From left to right: Super Scuba, Granite Man, Elevator Man, Magneto Man, Captain Zammo and Super Bwoing.
The Super 6 was a 1966 animated comedy by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.
Interestingly enough, in an era replete with superhero satires and parodies and efforts to imitate the Camp appeal of the Adam West Batman craze, The Super 6 was more of a Work Com that happened to involve freelance superheroes for hire. Though the characters exhibited the standard Saturday-Morning Cartoon simplicity of characterization, the focus of most episodes involved how they responded to the episode's task, not their powers and not their opponents, with little if any commentary one way or the other on Superhero Tropes.
The title characters are super heroes who work at Super Service, Inc., where people can call in to request help from a superhero.
The lineup includes:
- Super Bwoing - A rather scrawny sort with laser vision who rides his guitar into action. He tends to be a bungler.
- Super Scuba - Much like Aquaman or Sub-Mariner, he deals with underwater cases, aided by Bubbles the Mermaid.
- Elevator Man - He wears a belt which enables him to grow or shrink when necessary.
- Magneto Man - His gloves give him magnetic powers. His sidekick is Cal, a boy with a brilliant computer-like brain.
- Granite Man - He is a stone statue that comes to life to fight evil. His sidekick is a pigeon named Percival.
- Captain Zammo - He travels to past eras. Often he has his assistant, Private Hammo, do the dirty work for him.
Also part of the show is an unrelated short called "The Brothers Matzoriley" who are basically three heads in one body. Weft, the left head, is a Moe Howardesque tough guy. Wight, the right head, is a wimpy coward. Wong, the middle head, is a Chinese stereotype.
Has been released on DVD.
Not to be confused with Big Hero 6.
Tropes:
- Ascended Extra: The Matzorileys were one-shot villains on The Inspector, and got their own series as a segment on this show.
- Asian Speekee Engrish: Wong of the Brothers Matzoriley speaks like this.
- Bragging Theme Tune: By Gary Lewis and the Playboys.
- Carpet of Virility: Elevator Man is drawn with some very prominent chest hair.
- Catchphrase: Wong's "Confusion say . . ."
- Super Bwoing's "Zip, Zam, Zowie and Swoosh!" also qualifies.
- As does Captain Zammo's "Hither, yon and away!"
- Cool Shades: Part of Captain Zammo's uniform. Magneto Man, by the way, wears Cool Goggles.
- Continuity Nod: In the Granite Man short "Having a Ball", the Eel, a villain he'd busted in the episode "Right Train on the Wrong Track", escapes from jail to get revenge. It's the only time one short follows up on another in the show.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Even though Super Bwoing isn’t a very good superhero, he still gets his man every time.
- Da Chief: Super Chief is the dispatcher. He has little tolerance for Super Bwoing's bungling.
- Darker and Edgier: Elevator Man's segments were decidedly less comedic than the others'.
- Depending on the Writer: In his own segments Captain Zammo's usually more concerned with looking good than fighting evil, making Private Hammo do all the dirty work. He guest stars in one of the Super Bwoing segments and flies right into battle with a giant robot, something a lot nastier than anything he runs into in any of his solo adventures, without once saying something about his outfit getting messed up or calling for help.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The Matzorileys first appeared as antagonists in the first Inspector cartoon, "The Great DeGaulle Stone Operation."
- Flexing Those Non-Biceps: Happens to Super Bwoing in the theme song.
- Hero of Another Story: Contrary to the name and even the signs on the building, the six spotlighted heroes aren't the only ones the agency employs, just the only ones whose adventures we see.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: Every superhero except for Super Bwoing.
- Lemony Narrator: Elevator Man in his segments.
- Miles Gloriosus: Captain Zammo, who acts like he's the greatest thing ever but makes his sidekick do all the work (and then berates him for getting messy doing it). Subverted with Super Scuba, who also acts like he's the bee's knees but is shown to be a competent crimefighter in his own right.
- Multiple Head Case: The Matsoriley brothers are one man with three heads.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Subverted with Magneto Man's enemy The Slasher, who wields a great big knife but only uses it to slash people's belts and make their pants fall down.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- Super Bwoing's voice is an imitation of Jimmy Stewart.
- The episode "The Mummy Caper" has a villain named Mr. X who's an Expy of Sydney Greenstreet, along with a Lorre Lookalike henchman.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Percival the Pigeon brings Granite Man to life by saying "O Granite Man, O rock of power, awaken now to face this darkest hour". He then joins Granite Man on his mission.
- The Noseless: None of the Matzoriley Brothers is drawn with a nose.
- Not Quite Flight: Magneto Man gets around by attracting himself toward large metal objects with his powers.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Bubbles is Super Scuba's Girl Friday. She joins him in his adventures.
- The Pig-Pen: Dirty Pierre, a recurring antagonist in the Brothers Matzoriley segments, simply can NOT stand being clean.
- Sizeshifter: Elevator Man presses a button on his belt to grow or shrink.
- Something Person: Magneto Man, Granite Man and Elevator Man.
- Super-Strength: Granite Man and Elevator Man when at giant size, of course, but surprisingly also Super Bwoing who has no trouble moving entire buildings with his bare hands.
- Super Zeroes: Because of his unimpressive physique, Super Bwoing qualifies as one.
- Three Shorts: First we have a Super Bwoing short, followed by a Brothers Matzoriley short. The final short features one of the remaining five, moderately less comedic heroes.
- Treated Worse than the Pet: In one episode, the Brothers Matzoriley must solve the disappearing of a rich lady's dog. Said lady wasn't that fond of her Henpecked Husband, going as far as telling him to get up from his armchair, so her precious dog would sit there. Unsurprisingly, he is the kidnapper.
- Underwear of Power: Magneto Man looks like he's wearing it but his whole suit is one color so it's a little hard to say.
- Undying Loyalty: Private Hammo is so fiercely loyal to Captain Zammo that he would throw himself in harm's way at the Captain's bidding.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Captain Zammo was originally named Captain Whammo, but this was apparently changed after the Wham-O toy company threatened legal action.
