Animal Superheroes

Supercow al rescate!!

Some heroes, such as Batman, Spider-Man and Wolverine, name themselves after, or have powers based on, a member of the animal kingdom. Others actually are members of the animal kingdom, or at least the Funny Animal kingdom.

The result of bringing together the most popular action-cartoon genre with the most popular comedy-cartoon genre. Usually come in one of four flavors:

• The first type is a Funny Animal comic that is a direct parody of superheroes and likely to consist of bad animal puns. Usually considered non-canon in most comic "universes."

• The second type often features animal sidekicks and even superhero's pets, and this often is canon, though unlikely to play a very important role.

• The third type, though it's really rare compared to the others, is where the hero transforms into an animal, albeit superpowered and retaining their intellect. This "animal" form could also be anthro.

• The fourth and last type, possibly the best known, are straight-up superheroes who just happen to be animals, often of the very anthropomorphic type. You can thank the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for this type being so ubiquitous. Compare with Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats, although Samurai Wombats aren't necessarily animals.

Will often have Alliterative Names. Not to be confused with an Animal-Themed Superbeing.

---

Examples

Anime and Manga

• In My Hero Academia, animals can have Quirks on rare occasions. The school's principal, Nezu, is one Ambiguous Species example, with Super-Intelligence that makes him a genius even by human standards. He's also been subject to some unpleasant Animal Testing in the past, presumably to learn more about the source of his powers. In the My Hero Academia: Vigilantes spin-off, a cat introduced in Chapter 17 has a Quirk called "Monster Cat", which allows it to take over a bus that Koichi, his mother and Makoto happen to be riding on, with some help from Trigger.
• Samurai Pizza Cats: The protagonists are a team of ninja cats in powered armor.
• Super Pig is a Magical Girl Warrior show about a girl who transforms into a superpowered pig
• Sweet Valerian likewise is a one where the three protagonists turn into superpowered bunnies.

Asian Animation

• GG Bond, a Chinese animated show, stars a pig with superpowers.
• Miniforce is a South Korean-made show that has the unusual combination of this trope and the Sentai genre. The team consists of a squirrel named Volt, a beaver named Max, and owl named Sammy, and a fox named Lucy.
• Running Man: The Running Man team is made up for seven different animals with special abilities, but Kuga the Tiger is praised as the most popular player in the game. This is gradually implied when Charming Gold is up to something bad and they need to stop him.

