The episode opens with...Batman's funeral! We soon find out that the Legion of Doom have a substance, Noxiam, that allows them to kill any Superfriend. In flashback we see Lex trick Superman into opening the krypton-steel box. Then the Riddler lures Batman into an ambush in Gotham City and kills him, leading to the funeral at the beginning. The Legion then takes the Daily Planet, Perry White, and Lois Lane hostage and kill Superman, and Paradise Island hostage to force Wonder Woman to confront them and be killed as well. The other Superfriends flee Earth but come back and are killed. Luthor then tosses the Noxiam into the sewer, its use at an end. A protectively garbed figure recovers it and shoots the crystal into space--it's Apache Chief. It's all a ploy to lure the Legion out. The dead Superfriends were actually robots.
Challenge of the Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from September 9, 1978, to December 23, 1978, on ABC. The complete series was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for Warner Bros. Television and is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics and created by Julius Schwartz, Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. It was the third series of Super Friends cartoons, following the original Super Friends in 1973 and The All-New Super Friends Hour in 1977. It continues to air on Boomerang in the United States.
