By 1961, the mainstream view of Native Americans was shifting from the villainous savages of the old westerns to the victimized peoples they actually had been. DC Comics’ Super-Chief had a moccasin-clad foot in both camps.
Debuting in All Star Western 117 (March 1961), Super-Chief was secretly Flying Stag, a pre-Columbian Indian who prayed for peace to the Manitou and, apparently in answer, received a meteorite that, when fashioned into an amulet, gave him super powers.
“Wearing the amulet gave the newly superhero-ized man the strength of 1,000 bears, the speed of 1,000 deer and the leaping ability of 1,000 wolves — but only for one hour out of each 24,” noted comics historian Don Markstein. “Manitou gave him to understand that he’d have the power only as long as he kept his identity a secret; so he concealed it by wearing a hood made from the head of a black buffalo.”
“Like a proper superhero, Super-Chief came equipped with a girlfriend (tribal maiden White Fawn) and a sidekick (her younger brother, Lightfoot). Of course, neither had any idea who he was.”
Ancient Indians, alien invaders and astounding feats all delivered in the same sleek, sunlit Carmine Infantino art that was also giving us the Flash, Adam Strange and Strange Adventures at that time. Gardner Fox penned the tales.
“Super-Chief’s powers are unusual in that they are given to him directly by God,” observed comics historian Michael E. Grost. “This is atypical, not just in the Silver Age, but in all of comic book history. Super-Chief obtains them after praying to the Great Spirit, also known as Great Manitou. Both are Native American names for God. Fox handles this reverently and in good taste. There are several other references to Manitou throughout the series.
“There are formal similarities to the origins of other superheroes. For example, the Silver Age Green Lantern is given his powers by the Guardians of the Universe. These are noble, wise agents of the good. They charge Green Lantern with his mission, just as the Great Spirit does with Super-Chief. Green Lantern hears the Guardians’ voices through his lantern; Super-Chief hears the Great Spirit’s voice in his visions.”
“Super-Chief’s powers derive immediately from a meteor that comes to Earth, a meteor arranged by the Great Spirit. He bathes in its radiation overnight, just as Fox’s earlier hero the Golden Age Flash was exposed to heavy water while lying unconscious for many hours after a chemical lab accident. This means that Super-Chief’s powers are rooted in science, like those of other Silver Age heroes of the Schwartz magazines. The powers are not based in fantasy, or the supernatural, two things that were almost never present in the Schwartz books. Super-Chief’s origin thus encompasses both religion and science.
“Super-Chief’s meteor reminds one of the white dwarf fragment that falls to Earth, and which gives the Atom his super-powers, in Fox’s Birth of the Atom (Showcase 34, Sept.-Oct. 1961).”
Comics historian Steven Thompson remarked, “I recall thinking him the weirdest-looking hero ever! I stand by that when I see this one in which our Native American protagonist meets up with aliens!”
Super-Chief always reminds me of Mighty Mightor, Hanna-Barbera’s super-caveman hero whose animated adventures that ran on CBS from 1967 to 1969. Granted the power of flight and superhuman strength by his magical club, Mighty Mightor, like Super-Chief, was one of those heroes who had to strain to find a reason to have a secret identity.
His name was a pun, by the way. The Super-Chief was a famous passenger train, the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, called the Train of the Stars because of the celebrated actors it carried between Chicago and Los Angeles. Just about every kid in 1961 would have known that, given the fact that we loved trains almost as much as we loved superheroes.
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