Pets as sidekicks for superheroes is almost as old as the institution of the heroes themselves. There are some famous examples of such befriending beasts, such as Ace the Bathound which, according to the Batman Encyclopedia, existed on Earth-Two. However, since Ace teamed up with Bat-Mite of Earth-One, that world also had an Ace. Of note as well were the Big Reds, the faithful avian allies of the Hawkmen, Major Mynah and Static the Parrot which aided the Atom and Airwave. Also, there was the Junior Super Friends Wendy and Marvin's loyal pooch Wonder Dog and the Earth-Two Green Lantern's pet Streaky the Wonder Dog... both pooches patrolled their respective Gotham Cities. And we're not even touching Space Ranger's Cyril and Doctor Mid-Nite's Hooty! And of course, this quartet that actually joined forces.
Aiding the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century, two survivors of Krypton... Krypto the Super-Dog and Beppo the Super-Monkey... were joined by Supergirl's irradiated pet Streaky the Super-Cat and Comet the Super-Horse, a centaur transformed into a super powerful ally of the maid of might.
Together, these four aided by a shape shifting alien formed the Legion of Super-Pets which were much more than just mascots of the core team, they protected them on several occasions during the early part of the teen team's career.
Considering how these four members originated from the 20th century and journeyed ten centuries to assist these future humans shows their compassion and ingenuity to come to their aid and navigate the tricky waters of time itself!
Together, these four aided by a shape shifting alien formed the Legion of Super-Pets which were much more than just mascots of the core team, they protected them on several occasions during the early part of the teen team's career.
Considering how these four members originated from the 20th century and journeyed ten centuries to assist these future humans shows their compassion and ingenuity to come to their aid and navigate the tricky waters of time itself!
On Earth-Two, there was Thor the Thunder Dog, an artificial intelligence who was the canine companion to Dan Richards aka the Manhunter. Thus, while Krypto and Thor were their worlds’ long-lived super strong canines, Rex the Wonder Dog and Streak the Wonder Dog each had similarly distinguished careers. Another Wonder Dog who joined the Super Friends had a twin in Winner, a seeing-eye dog who briefly aided Earth-Two's Robin on a case.
Earth-Two Superman encounters Hocus and Pocus, two fake but good-hearted magicians, with their clever bunny Moiton. This mischievous rabbit ended up helping the Man of Steel and his witless stage performing masters, much as Beppo the Super-Monkey would for his master the Earth-One Superman.
The Bizarro Krypto created with the same imperfect ray device that spawned his master found an Earth-Two doppelgänger in Robbie the Robot-Dog who assisted his creator Robotman on a series of similarly comical adventures.
Yet one more Wonder Dog was Elmo, a sickly dog who in 1950 was revived and thrived when exposed to Darrel Dane's experimental health ray. As such, Elmo gained greater strength and intelligence then normal dogs, and aided Doll Man and Doll Girl during the 1950s. And unlike Swifty the artificial Super Dog of Superboy, Elmo stayed faithful to his masters after gaining powers.
The twin of Earth-One's Streaky the Super-Cat was the test subject known as Streak, who was imbued with super-speed power from the evil Doctor Clever's speed projector. Unlike Streaky who stuck around for awhile, Streak left the room and sought out a new life away from superheroics, until his power ran out. A descendant of Streaky's in the 30th century met his ancestor's master, Supergirl... while Power Girl met a cranky cat she adopted in the latter half of the 20th century.
3 comments:
Oh yeah, I'm a sucker for super-pets. Wonder how many kids terrorized their dogs by attaching a towel to their collar to make it "Ace" or "Krypto"? I also loved "Robbie" and the whole "Robotman" strip. I don't suppose it's "big name" enough to rate a reprint collection, but if DC published it, I'd buy it in a second.
BTW, love the blog and I've added it to the blogrool over at www.supermanfan.net. And as a self-imposed Photoshop homework exercise, I did up a banner for you;
http://www.supermanfan.net/sharedfiles/multiverse.jpg
use it if you want or if not that's cool, too. But keep those posts coming! :-)
Thanks David, I appreciate your interest in the blog. I too would love to see some of those classic Robotman and Robbie tales, they are pre-60's Batman CRAZY with the same sentiment as the classic show and Bat's mid 60's run. Getting back to super-pets, I love them as well in all shapes and sizes!
David,
Also thanks for the header, I'M USING IT! It's great. I tweaked a couple things (esp. Hourman who I just dig to no end). Thanks much!
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