Post by dbutler69 on Mar 18, 2021 13:47:02 GMT -5
In order to overcome the embarrassing lack of diversity in comics, the Super Friends cartoon added some “Affirmative Action” (not my term-I came across that in Wikipedia) superheroes to the cast.
These characters had never appeared in the comics and were created solely for the cartoon, though I think some of them have appeared (or rather, analogs of them, probably due to rights issues) in the comics briefly in later years. Anyway, since I’m talking about the cartoon only Super Friends here, I’ve not included Rima the Jungle Girl, who Wikipedia also lists as an “Affirmative Action” Super Friend. Her appearances are pretty minimal, anyway (only 3, compared with 9 to 30 for these others).
I enjoyed these characters even though, yeah, they’re pretty stereotypical, and they probably could have closed the gender gap a bit more. But hey, more superheroes is better as far as I'm concerned, and I think their hearts were in the right place.
Anyway, here are the contenders:
Samurai was a Japanese superhero. The power he used most often was his wind manipulation power, as his lower half became tornado-like, and he resembled Red Tornado. He could also turn invisible, burst into flames, and cast illusion though, to be honest, I mostly just remember his tornado powers and invisibility.
Black Vulcan is, as his name suggests, black. Probably African-American. Anyway, he shoots lightning from his hands, controls electricity, and can fly, presumably at lightning speed. He can also turn his body into lightning, and project a force field with his lightning bolts.
El Dorado is Latino (presumably of Mexican descent). He has telepathic abilities, can cast illusions, can teleport, shoot eye lasers, and increase his size and mass.
Apache Chief is a Native American. Apache, I would assume. He can grow up to 50 feet tall. He also apparently has some sort of “Sixth sense” plus is an expert tracker and at home surviving in the wilderness.
My vote is for El Dorado. He’s pretty much the only Super Friend (and I’m talking about ALL Super Friends, not just these cartoon only characters) who actually had a personality. He had wit, a sense of humor (he actually told some funny jokes!) and charm. In addition to that, he had interesting super powers. I’d probably rate Black Vulcan ahead of him in terms of character design, but in terms of which character I liked seeing the most in an episode of Super Friends, I have to go with El Dorado.
These characters had never appeared in the comics and were created solely for the cartoon, though I think some of them have appeared (or rather, analogs of them, probably due to rights issues) in the comics briefly in later years. Anyway, since I’m talking about the cartoon only Super Friends here, I’ve not included Rima the Jungle Girl, who Wikipedia also lists as an “Affirmative Action” Super Friend. Her appearances are pretty minimal, anyway (only 3, compared with 9 to 30 for these others).
I enjoyed these characters even though, yeah, they’re pretty stereotypical, and they probably could have closed the gender gap a bit more. But hey, more superheroes is better as far as I'm concerned, and I think their hearts were in the right place.
Anyway, here are the contenders:
Samurai was a Japanese superhero. The power he used most often was his wind manipulation power, as his lower half became tornado-like, and he resembled Red Tornado. He could also turn invisible, burst into flames, and cast illusion though, to be honest, I mostly just remember his tornado powers and invisibility.
Black Vulcan is, as his name suggests, black. Probably African-American. Anyway, he shoots lightning from his hands, controls electricity, and can fly, presumably at lightning speed. He can also turn his body into lightning, and project a force field with his lightning bolts.
El Dorado is Latino (presumably of Mexican descent). He has telepathic abilities, can cast illusions, can teleport, shoot eye lasers, and increase his size and mass.
Apache Chief is a Native American. Apache, I would assume. He can grow up to 50 feet tall. He also apparently has some sort of “Sixth sense” plus is an expert tracker and at home surviving in the wilderness.
My vote is for El Dorado. He’s pretty much the only Super Friend (and I’m talking about ALL Super Friends, not just these cartoon only characters) who actually had a personality. He had wit, a sense of humor (he actually told some funny jokes!) and charm. In addition to that, he had interesting super powers. I’d probably rate Black Vulcan ahead of him in terms of character design, but in terms of which character I liked seeing the most in an episode of Super Friends, I have to go with El Dorado.
