Caped Crusader Of The Final Frontier.

And now, my fellow Hanna-Barbera fans, without further ado, I present my thoughts about...drum roll, please! Space Ghost!

Why did I pick the thread title that I did? Well, I took one look at Space Ghost and Jayce, and thought, "Wow! They're just like Batman and Robin!"

Well, not exactly. For unlike the Dark Knight, Space Ghost was never seen out of costume, even when he became a talk show host. But enough about that. Now about the show:

There Space Ghost would be, leaving Ghost Planet in the Phantom Cruiser to deal with some alien villain. Sometimes, he'd rescue Jan, Jayce, and Blip, or they'd rescue him. There were even a couple of episodes with no aliens at all. These were "The Time Machine," in which the adventure was brought about by carelessness on Jayce's part, and "The Sandman," which took place in a desert country somewhere in the Middle East, judging from what I saw, and what the Colonel of the Foreign Legion said.












But mostly the villains were of extraterrestrial origin. These included Zorak the praying mantis, who was actually a preying mantis. And then, the Black Widow, whose name, for reasons unknown, was changed to Spider Woman. I've concluded that the reason for the change was that at the time, there were two other villainesses called Black Widow: One from the animated "Lone Ranger" series, which also aired on CBS, and one from the live action "Batman" series. Space Ghost defeated all these villains with Inviso Power, and his power bands, which were occasionally stolen by the bad guys.

I guess I liked all the episodes, but I consider those with recurring villains like Creature King and Metallus the best of the batch. Which brings us to the most amazing part of the show, the Council Of Doom miniseries, the show's tour de force.

In this astounding story arc, six supervillains joined forces to destroy Space Ghost once and for all. These were Zorak, Metallus, Brak, Creature King, Black Widow/Spider Woman, and Moltar. Of this sextet, Moltar was the only one who appeared in one episode. All the others were recurring. I've concluded that of all the one-shot villains, Moltar was the only one evil enough to join the group. Maybe he's the one who created the Heat Thing, though I have no way to prove it.

At any rate, I was impressed by the way these six episodes played out. I admit I was confused when I saw the cameos by Mightor and Tog, Moby Dick, the Herculoids, and Shazzan, but eventually realized the miniseries was also a launching pad for their own shows.

I'm glad I got to see the show again when it returned in the late '70's, first on the "Space Ghost/Frankenstein Jr. Show," and then on "Hanna-Barbera's World Of Super Adventure."

When new episodes were produced for "Space Stars" in 1981, there was much interaction between Space Ghost and the show's other characters. Jan was now Kid Comet's girlfriend, and the stories, including "Space Spectre," were outstanding.

As for "Space Ghost: Coast To Coast," "Cartoon Planet," and "The Brak Show," I won't go there, except that it was cool to see that Zorak, Brak, and Moltar were now on Space Ghost's talk show, offering little more than onstage banter.

And I'll never forget when Space Ghost, Jan, Jayce, and Blip appeared briefly on "Batman: The Brave And The Bold," a couple of years ago.

BTW, there's a graphic novel devoted to Space Ghost's origin. But beware. It's not for the squeamish, according to what I read about it.

Now for the other half of the show:

Dino Boy In The Lost Valley. This show about a boy stranded in a prehistoric valley had all the action and adventure I could ever want. Tod, AKA Dino Boy met and befriended Ugh, a caveman who clearly had more in common with Alley Oop than Fred Flintstone. He and Tod came to each other's rescue, and there was also Bronty, who had a saddle on his back. Sometimes, Ugh would call on Tusko, a large mammoth bull, who was trained to take out bad guys, but not by piercing them with his tusks.

There were prehistoric beasts and enemy tribes galore here. Some were even advanced enough to build walled cities. I did like most of these episodes. But I noticed Tod's mistake in the episode "Marooned." He rescued a Moss man who was left there to die by his own tribesmen. Dino Boy disguised himself as a monster to scare the other Moss men away. But when he freed the victim, he forgot to remove his mask, so the unfortunate beat him up, not understanding his intentions. Um, Tod, you should have unmasked yourself first.

And I even liked the show's bumpers, especially the one that had Space Ghost zapping vultures that were attacking Dino Boy, Ugh, and Bronty. The humans merely waved good-bye to the heroes, but there was no reason Space Ghost couldn't have taken Dino Boy aboard and returned him to civilization. Then again, there'd have been no thrills and chills.

So Space Ghost is definitely an iconic superhero. Three cheers!

Trivia Question 53: Jace defeated the Sorceror single-handedly after the villain turned him and Jan into: A. Monkeys. B. Owls. C. Bats. D. Black cats.

Answer: A.

Actually, Space Ghost had a yellow cape.