Comic Books

• Astro City has enough to form an entire team, Pet Patrol. The roster includes Dr. Monkey, Rocket Dog, Kittyhawk and Ghost Ferret. G-Dog was a member, but eventually stepped down.
• Boris The Bear, an ultraviolent ursine Anti-Hero who made it his life's mission, well, only in his first issue, to destroy every other anthropomorphic animal superhero in existence, starting with the Ninja Turtles.
• The DCU's Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!, from "Earth-C" (for "cartoon") in The DCU: Rubberduck, Alley Kat-Abra, Pig-Iron, Fastback (a turtle), Yankee Poodle, Little Cheese, and Cap himself.
  • From "Earth-C-Minus," the Zoo Crew's sister team, the Justa Lotta Animals: Supersquirrel, Batmouse, Wonder Wabbit, Green Lambkin, the Crash (a turtle), and Aquaduck.
  • Also historical Earth-C Golden Age hero (and Fastback's uncle), the Terrific Whatzit (DC's first funny-animal superhero).
  • The Multiversity sees the return of Captain Carrot, who last appeared in Final Crisis.
• Superman:
  • In The Silver Age of Comic Books the Legion of Super-Pets, set up in the 30th century (even though most of the members came from the 20th century!) worked as an adjunct to the Legion of Super-Heroes. The LSP consisted of Superman's dog Krypto, Supergirl's cat Streaky (an Earth cat who gained temporary powers because of exposure to a weird type of Kryptonite), Comet the super-horse -a centaur-turned-horse with several powers such like invulnerability and telepathy-, Beppo the super-monkey, and Proty, a shape-shifting blob of protoplasm that the similarly-powered Chameleon Boy had as a pet.
  • And then there was the Space Canine Patrol Agency introduced in Superboy #131, a LSH-like team of super-powered dogs that Krypto encountered on one of his romps through space and joined, sharing a few adventures before being the team was "limboed".
  • Superboy #131 also introduced a Space Cat Patrol Agency, but they only appeared in one panel of that story.
  • The LSP was phased out at the beginning of the Bronze Age and banned out of continuity after the 1986 reboot, but they gradually made their way back to canon during the early 00's. Finally, Super Sons saw the return of the Legion of Super-Pets, now comprising Krypto, Streaky, Damien Wayne's pets Titus and Bat-Cow, and the previously unmentioned Flexi the Plastic Bird and Clay Critter. Comet the Super-Horse would subsequently return to continuity in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.
• The Green Lantern franchise has several animal-looking alien heroes, as well as Red Lantern Earth cat Dex-Starr.
• There's also Detective Chimp, a genius (by human standards) chimpanzee who can communicate with animals.
• DC also has at least two gorilla supervillains, Gorilla Grodd, an Evil Genius mind controlling gorilla who gained his powers from a crashed alien ship or a meteor, and Monsieur Mallah, who gained his superhuman intelligence from a Mad Scientist's experiments.
  • Then there's Grodd's heroic nephews, Sam Simian of Angel and the Ape and Gorilla Gregg of Teen Titans Academy.
  • Grodd is connected (exactly how varies pretty much every time his origin story gets retold) to Gorilla City, an entire city of genius gorillas. They're not superheroes (though their former leader, Solovar, wore a cape and had psychic powers similar to Grodd's), but on the other hand, they are gorillas, so even an ordinary citizen of Gorilla City is far stronger than a human.
• DC also has Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, a lapine version of the original Captain Marvel. Hoppy's "hero" name is Captain Marvel Bunny.
  • While Hoppy lived in an Alternate Universe full of talking animals, Captain Marvel's best friend in his own world was Mr. Tawky Tawny, an anthropomorphic tiger. Tawny was originally an aversion of this trope, since despite being a tiger, he was consistently treated as a more-or-less ordinary civilian. Modern stories have usually let him be more of an active hero, using his tiger abilities to help the Marvel Family fight evil.
• Ace the Bat-Hound in Silver Age Batman comics. Who wore a cowl to hide a distinctive patch on his fur. And there's Bat-Cow, who started as a one-off joke in Batman (Grant Morrison), but has since had a brief solo story in a Batman Incorporated one-shot and sort of teamed up with the Forever People.
  • A Bat-Hound storyline in Batman: Urban Legends had him captured by a provider of evil superpets, and escape with the assistance of some of the other animals there, specifically a turtle with super-speed, a powerful but anxious bear, a pickpocket squirrel and a Genius Cripple chicken.
• DC One Million had Justice Legion Z (for Zoomorphs), which was descended from the Legion of Executive Familiars, which in turn was the even-futher-future counterpart to the Legion of Superpets. The JLZ membership included Proty One Million, a version of Comet the Super-Horse and Mastermind, presumably a heroic descendant of Mr Mind, the World's Wickedest Worm. The Executive Familiars were Krypto-9, Wormhole, the Sun Dragons, and Octo the Eight-Dimensional Cephalopod.
• Disney's Donald Duck and Goofy each have superhero alter egos.
  • At least in Italy (but probably, elsewhere), it's easier to list characters that have not a super identity. Donald Duck and Goofy are the most prominent, but even Goofy's nephew, Daisy, José Carioca (actually, a parody of superheroes), Gyro, and many others. It's good to know that at least once the Beagle Boys have been supervillains (with the X-Men powers).
  • Some of these stories were published for the English-language market by Boom! Kids as Disney Hero Squad: Ultraheroes.
• Extinctioners - an indy comic featuring an entire planet of super-powered, human created "humanimals".
