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Voodoo Vampire was the first episode of series 5's fifth 'episode-hour'.
Synopsis[]
Vampiress, the Voodoo Vampire of Africa, awakens and leaves her tomb to gather new vampire slaves to join her. After Vampiress encounters a safari group and makes them her vampire slaves, the Superfriends travel to Africa to try and stop her. Will they succeed or will they too become slaves to the Voodoo Vampire?
Plot Summary[]
The episode begins with Vampiress, the Voodoo Vampire, leaving her tomb in the swamps to make new slaves to join her in the tomb. She encounters a safari group and she proceeds to make all but the African guide her vampire slaves by hitting them with beams from the diamonds of her fangs. The guide is able to get a distress call to Batman and Robin who are patrolling over Africa, but he is turned into a vampire on the call. Batman and Robin go to the site of attack to find the guide now a vampire who attempts to make them vampires. In the midst of struggling with the vampire guide (who bites Batman in his bat form) and a snake (who entangles Robin) Black Vuclan arrives to drive off the animal attacks. The trio of superheroes go deeper in the jungle and encounter Vampiress and her safari vampire slaves; during the fight with the vampires, Batman and Robin are turned into vampire and Black Vulcan flees after being outnumbered. Batman, Robin and Vampiress head to the Hall of Justice and summon the other Superfriends. Aquaman and Superman arrive to the Hall, fight with Vampire Batman and Robin, and manage to get the pair into a holding cell only to be hit by Vampiress' beams and become her vampire slaves. Wonder Woman arrives at the Hall and is almost at the door when Black Vulcan swoops her away, saving her from becoming a vampire slave. The two superheroes follow Vampiress and the other Superhero slaves back to her tomb and fight with all the vampires. Wonder Woman holds their beams off with her bracelets while Black Vulcan heads into the atmosphere to brighten the light off the moon which drives Vampiress into her tomb and frees the Superheroes and the safari group from her control.
Continuity[]
The process of turning people into vampires via beams is later reused in the episode Attack of the Vampire. Whereas the beams come from the Vampiress and her slaves' fangs, in Attack of the Vampire they come out of the vampires' eyes. In both this episode and Attack of the Vampire, Superman is turned into a vampire along with other superheroes.
As to the vampire slaves being "mindless," in Voodoo Vampire, we see Batman speaking and coming up with a plan to make the other and Robin listening and smiling. This dispels the idea of Vampiress' slaves as mindless; they are able to operate on their own. Even when we see Aquaman and Superman as vampire slaves, Aquaman gets into the Batjet along with Vampiress to head back to Africa while Superman uses his power of flight. So there are clear markers that show the slaves have some degree of consiciousness. But even among the safari group we see this consciousness/awareness. The African guide when he is turned into Vampiress' slave has an expression of pleasure on his face not one of fear. A "mindless" vampire slave should have no expression.
Vampire Superman in Attack of the Vampire (much like his Voodoo Vampire counterpart) uses his power of flight along with his heat vision; these acts dispel the notion of Dracula's slave as mindless because a truly "mindless" slave would not be conscious of their innate abilities and apply them to the situation at hand. A "mindless" vampire Superman would just turn the Wonder Twins into vampire slaves and leave the other vampires trapped in the ice behind and continue the mission with the newly vampirized Wonder Twins. Instead, we see Superman first deal with the Wonder Twins and make them vampires; then (and most inportantly) he turns to the vampire horde that he was leading and frees them to continue spreading Dracula's control.
So rather than seeing the vampire slaves in both episodes as "mindless" it might be better to see them as "obediently compelled;" as slaves of Dracula and Vampiress they are obeying their masters. In Voodoo Vampire the compulsion that comes with being a vampire slave doesn't override the ability to speak whereas in Attack of the Vampire it does.
Cast[]
| V o i c e A c t o r | R o l e |
| Danny Dark | Superman |
| Olan Soule | Batman |
| Casey Kasem | Robin |
| Shannon Farnon | Wonder Woman |
| Buster Jones | Black Vulcan |
| William Woodson | Narrator |
| G u e s t C a s t | |
| Vernee Watson-Johnson | Voodoo Vampire |
Episode Title[]
Coming Soon!
Notes[]
- Another episode where Black Vulcan says "Great Lightning!"
- References: bat; clipboard; disintegrated; distress call; fangs; lightning; safari; shooting; snake; squeeze play; vampires; voodoo;
Episodes Airing on the Same Date[]
External links[]
Coming Soon!
References[]
| Previous Episode: The Incredible Crude Oil Monster |
Next Episode: Invasion of the Gleeks |
| 1980 Shorts (part 1) | |