Wendy and Marvin

Wendy Harris and Marvin White are fictional characters, two teen-aged sidekicks of the Super Friends. Along with Marvin's pet dog Wonder Dog, they first appeared in the 1973 animated series Super Friends. Because of the success of the Super Friends cartoon, a Super Friends comic book was also created, in which Wendy and Marvin made their first comics appearance.

The duo has been re-introduced in the Teen Titans comic book as the caretakers of Titans Tower, as twins Wendy and Marvin Harris.^[1] Wendy would eventually become the protege of Barbara Gordon while the latter was operating as Oracle, and adopt the codename Proxy. Stories published in this era also revealed that the twins were the children of the DC Comics supervillain Calculator.

Fictional character biographies

Super Friends

Wendy Harris and Marvin White are two sidekicks who were created in an era in which many cartoons featured main characters with sidekicks who were supposed to serve viewer identification. In the cartoon, the reason for Wendy and Marvin hanging around with the Super Friends was never really explained. In the comics, some additional information was given. Wendy is the niece of Harvey Harris, a detective who once trained Batman when he was still a teenager. It was postulated in an editorial column that she may have been the Earth-One version of Wendi Harris Tyler, wife of the first Hourman.^[2] Marvin (who was given the last name of White in the comics) was the son of Diana Prince, the nurse whose name Wonder Woman took when she came to Man's World, and her husband Dan White. Thus, Marvin had a sort of familial connection to the Super Friends. The Super Friends were designed to help teach young crimefighters how to be superheroes. While Wendy never wore any special costume, Marvin was always dressed with a cape and a big letter "M" on his chest.

E. Nelson Bridwell, the writer on Super Friends, shed some light on the characters' origins in Super Friends #1 (Nov. 1976):

"Wendy Harris, I decided, was the young lady's full name. She is a niece, not of the Batman, but of a detective named Harvey Harris. This man gave young Bruce Wayne his first crack at real detecting when Bruce was in his teens. Years later, when Harris dies, he left a sealed letter to be delivered to Bruce, revealing that he had indeed known who he was — for Harris was certainly one of the all-time greats in the field.

"Marvin, I decided, is Marvin White — no relation to Perry White. His father is Daniel White, inventor, and his mother is the former Diana Prince."

Neither Marvin nor Wendy had any special abilities. However, once on the cartoon, Marvin was shown "practicing" flying, though not very well. In fact, on the cartoon, although very nice and very bright, Marvin was shown to be somewhat bumbling, often needing to learn the day's moral, such as looking up "photosynthesis" for himself rather than having Robin tell him. In the comics, however, Marvin and Wendy's cleverness and resourcefulness made them invaluable to the other Super Friends. The one notable resource Marvin provided to the Super Friends was his pet dog, Wonder Dog (or just "Wonder" for short), who was preternaturally intelligent, though bumbling as well.

Wendy and Marvin meet the Wonder Twins in the Super Friends comic book.

After two seasons of the Super Friends cartoon, it was cancelled, though re-runs were shown through 1976. When the show returned as The All-New Super Friends Hour in 1977, Wendy and Marvin had been replaced by two other teenagers, Zan and Jayna, the Wonder Twins, along with their pet, the alien monkey Gleek. Marvin and Wendy would not appear on TV again for another 35 years, and they were likewise replaced by the Wonder Twins in the Super Friends comic after "graduating" from the Super Friends as full-fledged superheroes.^[3]

According to the comic book, Marvin went on to study at Ivy University, the fictional university where fellow superhero the Atom worked as a professor. Wendy moved to Paradise Island to attend an Amazon university and continue her training. Wendy and Marvin appeared again in a later issue of the Super Friends comic to aid the Wonder Twins, posing as Zan's and Jayna's human disguises, "John" and "Joanna", to fool a criminal who had deduced the Wonder Twins' and Batman's secret identities.^[4]

In Wonder Woman vol. 2 #186, an unnamed character identical to Wendy appears on Paradise Island as a tutor to Lyta (daughter of Circe).

DC Universe

In 2006, a new version of the Wendy and Marvin characters debuted in the DC Universe. The pair work as "caretakers" of Titans Tower one year after the events of the Infinite Crisis crossover.^[1] The pair (now fraternal twins, surname Harris) seem to be technical geniuses; Wendy mentions in their initial appearance that she and Marvin graduated from MIT on their sixteenth birthday, and in Teen Titans #40, Ravager refers to them as "tenth-level geniuses" (compare to DC characters Brainiac and Brainiac 5, both purported to be twelfth-level intellects). It was established that Marvin is the older twin, by approximately five minutes. This Marvin continues the tradition of his previous incarnations by wearing a shirt with a stylized "M" on the front, but without the attached cape of his animated counterpart. It is revealed that Cyborg was damaged and inactive since his return from space, but Wendy and Marvin repaired him and gave him new capabilities.