• Howard the Duck, who is an accomplished martial artist^note Quack Fu and even knows limited sorcery; although Howard would probably take offense at being labeled a "super hero," since he considers super heroes to be just one more ridiculous element of the world he's stuck in.
• Marvel Comics' Peter Porker, Spider-Ham, and many others appearing in his universe (Deerdevil, Croctor Strange, Captain Americat, Hulk Bunny, the Fantastic Fur, Ducktor Doom.... the list goes on and on).
  • There's also the puntastic Marvel Apes series along with the Prime Eight spin-off. Just a small sampling: Spider-Monkey, Iron Mandrill, Nick Furry (same name as the funny animal in the Spider-Ham stories, oddly), Silverback Surfer, Doc Ook...
  • Ultimate FF has Miles Morhames, the Ultimate Spider-Ham, who is a humanoid pig from a decidedly less cartoony version of the Spider-Ham universe. He comes from a universe with animal superhero versions of the characters and events of the Ultimate Marvel universe.
• Marvel's "Power Pachyderms◊", an Affectionate Parody of their own X-Men.
• Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers, in which Team Pets from across the Marvel Universe band together without their humans getting in the way.
• The second Wolverine has Jonathan, an actual wolverine (albeit laboratory-enhanced) that serves as her and Honey Badger's Team Pet. He later gained the ability to talk thanks to a universal translator from the Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Rex the Wonder Dog. He killed dinosaurs with atom bombs. And he wasn't even anthropomorphic!
• Rocket Raccoon, and for that matter, a good number of his friends from his original mini-series.
• Back in the Golden Age, Sheldon Mayer drew one Red Tornado strip with Ma Hunkell as a mother hen, Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist as a horse, and the Cyclone Kids (Scribbly's kid brother and Ma Hunkell's daughter) as a colt and a chick. According to a somewhat Self-Deprecating announcement at the start of the story, this was just to keep things interesting.
• The aforementioned Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of course.
• Nedor Comics' Black Terror (now a Public Domain Character seen in Tom Strong: Terra Obscura and Project Superpowers) spawned a Funny Animal counterpart called the Black Terrier. Since the Terror's real identity was either Mark Benton or Bob Benton, the Terrier was Bark Benton.
• Independent and Underground comix have them too, naturally: QT Bunny and Wonder Warthog, to name just one for each. (Although calling Wonder Warthog a superhero is somewhat stretching the term...)
• The Man-Eating Cow from The Tick comics. Who is actually a cow. Who eats people.
• A few stories had Tom Strong meet his Funny Animal counterpart, a rabbit named Warren Strong along with his wife Patience, daughters Topsy, Turvy and Fluffytail (a Shout-Out to Peter Rabbit) and archenemy Basil Saveen (a fox version of Paul Saveen, possibly named after Basil Brush).
• Mildly Deconstructed in PS238—years ago they bio-engineered Argo the Wonder Dog for Atlas, but his Super-Senses combined with a dog's already sensitive hearing resulted in Sensory Overload. He now lives in a special doghouse on the moon, not far from the Earth Defense League's headquarters.
• A single panel in JSA #4 (1999), in which reality is being warped around the team by the fight between Doctor Fate and Mordru, with the characters changing to match, has the Justice Critters, represented by a vulpine Starman (probably a Visual Pun on Star Fox) and a lapine Star-Spangled Kid (the Star-Spangled Bunny?)
• Alan Moore's Supreme naturally featured a Krypto counterpart; Radar the Hound Supreme. There was also a Mighty Mouse homage called Squeak the Supremouse, who appeared in the Supremacy and later got his own back-up strip.
• Cosmo Cat was a short-lived series from Fox Features Syndicate about a Funny Animal getting caught in a nuclear explosion (that he accidentally caused) and ending up with super strength, flight, and various other crime fighting powers. It only lasted for two years, 1946-1947.
• In the 1950s, Charlton Comics produced Atomic Mouse, Atomic Rabbit and Atom the Cat, all of which had the same basic origin of a Funny Animal being given a uranium-based Power-Up Food.
• Action Cat and Adventure Bug in Aw Yeah Comics! They also teamed up with a feline version of Captain Action called Captain Action Cat in a Dynamite Comics crossover.
• In the "human transformed into an animal" subcategory, Marvel has Ken Hale, who killed the mythical Gorilla-Man to become immortal, then learned that you became immortal by becoming the new Gorilla-Man. He became a member of the Agents of Atlas and The Avengers (2018).
• Also in the "human who transforms into an animal" subcategory, DC has Congo Bill Glenmorgan, who has the power to transfer his mind to the mythical Golden Gorilla, becoming Congorilla. He became a member of Justice League of America (2006), now permanently in gorilla form.
• In X of Swords, the new Captain Britain Corps includes versions of Betsy Braddock as a frog (Captain Amphibian), a swan (Violet Swan, the Spider-Ham version, and possibly a reference to one crowd scene of the original Corps including a duck), a baboon (Captain Baboon, the Marvel Apes version) a dragon (Captain Plumdragon), a tyranosaur (Britannica Rex; a Britannicus Rex version of Brian appeared in Excalibur) and another bird (name unknown).
• In Nightwing (Infinite Frontier), Dick gets a puppy named Haley. Tim and Babs give her a superhero name: Bitewing. She later gains a costume in an adventure with Nite-Mite, and has an Imagine Spot where she rescues Dick and Babs from a Legion of Doom.
• In The Escapist, the Defictionalization of the comic book from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which pastiches various comic tropes, one single-page story stars a Funny Animal version called the Escapegoat.
• Jurassic League reimagines DC characters as Dinosaur/Prehistoric animal-themed superheroes.

