Wonder Twins



A Brother-Sister Team (and their pet monkey, Gleek) of superheroes owned by DC Comics, best known for co-starring (along the Justice League) on the Superfriends television show (and its comic book Spin-Off).

Created by artist Alex Toth, the Twins (Zan and Jayna) were a replacement for the show's earlier Audience Surrogates, Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog. Unlike their predecessors, the Twins (and Gleek) had superpowers and so were more believably useful to the superheroes: Zan could change into any form of water, and Jayna could change into any animal, but they could activate their powers only by touching first. Gleek had an elastic and prehensile tail.

The trio also starred in some segments of the show by themselves, though usually in humorous adventures, or to teach children valuable lessons.

The Wonder Twins had their first comic book appearance in Super Friends #7 (October, 1977). The characters were further developed in the comic: it turns out they are mutants on top of being aliens. Because of this fact, after their parents' death (in a plague) they were adopted by the owner of a Space Circus, who only wanted them as part of their freak show. Fortunately, the circus' clown raised them well, and gave them Gleek. Eventually, however, they decided to escape and hid on a supposedly uninhabited planet... that turned out to contain the secret base of Grax, a (pretty obscure) Superman villain. They overheard him planning to blow up the Earth with hidden bombs. The Twins go to Earth and contact the League, who (with help from several international superheroes - not the same ones seen in the TV show) foiled the plan. Afterward, the trio were allowed to succeed Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog on the team, as Wendy and Marvin were conveniently retiring to go back to school.

Zan and Jayna then lived with Professor Carter Nichols, an old friend of Batman. They, too, attended high school, under their own secret identities (as Johan and Johanna Flemming, a pair of 'foreign transfer students' from "Esko", an [actual] town in Sweden) and had adventures of their own.

The Twins eventually were phased out of the TV show (with no explanation) and when the comic was canceled, they pretty much disappeared. (Note that Super Friends was never canonical with the rest of DC Comics.) Eventually they were reintroduced (Post-Crisis) as a pair of alien slaves rescued by Captain Atom's version of the League. This version of the Twins first appeared in Extreme Justice #9 (October, 1995).

Today, the twins are back in Comic Book Limbo, which, given how dark the DC Universe has become, is probably for the best. A pair of characters based on them (Downpour and Shifter) also appeared in an episode of Justice League Unlimited ("Ultimatum"). Another version of them also appeared on the the Smallville episode "Idol".

These characters provide examples of:

 * Adaptation Expansion: The Twins' lives as Johan and Johanna were shown only in the comics.
 * All the Other Reindeer: The Exorians didn't want to care for children with "mutant powers". Their hypocrisy was made obvious later in a story when they demanded that the Twins save them from another duo of Exorian shapeshifters. This is also probably a Shout-Out to Marvel's X-Men.
 * Amazing Technicolour Wildlife: Gleek is a blue monkey. Justified since he's an alien.
 * Animal-Themed Superbeing: Jayna as the All Animal Abilities type.
 * Canon Immigrant: though it wasn't until the Extreme Justice comics that they were officially part of the DCU.
 * Chest Insignia: Stylized Z and J, respectively. Justified as they only added the letters to their Space Clothes after joining the Super Friends.
 * Death By Origin Story/The Unseen: Their parents.
 * Dumb Blonde: Subverted; as Johan and Johanna, they dyed their hair blond (using one of Carter's inventions) and acted very intelligently.
 * Edutainment: The Wonder Twin segments.
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Technically, Gleek is an alien who just happens to resemble a blue monkey.
 * Fictionary: Interlac, the language spoken by the Twins before coming to Earth.
 * Half-Identical Twins
 * Parental Substitute: First the clown, then Professor Nichols.
 * Recycled in Space: The circus.
 * Rubber Man: Gleek, but only in his tail.
 * Sibling Team
 * Super Zeroes: Like Aquaman, the twins have a reputation of being lame characters from the TV show; in the comic, they were far more effective. Even on Superfriends, they were fairly creative. Would you have thought of becoming a "steam powered ice jet"?
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitutes: Appearance and powers aside, they weren't much different from Wendy and Marvin.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: Zan could turn into water, including ice and steam; Jayna could turn into animals, including mythological ones or alien ones. She could become a blonde!
 * Wonder Twin Powers: Trope Namer. Note that saying "Wonder Twin Powers, activate!" is not actually necessary, nor do they need to touch by the hands.