Apache Chief

Origin

Apache Chief’s main power is the ability to become larger; he can only do this by saying the words “Inyuk-chuk” which in his language means “Big Man”. It is said that his powers have no limit. The Native American hero obtained his powers one day walking with the chief of his tribe. Both the chief and the young brave were confronted by a bear. While the young brave became fearful, the chief remained calm, suspecting that this was just the occasion for the brave’s dormant powers to be revealed. The chief presented the brave with some magical dust, telling him that if the brave was quiet and strong his thoughts would come to be. The brave calmed him self and said the word “inyuk-chuk.” He grew to be enormous and and dispatched the bear without violence. This Brave became Apache Chief and went on to defend the Indian people as well as the entire plant as part of the Super Friends.

One of his most famous triumphs was when battling the space colossus. A great bearded giant, who appeared to be cosmic in origin, managed to bottle not only all of Earth’s heroes, but the planet itself. Apache Chief chanted his magic word and grew to the same size as the colossus. They grappled through the milky way and eventualy Apache chief emerged the victor, releasing the heroes and saving the planet.

Super Friends

Apache Chief is a Native American Superhero. It is commonly said that the only reason they added him and created him is because all the characters before him where white. They also added Black Vulcan, El Dorado, Rima the Jungle Girl, and Samurai. They all represent different races, which are the following:

Black Vulcan- African American

Apache Chief- Native American (Apache)

Samurai- Asian (Japanese)

El Dorado- Hispanic (Vaguely Mexican or South American, as the plot required).

Rima– who knows? She looked white but was raised in some geographically-indeterminate jungle.

Apache Chief was featured in Robot Chicken, Family Guy and Harvey Birdman, where he spilled hot coffe in his lap and could not “grow larger”, fnarr fnarr. Played for exactly the kind of laughs you’d expect from that show. In Apache Chief’s recurring appearances on Harvey Birdman, this became a running gag of him either being afraid of getting, or actually getting, injured in the crotch by various means.

In Other Media

Television

Justice League Unlimited

A modernized, less-stereotypical version of Apache Chief appeared in Justice League Unlimited under the name Long Shadow. He was part of the Ultimen, a team of superheroes put together by Maxwell Lord as a rival to the Justice League.

He debuted in the episode “Ultimatum”, where he and the rest of the team were shown performing various acts of heroism. He was the only member of the Ultimen who seemed genuinely respectful of the League, and expressed a desire to be more like them. After helping Wonder Woman stop Giganta and Bizarro, Long Shadow formed a friendship with the heroine. It was eventually discovered that the Ultimen were all genetically engineered by Project Cadmus at the behest of Amanda Waller, who wanted a weapon to use against the Justice League should they ever turn against humanity. Furthermore, it was discovered that due to a flaw in their genetic structure, the Ultimen were all slowly dying. The Ultimen attempted to kill Superman and his comrades, reasoning that at least this way they would be remembered, but Long Shadow turned against them and helped the League stop his friends. Seeing his heroism, Wonder Woman offered Long Shadow a place in the Justice League so that he could spend his last days of life alongside his idols.

After Long Shadow’s death, numerous clones of the hero were used as part of Project Cadmus’ assault on the JLA Watchtower in the episode “Panic in the Sky”.

He was voiced by Gregg Rainwater.

Young Justice

In Young Justice: Invasion, a teenage version of the character named Tye Longshadow appeared as a close friend of Jaime Reyes. The son of a single mother with an abusive boyfriend, Tye was abducted by Queen Bee‘s forces after running away from home one night. He was transported to Bialya, where he and numerous other children were sent to the alien race known as the Reach for experimentation. In the episode “Before the Dawn”, Tye and a small group of surviving children were rescued from Kaldur’ahm and Tigress by the Team. The children were then brought to a S.T.A.R. Labs facility, where Black Canary discovered that some of them had begun to manifest metahuman abilities due to the Reach’s torture and experimentation.

In “Runaways”, Virgil Hawkins convinced Tye, Asami Koizumi, and Ed Dorado Jr. to escape from S.T.A.R. Labs and head to Dakota. Blue Beetle pursued the teens, but was forced to turn back after S.T.A.R. was attacked by Red Volcano. Tye and the otherswent back to stop the villain after Ed expressed fear that his father (a scientist working for S.T.A.R.) would be killed. After helping destroy the android, the children were recruited by Lex Luthor, who revealed that Jaime has been brainwashed by Black Beetle and could no longer be trusted.

Gregg Rainwater returned to voice the character.