Fan Works

• Dial: After the Graveyard incident, where several HYDRA-experimented animals are rescued and had gained powers from the aftermath, Dial throws around the idea of the Pet Avengers.

Film — Animated

• Bolt, which is in fact, a subversion in several ways.

Film — Live-Action

• Cats & Dogs features superspy felines and canines, including Siamese "ninja", the Russian Blue (a cat assassin with a Russian accent), and Tab Lazenby Voiced by George Lazenby himself.
• The 1979 movie CHOMPS is about a super-powered robot that looks like a fuzzy little dog.
• Super Buddies is a Superhero Episode of the Air Buddies franchise, in which the Golden Retriever pups all get superpowers from magic rings and join forces with an alien who has taken the form of another superpowered dog and calls himself Captain Canine.
• Underdog, the live-action adaptation of the cartoon series of the same name, features the titular dog-turned-superhero.

Literature

• How to Be a Superhero devotes an entire Appendix to the topic, including what commands to teach (and not teach) your superpet.
• In the world of Soon I Will Be Invincible, it's stated that the thousand or so superpowered beings include three dogs, four cats, and a bird, as well as more unspecified aquatic superbeings, which may or may not be human.

Live-Action TV

• Max the Bionic Dog from The Bionic Woman was a German shepherd who had served as the prototype for the bionic implants later used on Steve and Jaimie.
• K9 from Doctor Who is a heroic robot dog.

Music

• In "The Bee of the Bird of the Moth" by They Might Be Giants, amongst those who try and fail to defeat the moth is Catbug, described as "a cat but he's got bugness in his veins".

Puppet Shows

• The Muppet Show episode guest starring Lynda Carter had a sketch with Miss Piggy as Wonder Pig, and another with Super Sheep.
• There was a CBBC series called Ratman starring Roland Rat as a Batman parody.

Tabletop Games

• The Worlds of Freedom sourcebook for Mutants & Masterminds features a Funny Animal version of the Freedom City setting called Furrydom City. The Furrydom League includes Captain Thunderkat, Bunny Liberty, Miss Corbie (a raven version of the Raven) Duck Daedalus, Sea Otter, Johnny Rabbit, Bowmoose, and Dr Metropomouse.
• The "Supertoon" setting for the Toon role-playing game.
• Palladium Games' Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness, a system for creating mutated or otherwise genetically-altered animal superheroes.
• The One Night Ultimate Super Villains expansion to One Night Ultimate Werewolf introduces Role Retriever, a dog who's on the hero/villager team and has the ability to assume the role of another player.

Theme Parks

• In the final scene of the original version of Journey into Imagination at Epcot in Walt Disney World, one of the movie roles Figment the dragon is shown in is a superhero.

Video Games

• The Angry Birds got superhero makeovers in Angry Birds Space.
  • There's also Angry Birds: Transformers, though that would be a stretch, particularly because that also made their pig enemies help them.
• Earthworm Jim.
• The Super Sheep weapon from Worms. It's a sheep which flies around wearing a red cape. And then explodes.
• Sonic the Hedgehog may not wear a costume (or much of anything, really) but otherwise has the kinds of powers, adventures, and acquaintances that would be right at home in the Marvel or DC universes.

