Suspiciously similar to, yet not the same as, The Defenders.
Defenders of the Earth was a 1986 animated television show, jointly produced by Marvel Productions and King Features Syndicate. Set in the year 2015, it starred characters from three classic King Features series — Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, and Mandrake's long-time friend Lothar — as they battled the evil machinations of Flash's alien Arch-Enemy, Ming the Merciless.Supporting characters included Rick Gordon (son of Flash), Jedda Walker (daughter of the Phantom), Kshin (adopted son of Mandrake), and L.J. (son of Lothar). The show ran for a single syndicated season of 65 episodes, and had a brief four-issue comic-book series published by Marvel Comics under their "Star Comics" imprint.The theme song's lyrics were written by Stan Lee. That is awesome.
Ambiguously Gay: Mandrake and Lothar had apparently been living in the same mansion for some time with Lothar's son (whose mother is never shown or mentioned) and Mandrake's adopted son.
By the Power of Grayskull!: The Phantom would activate his super-strength by chanting "By jungle law, the Ghost Who Walks calls forth the power of ten tigers." His transformation sequence would then show tiger heads passing into his body (the number varied but was usually less than ten), this raised the question whether or not this Phantom was a mutant who suppressed his ability through mental prowess.
Clear My Name: Ming framed the heroes in one episode and they had to expose the hoax.
Convection Schmonvection: The team works in a volcano. Jedda even states that the heat in some places pleasantly reminds her of Africa. What is this girl made of?
Credits Gag: The credits state in parentheses that this Phantom is the 27th Phantom.
Dead Hat Shot: In "The Ghost Walks Again", where the Phantom falls into a river after being shot. On finding his belt floating in the water, Jedda immediately fears the worst and, when the Phantom is subsequently declared dead (even though his body has not been found) has to decide if she is ready to take over his duties. However, the Phantom has, in fact, survived and is reunited with his daughter by the episode's conclusion.
Deal with the Devil: Ming was fond of making deals with other powerful beings.
Dude Magnet: Every other teenage male character got a crush on Jedda at one moment or another, including Ming's own son. Most of the Ship Tease was Rick/Jedda.
Expendable Clone: Ming creates 4 clones of Flash with different aspects of his personality in one episode. They're all killed at episode's end.
Family Unfriendly Death: A few villains wound up receiving some surprisingly violent death scenes.
Ming the Merciless is killed off in the beginning of a 5-part arc (he got better) and his death scene sees him get vaporized into ash.
Another villain, Doctor Dark, seems to suffer a Disney Villain Death by falling, but the end of the episode reveals he's still alive and in the fall caused him to lose an eye and get half his face horribly disfigured; when he returns in a later episode he's Killed Off for Real after dissolving into a skeleton.
Gadgeteer Genius: Rick Gordon. Being raised in space among various advanced alien civilizations helps.
Genius Bruiser: Lothar is superhumanly strong and portrayed as a mechanical genius and tactician.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: In one episode, Flash is captured and has facets of his personality transplanted into four clones. The romantic one flirts with everything that moves, including Flash himself.
Legacy Character: Rick Gordon, Jedda Walker and Lothar Jr. "With our new young heroes, proving their worth/Four become eight, defending the Earth". (Eight, because Stan counted Kshin.)
Also, Kro-Tan, Ming's son.
The Phantom is one one of the oldest legacy characters there is.
Limited Wardrobe: Except for Jedda (as mentioned below) because the animators could never quite decide what she wore (or even looked like).
Machine Monotone: Ming has a mechanical reverb to his voice; curiously, his son doesn't.
Massive Multiplayer Crossover: It brought together all of King Features' most famous adventure-hero characters: Flash Gordon, The Phantom, and Mandrake The Magician (along with his sidekick, the strongman Lothar).
Off Model: Jedda's design was nowhere near consistent for several episodes. She would change outfits, hairstyles, hair colors, and even skintones from episode to episode. Sometimes you had no idea who the hell she was supposed to be until someone said her name.
In the episode "The Root of Evil", practically everyone is off-model.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Arguably applies — what common grounds are there for a rocket-flying adventurer, a secretive jungle guardian, and an Eastern-trained illusionist to team up and work together?
They Don't Make Them Like They Used To: Ming the Merciless once created robot duplicates of the heroes to frame them. When one of the heroes noticed an arm falling off his robot double, he commented they don't make him like they used to.
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