Animators in the mid-1980's decided to do a show starring the most prominent characters in their character stable. Like the Justice League of America or Avengers before them, King Features (a comic strip syndicate) assembled the DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH.

If you notice there are some parallels between the Defenders and other similar features. Flash Gordon was the team's allegory to Superman or Captain America, the fearless leader who took care of problems as soon as possible. The mysterious Phantom was the Batman of the group.

Then there's Mandrake the magician, who is very much like Doctor Strange in Marvel Comics' DEFENDERS. Lothar (wasn't Lothar his servant in the original comics?) was the team's strong powerhouse, perhaps a stronger, not-as-ugly varation of The Thing.

So you've got Superman, Batman, Doctor Strange, and the Thing... err, Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Lothar, and the Phantom... what do you do for an encore? Set the series in the year 2015 (30 years in the future!) and have the Big Four training their "kids" who are teen titans of their own.

First there's Rick, averagely-named son of Flash Gordon. Did they ever say who his mother was? He tried to be ever so much the ladies' man as his father was.

Jedda Walker was the daughter of the Phantom. I believe in one episode she even took over the mantle of the Phantom when her father was believed dead.

L.J. was the son of Lothar (again, no word on where the mother went), and Kshin was an Indian boy who hung out with Mandrake. (his houseboy?)

There was also a computer system that appeared female. What was the name of that?

The Defenders united against the evil Ming the Merciless. Unlike 1940's comics where Ming was stereotypically colored yellow, this time around Ming was colored green. Think of it as "what if Lex Luthor and the Mandarin merged underneath a gamma bomb?"

DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH became a Galoob toy line, a Marvel Comics comic book series, and had several other merchandising tie-ins. It is interesting to note that while several of these characters are popular and have had series of their own, King Features never had quite the success with comic books as Marvel or DC had with similar characters. (The Phantom, for example, has been published by more then 5 different publishers -- including both Marvel and DC).

If you can answer any questions about DEFENDERS send them in to CraigByrne@aol.com and you will hopefully find a future update on KryptonSite.