Super Friends #9
Super Friends #9 (December 1977) is the concluding chapter of a landmark three-issue arc that collectively introduced the international roster of heroes who would eventually be formalized as the Global Guardians in DC Comics Presents #46 (1982) — making it a quiet but consequential building block of DC's wider universe. This single issue alone delivers four first appearances — the Olympian (Greece), Little Mermaid (Denmark), Tasmanian Devil (Australia), and Icemaiden (Norway) — a density of debuts rarely matched in a children's licensed title. The issue also serves as the in-universe handoff moment for the Super Friends' junior membership: Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog retire to attend college, and the Wonder Twins formally step in as their replacements, cementing Zan, Jayna, and Gleek as the book's new supporting cast going forward. Though published under a 'DC TV Comic' banner and long regarded as existing outside mainstream continuity, the characters born in this arc proved durable enough to migrate into Earth-One canon and endure across decades of DC storytelling.
In "Three Ways to Kill a World!", the Super Friends team up with the Justice League and their international allies—plus the Wonder Twins, Wendy, and Marvin—to thwart Grax’s apocalyptic scheme. As Wendy and Marvin prepare to leave the team for college, the Wonder Twins step forward, eager to take their place and master their powers under the Super Friends’ guidance. Written by E. Nelson Bridwell and illustrated by Ramona Fradon, with inks by Bob Smith and colors by Jerry Serpe, this 1977 adventure features a cover by Ramona Fradon and Vince Colletta.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 13 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
Raw / ungraded ▾ $7.75–$40 7 listings
More listings for this title
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue was written by E. Nelson Bridwell and penciled by Ramona Fradon, with interior inks by Bob Smith and cover inks by Vince Colletta, under the editorial oversight of Larry Hama (editor) and Joe Orlando (managing editor). Bridwell, a meticulous DC historian, consciously designed the three-part Grax storyline (issues #7–9) to populate DC's globe with original international heroes, an impulse that mirrored the animated series' own push toward diversity with characters like Black Vulcan and Apache Chief; his approach in the comic, however, was to craft wholly new characters with national identities grounded in myth, geography, and distinct power sets. The series carried a 'DC TV Comic' indicia and was intended to tie into the Hanna-Barbera Super Friends animated series, which complicated its canonical standing — Bridwell attempted to anchor the stories to Earth-One continuity via footnotes, but the result was a distinct shared universe fans later called 'Earth-1A' or 'Earth-B,' officially designated Earth-1956 in Dark Crisis: Big Bang #1 (2023).
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of the Olympian (Aristides Demetrios of Greece), Little Mermaid (Ulla Paske of Denmark), Tasmanian Devil (Hugh Dawkins of Australia), and Icemaiden (Sigrid Nansen of Norway) — all four characters who would later become founding members of the Global Guardians.
- Story title: 'Three Ways to Kill a World' — the concluding chapter of a three-part arc begun in Super Friends #7 (Oct. 1977) and continued in #8 (Nov. 1977), centered on the alien villain Grax planting 12 bombs across Earth's continents.
- Written by E. Nelson Bridwell; pencils by Ramona Fradon; interior inks by Bob Smith; cover inks by Vince Colletta. Edited by Larry Hama with Joe Orlando as managing editor.
- Wendy Harris, Marvin White, and Wonder Dog retire from the Super Friends to attend college in this issue; Zan, Jayna, and Gleek are accepted as their replacements, completing the team's transition to the Wonder Twins lineup.
- The characters introduced across Super Friends #7–9 were not formally identified as a team until DC Comics Presents #46 (June 1982), where they appeared in mainstream Earth-One continuity under the name Global Guardians.
- Cover date: December 1977; on-sale date: September 13, 1977 (per Grand Comics Database, citing Comic Reader #148).
- The issue has been reprinted multiple times: in the Super Friends! TPB (DC, 2001), Showcase Presents: Super Friends Vol. 1 (DC, 2014), and The Super Friends: Saturday Morning Comics Vol. 1 (DC, 2020), as well as in the German anthology Super Freunde (Egmont Ehapa, 1980).
- Key Collector Comics notes that the characters introduced in this issue originate in an alternate reality (Earth-1956), though the Super Friends series is cross-referenced by later Earth-One stories, giving these debuts an ambiguous but acknowledged canonical status.
Cast · 19 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Super Freunde #2 (1980), Super Friends! #[nn] (2001), Showcase Presents: Super Friends #1 (2014), The Super Friends: Saturday Morning Comics #1 (2020)
Key issues in Super Friends
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.