Wendy and Marvin meet a stray dog that Miss Martian names Wonder Dog. In reality, Wonder Dog is some sort of demonic monster in the service of a new villain called King Lycus, who appeared at the end of the issue after the beast has killed Marvin and severely mauled Wendy.^[5] While comatose, Wendy is visited in this state by her father, Noah Kuttler (a.k.a. the Calculator), who swears revenge on the Titans for allowing this to happen to his children.^[6]

Marvin's soul is later summoned by Kid Eternity, the Titans' newest recruit, to provide him with information on what being part of the Titans means. Marvin warns Eternity against association with the team, citing the many deaths they have suffered.^[7] Later, Eternity is captured by the Calculator and forced to summon Marvin repeatedly.^[8]

In Oracle: The Cure #3, Wendy recovers from her coma while being visited by her father who was trying to use alien technology to help her. However, she is unable to feel or move her legs. The similarly disabled heroine Oracle promises to help her while aiding in the Calculator's arrest. In the new Batgirl series, it is revealed that Oracle (along with Leslie Thompkins) has been helping Wendy adjust to her new life with paraplegia. After taking Wendy under her wing, Barbara eventually reveals to Wendy her alter-ego. Wendy's first mission as an associate of the Oracle is to help Stephanie Brown, the new Batgirl, defeat her father the Cluemaster and save Barbara from him. Afterward, she takes on the codename of "Proxy", acting as a junior version of Oracle.^[9]

Other versions

An animated-style image of Marvin appears next to Lobo on the facade of the Planet Krypton restaurant in the alternate worlds story Kingdom Come #1, directly contrasting Marvin's more innocent era with Lobo's darker and bloodier one. In Kingdom Come #2, an older and out-of-shape Marvin, clad in a leather jacket and other Lobo-like accoutrements, is drinking an "HB" brand of beer in a bar when Superman enters to recruit heroes for his new cause. Although one of the few people in the bar who actually knows Superman, Marvin rejects him by saying "Whatever you're sellin'..." before getting punched in the face by Atom Smasher.

In other media

Television

• While neither Wendy nor Marvin appeared in Justice League Unlimited, Wonder Dog made a cameo appearance in the episode "Ultimatum" as the "beast that threw itself against the bars", according to series writer/producer Dwayne McDuffie.
• Beginning in Young Justice episode ten "Targets", Wendy (voiced by Masasa Moyo) and Marvin (voiced by Nolan North) are students at Happy Harbor High alongside heroes Megan Morse and Conner Kent (who in Season 2, she develops a crush on) with other DC heroes: Karen Beecher, and Mal Duncan. They first appear in "Targets", where Marvin bumps into Conner Kent on his first day of school. They eventually becomes friends with Megan Morse and Conner. Wendy is shown to be a cheerleader and bonds with Megan, due to both of them being new to school and invites her to become a cheerleader. Marvin is shown to be a lazy slacker. In "Failsafe," during the "alien invasion", Marvin and Wendy, along with the rest of the school faculty and students, hiding in the school's underground bunker and watch the Team's inspirational speech on TV. In "Secrets", Marvin and Wendy attend the school Halloween dance, where Wendy goes as Black Canary and Marvin goes as Batman. Marvin planned a Halloween prank by making sure everyone got a text message about a Martian invasion. During the school Halloween party, Marvin cut the power to the gymnasium and speaks over the PA system behind the bleachers, pretending to be a Homeland Security agent, urging them to stay inside. Conner though saw through his plan and he, along with Megan and Wally West, expose him by pretending there actually is a Martian invasion, scaring Marvin so much that he storms into the gym and confesses to his prank. In "Misplaced", Wendy and Marvin gather in the high school gym along with the rest of the students and watch the Team's inspirational speech on TV. In "Satisfaction", Wendy, now an adult, sits down with Conner to wish him a happy birthday, where she comments on how his appearance hasn't changed, both biologically and his S-shield shirt. She then reminds Conner of the surprise parties Megan used to throw for him, which she claims he only pretended to hate, but he actually liked them because Megan enjoyed throwing them. She then asks if there's a party, but Conner tells her that she's the only one that remembered. During the episode, it's mentioned that she and Marvin are attending Ivy University along with Karen, Megan, and Conner.
• Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog appear in the episode "Be Kind, Rewind" of the Adult Swim series The New Adventures of the Wonder Twins. In that episode, they are seen in a video store that the Wonder Twins are hanging out in. Wendy and Wonder Dog's appearance is quite brief, but Marvin has a fairly significant role in the episode. Apparently he put on a little weight since the Super Friends series, and grew a beard. Marvin tells the Wonder Twins that he has no hard feelings about them getting him fired from the Super Friends, because now he and his band are signed to a major label.

• Elements of Wendy Harris are integrated into Felicity Smoak in the live action series Arrow. Notably, in season four, Felicity is shown to be Calculator's daughter, becomes paralysed and wheelchair-bound, and adopts a superhero code name for herself as superhero information broker, Overwatch.

• Wendy and Marvin were set to appear in Powerless, portrayed by Kate Micucci and Josh Fadem as main characters, but the series was canceled after one season.

Film

• Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog appear in a cameo in JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time, where they are seen by Karate Kid and Dawnstar.

References