ Teen Titans (vol. 3) #62 (October 2008)
  9. ^ Teen Titans (vol. 3) #66 (February 2009)
  10. ^ Teen Titans Annual (vol. 3) #1 (April 2006)
  11. ^ Teen Titans (vol. 3) #74 (October 2009)
  12. ^ Oracle: The Cure #3 (July 2009)
  13. ^ "Specials Video - World's Funniest Animals: National Puppy Day | Stream Free".
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