Super Powers

This article is written
from the Real World perspective

The official logo of Super Powers.^[1]

Super Powers is a Super Friends franchise that got its' start as an action figure line from Kenner called the Super Powers Collection, and from that, it spawned numerous other products such as books, games, puzzles, toys, and numerous other products.

At this point, the Super Powers name was used on multiple products, of course the last two seasons of Super Friends also used Super Powers in their titles, starting with Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, and ending with The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, in which the Super Friends name was dropped altogether in favor of the Super Powers name.

It was not only Kenner and DC who benefitted from this toy line. Namely, the great, if woefully underappreciated in his day, comic book talent, Jack Kirby, was commissioned to design the action figures for his seminal modern DC creations, The New Gods. As a result, it was the only time when the seminal comic book talent received direct royalties for his creations. The major young comic book artist, George Perez, would have a similiar opportunity to create the action figure for Cyborg.

Super Powers products continued to be made even after the end of the animated series. There were even a number of knock-off action figure lines from other companies who attempted to capitalize on the popularity of the characters, such as the DC Comics Super Heroes line, although it was unsuccessful. Even ten years after the end of the toyline, another attempt was made using the Justice League characters, with the Total Justice line, although even those figures were often considered bland by comparison to the older toys.