Publication History
The duo made their debut in The All-New Super Friends Hour and went on to appear in The World's Greatest Super Friends, Super Friends, and Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show. Zan (voiced by Michael Bell) and Jayna (voiced by Louise Williams) are siblings from the planet Exxor (also spelled Exor) who were being informally trained by the superheroes. Unlike their predecessors, Wendy Harris and Marvin White, this pair was able to participate in combat with abilities of their own.
Hanna Barbera animator Darrell McNeil recalls the twins were created by Norman Maurer, the Super Friends series developer/story editor. They were originally called Dick, Jane, and their sidekick was Mighty Monkey, before finally becoming Zan, Jayna, and Gleek. The names "Zan" and "Jayna" are derived from Tarzan and his love-interest Jane. According to McNeil, "Originally Zan (Dick) had 'Plastic Man' powers and Jayna (Jane) could transform into anything, not just animals, but they were scaled back to their present powers as it made the other Super Friends (even Superman) seem almost superfluous."
However, by the final seasons, the Twins were largely marginalized in favor of well established DC Comics teenage superheroes like Firestorm, until they were wholly eliminated in the final season in favor of Cyborg.
The characters were later introduced in the Super Friends comic.
In the 1990s, they were introduced into the main DC Universe in the series Extreme Justice. The series rewrote and updated their origin story.
Read more about this topic: Wondertwins
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