| Apache Chief | |
|---|---|
| Super FriendsandHarvey Birdman character | |
 Apache Chief as he appeared inHanna-Barbera'sSuper Friends animated series in the 1970s and '80s. | |
| First appearance | "The Antidote" (The All-New Super Friends Hour; 1977) |
| Last appearance | "The Death of Harvey" (Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law; 2007) |
| Created by | Hanna-Barbera |
| Voiced by | |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Metahuman |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Superhero |
| Affiliation | Super Friends Justice League Multi-Culture Pals |
| Significantother | Sybil Scussler (girlfriend) |
| Partnerships | |
| Abilities |
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Apache Chief is aNative Americansuperhero from the variousHanna-BarberaSuper Friends andHarvey Birdman, Attorney at Law cartoons and the DC comic book series of the same name. He was one of the new heroes added (along withBlack Vulcan,El Dorado andSamurai) to increase the number of non-white characters in the Super Friends' ranks. The visual look of the character was created by cartoonistAlex Toth, who designed many superheroes for Hanna-Barbera beginning in the 1960s. He was voiced byMichael Rye in most of hisSuper Friends appearances,Regis Cordic in his debut appearance, Al Fann in "History of Doom", andMaurice LaMarche inHarvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
In theChallenge of the Superfriends series, Apache Chief was seen in every episode except one, but had spoken lines in only ten out of the sixteen episodes of the series. His arch-enemy from theLegion of Doom wasGiganta, who was originally an enemy ofWonder Woman.
Apache Chief first appears inThe All-New Super Friends Hour, voiced initially byRegis Cordic and later byMichael Rye, who reprises the role inChallenge of the Superfriends. Apache Chief's origin, shown as a recording in the episode "History of Doom", was thus: while still a young brave, he went for a walk with a Native American Elder, who was also his mentor. The two men are quickly attacked by agrizzly bear, but the Elder, recognizing that the young brave might be ready for a test such as this, gives the younger man a pouch of a special magic powder which will amplify the user's thoughts and abilities a hundredfold. The young man resolves to be strong and brave (heeding the Elder's advice that whatever is in his mind at the time will be amplified by the powder), and upon sprinkling himself with the powder and invoking the magic phrase grows to fifty feet in size, becoming stronger and braver. He disposes of the bear without violence, proving that he has passed the test. However, a girl horseback riding witnesses the entire affair, hoping to use the powder to become big and famous, and uses her lasso to steal the pouch. Despite the Elder telling her that her thoughts were evil, she uses the magic powder on herself and becomes the evilGiganta, proclaiming: "The Medicine Man was right, Apache Chief! Your fifty feet of good are now matched by my fifty feet of evil!".
Apache Chief returns inHarvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, voiced byMaurice LaMarche. Having taken on various odd jobs in addition to his superheroics after being fired from the Super Friends, he develops a fear of coffee and other such hot liquids after being doused in the lap with one such cup in his debut episode "Very Personal Injury" had temporarily lead to him losing his ability to physically change in size, at the end of the episode forming the "Multi-Culture Pals" withBlack Vulcan andJesse Jackson after regaining his powers thanks to the physical appearance ofSybil Scussler, whom he goes on to date. In theseries finale,"The Death of Harvey", Apache Chief is once again doused again with coffee and burned shortly after his case is retried.
By speaking the words "inuk chuk", which are the Western Apache words meaning "man big", Apache Chief could grow to unlimited sizes. In the episode "Colossus", Apache Chief grows to many times the size of the Earth, making himself able to battle the Colossus, a titanic space creature that plucked Earth from its orbit and placed it in a small (relative to him) glass bottle. Originally his tribal powers limited his growth to only 50 feet tall, but in one episode, "Man in the Moon", he used theAtom's knowledge of atomic size and was able to increase his growing to unlimited size. He was then able to grow to 1/5 the size of the earth, with one foot the size of the entire eastern United States and defeated the creature, sending it back inside the moon.
He also spoke instereotypical "Native American English" and recited vaguely Native Americanphilosophy. In the 1978 episodes "Revenge on Gorilla City" and "The Time Trap", and the 1984 short episode entitled "The Village of Lost Souls", Apache Chief also has exceptional tracking ability.
In the comics, a somewhat similar character calledManitou Raven was created, as an homage to him,[1] and joined thecanonicalJLA. Both Manitou Raven and his widow,Manitou Dawn, have been shown to use "inuk chuk" when casting spells or invoking powers.
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| Original characters | |
| Related | |
Birdman | |
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