Webcomics

• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja brings us Sparklelord, a unicorn taking the form of A motorcycle the Doctor found, who is one of the few things the King Radical fears, because Sparklelord is an Omnicidal Maniac who nearly destroyed the Radical Land.
• Isla Grace from Professor Amazing and the Incredible Golden Fox: receives a fox-shaped engagement ring from her husband-to-be, Parker, which gifts her with the ability to transform into a fox (both anthropomorphic and full fox versions). She then feels it's only appropriate to put her new powers to use in the service of her community.
• Supermegatopia is an Affectionate Parody of superhero comics that takes place in a world of anthropomorphic animals.
• In Monster's Garden, Kilo is part of a reptilian race called the Zi'Dral. He's pretty heroic.

Web Original

• Bad Horse from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a rare example of an Animal Supervillain. He's also one of the few to be played by a real animal, albeit only in one short scene. Naturally this has turned him into something of an Ensemble Dark Horse, pun very much intended.
• Happy Tree Friends: Flying Brick Splendid, though he's not very good at it.
• In the League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions there was The Insector, an insect superhero.
• According to How to Hero, animals that can shoot lasers from their faces are harder to train, but often make all the difference when it comes to saving the world.
• The Kittisaurus show Kittisaurus Villains has one episode where animated versions of Lulu, Momo and Dodo transform into superheroes to stop Claire from doing 'dangerous' exercise. It's then subverted as all they do is bow down to TT and beg for her help.

