Wonder Twins powers … activate! (comic preview)

SNAPSHOT
Exiled from their home planet, alien heroes Zan and Jayna must navigate life as teens on Earth at South Metropolis High School, where they’re even bigger outsiders than the typical awkward young adults. Under the watchful eye of Superman, the brother and sister pull monitor duty at the Hall of Justice as interns, while also trying to overcome the pitfalls of Zan’s brash confidence and Jayna’s shy but streetwise persona. If you think you know the Wonder Twins, think again-this book takes the form of the unexpected. (via Buzz Comic)

If you have read this blog for some time, and let’s hope you have because all this typing is in vain, you will have come to appreciate how much I love animation of all kinds.

Much of it started way back in the dim, dark, bell-bottomed days of the ’70s when I watched a slew of Hanna-Barbera cartoon shows including, rather happily (and rarely for me since I was a big consumer of superhero storytelling) The All-New Super Friends Hour, which featured, among well-known names like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, the Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna.

I loved their optimistic, naive, good-natured enthusiasm – I’m an extrovert so I’ve always been drawn to anyone, real or fictitious, with a giddy fire in their existential belly – and Gleek their monkey-like pet.

What cool with the Wonder Twins new comic book series written by Mark Russell with art by Stephen Byrne is there is some re-invention going on which should give us a whole new perspective on the alien twins; hopefully though, not at the expense of the gushingly endearing characters that made them such a delight to watch back in the day.

I think the characters are in good hands.

Mark Russell has already given us fresh takes on The Flintstones and Snagglepuss, which earned him an Eisner Award nomination and I have every expectation that his re-imagining of the Wonder Twins, ostensibly aimed at teenage readers under DC Comics’ new Wonder Comics imprint, will be similarly impressive.

OOOO