March 12, 2010

Tomahawk in Swamp Thing cartoon

Correspondent DMarks sent me the following note:I'm sure you must have covered DC's "Tomahawk" character before.

But I'm not sure you know some more modern things about him. Such as the fact that he's been in a TV show as a recurring character.

I found him on the back of a Swamp Thing action figure from the 1990s tonight, which made me look into him.

Here is a picture of the action figure with a blurb, from the back of a Swamp Thing figure:
The action figures were closely tied in to this show:

Swamp Thing

The actor who did the voice, Harvey Atkin, is of Russian, not Native descent.
Comment:  The main Tomahawk character in DC Comics is a white Revolutionary War hero a la Natty "Hawkeye" Bumppo. DC eventually made him into an early Western hero with an Indian wife and a son named Hawk.

Your Tomahawk is different. Without checking, I imagine he's limited to the Swamp Thing cartoon, which I've never seen. I certainly don't recall seeing him in any comics.

Anyway, this character is obviously a bundle of stereotypes. And the poor guy has to carry a crossbow almost as big as he is.

Thanks for the info. For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

2 comments:

dmarks said...

I must have seen a few minutes of the "Swamp Thing" cartoon.

The theme was actually to the tune of the old hit "Wild Thing" (Troggs?)

Lyrics:

"Swamp Thing.
You are amazing.
You fight everything.
Swamp Thing".

Definitely more toward a brawling WWE wrestler type, and not anywhere near the Alan Moore era of the comic books, which were some of the best comic books ever.

Without checking, it's the type of thing that is probably on Youtube.

Greg Plantamura said...

A hero from the American Revolution named Tomahawk appeared in Swamp Thing #86, but he didn't look like the toy character. DC Comics' Tomahawk (a.k.a Tom Haukins) first appeared in STAR SPANGLED COMICS #69 (1947). In 1953, Tomahawk became a regular in WORLD'S FINEST COMICS. In the Swamp Thing comic book, Swampy travels back in time and observes Tom in his old age, remembered not as an Indian ally but only as a an Indian fighter .. until an old enemy shows up and he gets a chance at redemption with the natives he grew up with. To learn more, look up issue 86 at the Swamp Thing Annotations http://tinyurl.com/2jc79