Five Superheroes Created Just For “Superfriends”

I’ve talked before about Superfriends. And how I loved it as a kid. And think it’s kind of silly today. But one of the ore interesting things that this show did was with the characters. Despite having a wide array of DC characters to pick from, the show introduced their own new creations to fight alongside the recognizable heroes. They weren’t given any origins or anything, they were just there. And for the most part only appeared in the cartoon!

 

These characters were probably meant to replace more familiar faces, and no doubt also to add a bit if diversity to the group since they are all of different ethnic background. Problem is this was before political correctness, so these characters could almost be considered stereotypical today. So for those who have never heard if them, here are five characters totally created by, and for, Superfriends.



Apache Chief

This one was the coolest, even if he was also a bit of a stereotype of Native Americans. But he probably got the most screen time and was possibly the most memorable. He had the powers to grow to unlimited sizes. Plus he had a “sixth sense” which gave him a sort of enhanced perception. He even got an origin in one episode which is pretty impressive. He was also the only one who had a nemesis, Giganta who was a female who could also grow to ridiculous sizes.

Rima The Jungle Girl

Nice to see another girl here, as you can tell The Superfriends was sort of male only club. The one exception being Wonder Woman of course. And I can’t lie here, I don’t remember ever seeing her on a cartoon. I’m sure I did bit she apparently did not leave much of an impact on me. This character has a long history outside Superfriends, going back to a 1904 W.H. Hudson novel. I do kind of recognize the picture, but the episodes she was in I do not recall.







El Dorado

This was an Hispanic superhero who was real boring. Not only the character, but his powers too. Want to know what they were? He wrapped his cape around his body and teleported to other locations. Yay. He did have mental powers which were vague and undefined. Pretty much all of these characters had powers that fit the episode they were appearing in.







Samurai

Samurai was a, well, samurai. Actually, this is the one which I never ciuld remember his name, probably because it was so nonspecific. He was clearly a Red Tornado stand in since he had the same powers. He can manipulate wind,, fly by creating a small tornado around his torso, and cause powerful gusts from his hands. Remember, punching was bad in those days!







Black Vulcan


This was easily the coolest one. He fit into the group probably the best. Though why they used a stand in I’ll never get since Black Lightning was a thing and had almost the same powers (actually I looked it up and there was a reason Black Lightning was not on the show). Black Vulcan can emit electricity from his hands, and fly by assuming the form of pure energy.







and of course

Yeah how could I not mention The Wondertwins? As we know every cartoon in those days needed young chatterers for kids to relate to. I know when I was a kid I didn’t care about Superman fighting a villain, I wanted to see the hi jinks the Wondertwins got into. To be fair they were decent characters and unlike the others I listed are still pretty fondly remembered.  They had need powers, by touching Zan was anything water based and Jayna was any kind of animal she wanted to become. And of course there was the space monkey, Gleek, because we need a silly mascot who does nothing but cause trouble. And they were better than Wendy and Marvin from the first season, who were just ordinary kids who did absolutely nothing, with that stupid stupid dog. That first season was terrible.

Most of these characters have been confined to background cameos or parodies since Superfriends finally wrapped. In fact the last incarnation of the show didn’t have any of them at all. And while these characters could be a tad stereotypical, you gotta admire the creators who realized that the show needed a little more diversity in it. That was a rare back in those days! I still say one or two more women would have been nice.