Clockwise from top: Strong Man, Diaper Man, Tornado Man, Cuckoo Man, and Rope Man.
The Mighty Heroes was a lighthearted
Super Hero Parody cartoon that originally aired on CBS in 1966, reportedly created on-the-spot by animator
Ralph Bakshi. The show featured a team of five misfit heroes — Strong Man, Cuckoo Man, Diaper Man, Rope Man and Tornado Man — protectors of the city of Good Haven. The show featured a fair amount of skewering of superhero tropes, and is seen by some as a precursor to Bakshi's work on
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures.
Dell Comics published a comic about the characters in 1967; decades later, one-shots with the characters were printed by
Marvel Comics and Spotlight Comics.
Tropes for this work include:
- Blow You Away: Tornado Man, who can turn his body into a vortex to grab and throw villains.
- Brainy Baby: Diaper Man, the leader of the team.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Cuckoo Man, appropriately enough.
- Five-Man Band
- Flying Brick: Strong Man, the Superman Expy.
- Fully Absorbed Finale: One episode of Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (produced by Bakshi Animation) had a cameo which revealed that the Heroes had retired from super-heroics and started the chartered accounting firm of Man, Man, Man, Man and Man. It was "Heroes And Zeroes."
- Let's Get Dangerous: Any supervillain better pray their Death Trap works, because when the team breaks free and regroups in the episode's second half, nothing can stop them!
- Power-Up Food: Both Diaper Man and Strong Man can drink from Diaper Man's milk bottle when extra strength is needed.
- Rubber Man: Rope Man, whose body is an unending length of rope.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Rope Man.
- Something Person: All of the heroes, naturally.
- Stock Superhero Day Jobs: Averted, as the heroes' civilian jobs tend to be unglamorous positions pertaining to their powers.
- Strong Man is a mechanic.
- Rope Man is a sailor.
- Cuckoo Man runs a pet shop.
- Tornado Man is a weatherman.
- Diaper Man is a baby (natch).
- Superhero Speciation
- Superheroes Wear Capes
- Super Zeroes
- Team Spirit: Pretty much the only way the heroes achieve success.
- Tornado Move: Tornado Man could turn himself into a tornado. He would suck villains into his vortex and shoot them into the nearest wall.
- Up, Up and Away!: Averted with Cuckoo Man, who — despite dressing up as a bird — needs to repeatedly flap his arms to fly. Played straight with the rest of the team.
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