Western Animation

• The Adventures of the American Rabbit stars a rabbit who fights forest crime by painting himself as the American flag and putting on roller skates to fly around and give speeches of Eagleland grade-A quality.
• Cubbi Gummi impersonates the hero Crimson Avenger with great success in three episodes of Adventures of the Gummi Bears and he's a bear.
• Animal Mechanicals, combined with mecha.
• One Animaniacs segment had Buttons as one.
• Atom Ant
• Batfink
• Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys with primates hailing from space.
• Examples from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: Flash the Wonder Dog and his sidekick Conrad Cockatoo, the Red Badger of Courage (all of whom are fictional), and Dale himself as Rubber Bando.
• Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse
• As shown above, Super Cow from Cow and Chicken.
• Danger Mouse, in a variation, was an animal super-spy.
• As was Secret Squirrel.
• And Perry the Platypus in Phineas and Ferb, along with the other animal agents of the OWCA.
• Darkwing Duck.
• The DC Nation shorts Farm League, in which a League comprising Supermanatee, Wonder Wombat, Cybug, Aquamandrill, Batmongoose, Robin's Egg, The Flish, Ambush Slug and Shazham battle Sinestropotamus, Cat Cat, Moo-Face, Croaker, Captain Cod, Lex Liger, and Duckseid from the Barn of Justice.
• Monkey from Dexter's Laboratory.
• Dynomutt, Dog Wonder.
• Gizmoduck from DuckTales (1987)
• Earthworm Jim.
• In the Hanna-Barbera El Kabong shorts, Quick Draw McGraw became a Zorro-esque character who bashed people with a guitar instead of slashing at them with a saber.
• Fantomcat
• Super Chicken was a millionaire playboy/superhero chicken, living among humans in Pittsburgh with Fred, his dim lion sidekick (who knew the job was dangerous when he took it).
• Hong Kong Phooey, #1 super-guy. Phooey is really an incompetent clumsy oaf with good press; most of the actual heroism is done by Spot, his cat. Not an anthropomorphic cat, an actual pet cat, whose only real power is that he's smarter than Phooey (and pretty much everyone else in the show... it's not exactly a high bar).
• Krypto the Superdog later got his own animated series, where his partners included Streaky the cat (Supergirl's pet cat), the Dog Stars and Ace the Bat-Hound (Bruce Wayne's dog) — all of whom were based on actual Silver Age comic-book characters.
  • The Krypto series also featured examples of "Animal Supervillains", such as Ignatius, an iguana pet of Lex Luthor; Isis, one of many felines owned by Catwoman; Bud and Lou, a pair of hyenas belonging to The Joker; the Penguin's trained birds, and the Darth Vader-esque Mechanikat.
• Ace The Bat-hound was a recurring character on Batman Beyond, but he is portrayed as Darker and Edgier, being Bruce Wayne's Angry Guard Dog and only companion in his twilight years. He still sees his share of action fighting monsters and supervillains though, occasionally saving the new Batman from certain demise.
• Loonatics Unleashed, which cast descendants of the classic Looney Tunes characters as futuristic super heroes.
• Two Looney Tunes shorts featured Bugs as "Super Rabbit" and Daffy as "Stupor Duck".
  • A McDonald's Happy Meal toyline also played with the concept: Bugs was "Super Rabbit", Daffy was "Bat Duck", the Tazmanian Devil was "Taz-Flash", and Petunia Pig was "Wonder Pig".
  • On The Looney Tunes Show, Bugs is apparently Batman in the show's universe.
• Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series
• Mighty Mouse
  • Ralph Bashi's New Adventures Of Mighty Mouse introduced another: Bat-Bat (with his sidekick, Tick, the Bug Wonder).
  • One episode of New Adventures also featured the Legion of Super-Rodents. Some of whom were actually insectivores or small mammals rather than rodents. And one of whom was The Golden Sloth.
• One episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic had Rainbow Dash being upstaged in saving Ponyvillers from danger by "the Mysterious Mare Do Well".
  • The mane characters could count, as the Elements of Harmony they use the the magic of friendship to Save the World on occasion.
  • One episode in Season 4 had them all go into a comic book and become the "Power Ponies".
• The Powerpuff Girls has Mojo Jojo, although he's a villain.
  • The 1998 series has an episode where Mojo Jojo turned the girls into dogs, not taking into consideration the fact that super-powered girls turned into dogs are still super-powered, and an episode where Bubbles gave an injured squirrel some Chemical X, and ended up giving it superpowers.
    • The latter is a loose adaptation of the comic book story "Squirrely Burly" (DC issue #1, reprinted in #70).
• Road Rovers
• SWAT Kats
• And The Secret Files of The Spy Dogs, of course.
• The Caped Koala in SheZow is a badass defender of the peace between wombats and koalas.
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go: The team consists of a human boy, his robot girlfriend and five Cyborg monkeys who protect the planet of Shugazoom from the Skeleton King and various other villains.
• Plucky Duck of Tiny Toon Adventures took on a few superhero alter-egos, most notably as The Toxic Revenger and as Batman parody Batduck, with Hamton as sidekick Decoy. The latter set-up spun off a segment where all the major animal characters appear as Justice League members. Babs also parodied Supergirl once.
  • Plucky and Hampton also once tried to join an in-universe Animal Superhero team. The Radioactive Immature Samurai Slugs. They named themselves after painters as, well, Earl Schieb and Sherwin Williams.
  • Plucky appeared as "Particle Man" in the short featuring the song of the same name. He was also Person Man (Particle Man minus the costume).
• And also T.U.F.F. Puppy.
• Underdog
• Ace the Bat-Hound also appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, complete with cowl.
• PAW Patrol
  • The episode "Pups Save Apollo" features Rubble falling asleep while watching a marathon of Apollo the Super Pup. He proceeds to have a dream where Apollo calls him and tells Rubble that he needs the help of him and the rest of the PAW Patrol pups to save him from the Spider King. The rest of the episode has the pups, dressed in superhero costumes, help get Apollo out of the cave where the Spider King resides in.
  • The pups would later become superheroes for real in PAW Patrol: Mighty Pups and the subsequent ''Mighty Pups, Super PAWs" sub-series, with the help of a mysterious golden meteor which grants them powers.
• Pet Squad: The three portagonists are a cat, a dog and a hamster who can transform into anthropomorphic superheroes with the help of a machine.
• On Yogi's Treasure Hunt, Huck Hound, Boo Boo Bear and Quick Draw McGraw formed the Trio of Triumph (as Huckle Hero, Ram-Boo Boo and El Kabong).

---