Cross DC Comics’ Super Chief with Marvel’s Thor and the result might be something like Hanna-Barbera’s Mighty Mightor.
Like Thor, Mightor derived his super strength and ability to fly from a magical blunt force weapon, allowing him to transform Shazam-like into and from his ordinary human state.
But Mightor also resembled Super Chief, a short-lived DC feature published in the last issues of the All-Star Western title. Like Mightor, Super Chief had adventures set in prehistory. The Pre-Columbian Paragon used a mysterious amulet to acquire “… the strength of 1,000 bears, the speed of 1,000 deer, and the leaping ability of 1,000 wolves.”
Both Mightor and Super Chief were heroes who had to strain to find a reason to have a secret identity. But they managed.
Debuting Sept. 9, 1967, on CBS, Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor aired until 1969. He also appeared in Gold Key’s Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes comic book title, which ran for seven issues.
“Mightor was a typical, average superhero, complete with mask, cape, girlfriend who wondered who he was … the works,” noted comics historian Don Markstein. “The only thing that set him apart from the crowd was the fact that he was a caveman. Or cave boy, perhaps. For added youth appeal, in his secret identity, Tor (apparently, this took place before they invented last names), Mightor was a teenager.”
“As Mightor, he had super strength and the power of flight, and his club could emit force rays, de-necessitating its use for messy, parent-unfriendly bashing. What’s more, it turned (his pet dinosaur) Tog into a flying, fire-breathing dragon.”
Mightor shared his show with the famed giant white whale who helped out a couple of youngsters, much the way King Kong did at the same time over on ABC.
“The series was created and designed by comic book legend Alex Toth, whose outstanding work is seen from DC to Dell, and points beyond,” Markstein wrote.
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