For decades, heroes like Batman, the Avengers, and Spider-Man have made the leap from the still illustrated panels of comics onto the living screen in spectacular fashion, adapting years of comic book canon into blockbuster films and shows. While pop-culture's most famous on-screen superheroes have been adapted from roots in the realm of printed comics, just as many have been born out of hand-drawn and CGI animation. From cheeky parodies to full-fledged action stars, the feats and personalities of animation-born heroes are able to demonstrate the strengths of the medium and the superhero genre in unique ways.
Here are thirteen of the best superheroes to make their debut in animated series, cartoons and films.
Radioactive Man
The favorite nuclear hero of Bart Simpson (Nancy Cartwright), The Simpsons’ Radioactive Man is a means to a comedic end. A send-up to heroes like Superman and The Incredible Hulk, Radioactive Man’s presence on the long-running series has almost exclusively served as the basis for satire of the superhero genre and its capitalization. From comic books, a TV series, merchandise and a canceled motion picture adaptation, many Simpsons episodes that riff on Hollywood, fandom and nerd culture involve Radioactive Man as an inescapable tent pole in the pop culture With cheesy puns and faithful sidekick whose name would later inspire a rock band, Radioactive Man is the fictional hero that Springfield’s youth deserves.
Powdered Toast Man
Much like Radioactive Man, The Ren and Stimpy Show’s Powdered Toast Man parodies the old-fashioned rousing heroism of comic books’ silver age icons. With tight muscular spandex and a voice provided by Hanna-Barbera's Birdman and Space Ghost himself Gary Owens, Powdered Toast Man is a boisterous defender of all that is just and sugary. What makes him standout among other superhero parodies of his era is that his whole identity and the adventures he embarks upon are just as off-kilter and bizarre as those of Ren and Stimpy. From saving the president’s groin from a stuck fly zipper to rescuing the pope and having him clasp onto his rear end, Powdered Toast Man is the protector of the crude, weird and is part of a nutritious breakfast.
Quailman
To a kid like Doug Funnie (Billy West), superheroes are not only a source of inspiration, but also wish-fulfillment. Jumbo Production’s Doug, which aired on both Nickelodeon and Disney’s One Saturday Morning, starred the titular middle schooler as he navigated the trials of early adolescence, all the while imagining his mundane problems as grand scenarios. Commonly, when having to face bullies or dreaming about his crush Patti Mayonnaise (Constance Shulman), Doug would imagine himself as the all-powerful Quailman. With his underwear over his shorts and a belt on his head, Doug’s alter ego would use “the powers of the quail” to stupefy villains, save the day and most importantly, boost his own confidence.
American Dragon: Jake Long
Played by Dante Basco the same year he was introduced as Avatar: The Last Airbender’s banished prince of the Fire Nation, Jake Long is the urban magical guardian of New York City in Disney Channel’s American Dragon: Jake Long. Borrowing similar dynamics and dilemmas from Marvel’s Spider-Man, Jake Long struggles to balance his responsibilities as the fanged protector of the mystical underground with his romantic relationships and keeping his identity secret from the rest of the world. Unlike Spider-Man, Jake's family lineage long destined him to assume the role as the American Dragon and the series follows the young teen as he rises to the occasion his family and the magical world needs him to be. The most enthralling element of Jake’s hero journey is whether or not he is able to save the person he loves the most, ironically played by Avatar’s own Mae Whitman, from her own destiny and how it affects their relationship.
XJ9 (Jenny Wakeman)
Nickelodeon’s My Life as a Teenage Robot is just as much a story about fitting in as it is about robo-charged heroics. XJ9, or Jenny as she’d prefer to be called, played by Janice Kawaye, is a teenager dealing with the usual high school pressures of dating, being popular and puberty, but with the added obstacle of being a robot wanting to blend in among humans. On top of being a global protector, Jenny’s foremost mission is to make friends and live like a normal girl. While she has no secret identity or clandestine sense of responsibility as she can handle being a hero with ease, her greatest challenge is, ironically, the human element. While she can do tremendous feats of strength and stop villains on a regular basis, her ambitions truly lie in being able to relate to her human friends and understand what it means to be “normal”.
Monkey
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Dexter’s Laboratory had a slew of super powered characters and parodies. Between cameos from Hanna-Barbera's Blue Falcon and Dyno-Mutt to the star-spangled Major Glory (Rob Paulsen), the world of the pint-sized boy genius was one that welcomed mighty champions, but the mightiest and most revered of all the Earth’s heroes was one unknowingly created within the titular lab. Under the guise of a mere lab test monkey, Monkey, brought to animalistic life by Frank Welker, stars in the micro-series within the series, Dial M for Monkey. Teamed with the lovely Agent Honeydew (Kath Soucie), Monkey faces interstellar monsters and galactic bounty hunters on a regular basis, beating them with his pure atomic strength and noble compassion.
Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy
SpongeBob SquarePants’ semi-retired wrinkled crusaders, Mermaid Man (Ernest Borgnine) and his young associate Barnacle Boy (Tim Conway) are Bikini Bottom’s resident aged heroes and defenders of the deep. A fusion of the dynamic duo of the 60’s Adam West Batman show and DC’s Aquaman, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are the submariner seniors who once protected the briny deep from villains like the Atomic Flounder and Jumbo Shrimp, but now prefer to spend their days eating meatloaf, watching TV and capitalizing on their bygone superhero fame. With superfan SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) always quick to pester them, the one-time oceanic avengers now join the floods of seafloor denizens annoyed by SquarePants’ over enthusiastic presence.
The Crimson Chin
Bitten by a radioactive handsome actor, a charismatic talk show host is transformed into the muscular mandible of the Crimson Chin, voiced by Jay Leno. A comic book hero brought into the real world by a magic wish for Timmy Turner (Tara Strong), the Crimson Chin provided many of the meta-superhero humor and plots in Nickelodeon’s The Fairly OddParents. After his debut episode saw him struggle with the mind-shattering realization of only being a fictional character, the Chin becomes charmingly self-aware as he begins to question the writing quality of his comic and the fabric of his own reality, while also facing anatomical antagonists such as the Titanium Toenail and the Bronze Kneecap.
Freakazoid
Initially conceived as a manically dark crusader by Batman: The Animated Series producer Bruce Timm, Steven Spielberg’s Freakazoid leaned more towards a comedic tone in the spirit of the Warner Brothers’ neo-Looney Tunes precedent set by shows like Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain. Freakazoid himself, played by Paul Rugg, embodies the hyper-charged possibilities of the early internet with not only superhuman strength and speed, but also a 4th-wall-breaking sense of insanity that would make DeadPool look tame. Freakazoid, both the character and his series, were well ahead of their time and are the kind of superhero lunacy ripe for the modern digital era.
The Incredibles
The first family of Pixar, The Incredibles are just as strong a family unit as they are a superhero team. Over the course of both Brad Bird-directed features, the Parrs exhibit abilities and relationships that elevate the super-family premise seen in Marvel’s Fantastic Four, right down to a lot of the same powers. The Incredibles are a family first and each of their powers is reflective of their role in the family dynamic; the hyperactive son with super speed, the teenage wallflower daughter with invisibility, the flexibly elastic mother, the strong father and the youngest baby full of possibilities. The Incredibles prove that even a family of supers must learn to overcome dysfunction amongst each other in order be stronger together.
Danny Phantom
Cut from the same cloth as Jake Long and Marvel’s Spider-Man, Danny Phantom was Nickelodeon’s teenaged spectral superhero. Gifted with ghostly powers from a laboratory accident, Danny Fenton (David Kaufman) moonlights as the keeper of the peace between the hauntings of the ghost zone and the human world, all the while coming of age as a young man, balancing his responsibilities to his powers and his friends. Along with a gambit of abilities and ghost hunting gadgets, Danny’s greatest weapon is his wit, always trying to get the last word when facing an otherworldly ghoul by taunting them with puns and jokes fitting of cheesy comic book plot.
The PowerPuff Girls
Sugar, spice, everything nice and an accidental dose of Chemical X. This recipe resulted in the makings of one of Cartoon Networks most endearing hits and the most iconic cartoon heroines of all time. The chibi-eyed, Margaret Keane inspired PowerPuff Girls were originally created by Craig McCracken as The WhoopAss Girls. Townsville’s turbo-powered trinity, the exploits of Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup (voiced by Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong and E.G. Daily) are the perfectly ironic blend of adorable childlike innocence and stylized hyper-violence as they dedicate their lives to fighting crime and beating giant monsters to a bloody pulp.
Buzz Lightyear
The hero behind the toy. Pixar’s original Toy Story built itself on the wonder of toys coming to life and the dilemma of what would happen if a child’s plaything believed himself to be the real thing. In the Toy Story films, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and his screen presence heavily alluded to an entire history and backstory of intergalactic super heroics as a Space Ranger who fights to infinity and beyond against the evil Emperor Zurg, only to be dismissed as delusions of grandeur. With Buzz’s popularity as a toy in the films skyrocketed, the 2000 animated series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and the upcoming 2022 theatrical film Lightyear each sought to literally flesh out the battery-powered wannabe space cop into a true blooded astronaut. In both the series and the film, Buzz is a skilled pilot, a born leader and dedicated soldier to the Galactic Alliance. As a character, Buzz’s true nature shines through in his bravery and loyalty to his friends, whether he is a toy or not.