Sometimes it’s hard to find a hero. I find it sometimes helps to look under the couch… Welcome to Ten Things: Ten “Little” Supers!

Whooshman-Bicarbonate Films, in conjunction with An Amateur Comics Historian, Dr. Ray Palmer and Dr. Hank Pym, Presents:

TEN THINGS: TEN “LITTLE” SUPERS!

10) LITTLE WING

The sidekick of the legendary vigilante Blackbird, Mackenzie Spencer is also her daughter. They’re part of an extended family of super-types, as her uncle is Pyralis, leader of the Family Dynamic, though Blackbird is something of a black sheep, due to her lack of super-powers. All family drama aside, all of them are awesome, especially her ‘Battle of the Planets’-inspired helmet.

9) LITTLE BARDA

A native of Apokalips who grew up idolizing Big Barda, this young woman seems to have no other name (and little appreciation of intellectual property laws, presuming they have those in Armaghetto.) Making her way to Earth, she joined the Teen Titans during a time of great membership upheaval, eventually quitting when she didn’t get the training she expected. She later fell in with the short-lived (read: doomed) Titans East squad under the command of Cyborg, and hasn’t been seen since.

8) LITTLE MISS STRANGE

A mystical dynamo from another world, Scorpia earned her nickname as a child, while she was being raised by the seven most powerful priests alive. Sadly, one of her pseudo-parents went rogue in search of power, leaving her alone to protect the entire universe. In order to do that, she must gather three items of unimaginable power to maintain the fabric of reality, all the while hoping her bodice stays up.

7) LITTLE DYNAMITE

If comics are any indication, being short was really stigmatized in the 30s and 40s. Even before Al Pratt, Officer Ben Trumpson had to fight for respect, working twice as hard as his 5′ 10″ and over counterparts. His two appearances are the work of a pre-Plastic Man Jack Cole and are remarkably ahead of their time in tone and construction, turning Ben’s “handicap” into his ace in the hole.

6) LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

A would-be superhero who was part of the initial field of candidates for the Wildguard reality TV program, Mary Landry could fly and emit powerful solar energy bursts. Sadly, she was captured by alien slavers and disqualified from the competition, which is a bummer because every team needs the bright-and-shiny optimist (and she fits the bill both figuratively AND literally.)

5) LITTLE SAPPHO

The sidekick of Gyno-Star, Little Sappho (real name as yet unrevealed, at least as far as I can tell) seems to have a number of superhuman abilities, but mostly gets by on snark and Righteous Lesbian Rage. Their battle for equal rights is seemingly never-ending, but they have backup in the form of the Social Justice League!

They’re a little bit useless, but hey, what super-team isn’t?

4) LITTLE MONSTER

After an accident bombarded him with gamma radiation and Pym particles, Scott Banner found that the madder he gets, the SMALLER he gets, with an increase in strength as he decreases. Or at least, that’s the story, as he is actually a gestalt being of Ant-Man and The Hulk accidentally created during the Infinity Warps story line, and was eventually separated back into his component heroes.

3) THE LITTLE MERMAID

A hybrid born of two different species of Atlantean (her mom from Poseidonis, where the Atlanteans have mermaid tails, and her dad from Tritonis, where Aquaman hails from), Ulla Paske could only survive underwater for a few hours. She was raised on land, eventually growing up to be Denmark’s premier hero and joining the Global Guardians. Strangely, she was murdered by fellow hero Jack O’Lantern, only to turn up fine later.

She claimed that the dead Little Mermaid was her evil twin, and everybody just sort of let that one go…

2) LITTLE MISS REDHEAD

After her friend/maybe-crush put on a costume and became the grade school defender known as Little Boy Blue, Janie (last name unrevealed) mostly followed them around and pestered them about their secret, but when a criminal turned them to crime, she got involved in her own costumed identity. Later stories had Little Boy Blue’s son take up the mantle, with implications (but never a full reveal) that Janie might be the new LBB’s mother.

1) LITTLE CHEESE

Thanks to his father’s experiments with Lunar Longhorn, an extraterrestrial cheese, Chester Cheese was able to shrink at will, while still retaining his full rodent strength. Sadly, this all came after his father’s murder, forcing Little Cheese to team up with The Zoo Crew to bring the killers to justice.

I like to pretend that his Murder-By-Johns didn’t happen, given how out of character all the Zoo Crew members were and also that it was just awful. No, somewhere out there, he’s alive on Earth-C, having adventures laden with terrible puns, and that’s just fine.

This week’s Ten Things topic is all me, but feel free to follow along @MightyKingCobra for more Ten Things madness on Twitter! Or check out the full Twitter archive here! As with any set of like items, these aren’t meant to be hard and fast or absolutely complete, if only because every team needs a shrinking guy, a fast guy and a dude with claws. Either way, the comments section is Below for just such an emergency, but, as always: Please, no wagering!

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