El Dorado (Super Friends)

El Dorado
Publication information
Created by	Hanna-Barbera
In-story information
Team affiliations	Super Friends
Partnerships	Apache Chief Samurai Black Vulcan
Abilities	Super strength, teleportation, telepathy, conjuration of illusions and physical objects

El Dorado is a Hispanic superhero featured in various incarnations of the Super Friends animated television series. He was voiced by Mexican actor Fernando Escandon.

Fictional character biography

El Dorado was created solely for the Super Friends cartoons and has never appeared in a DC Comic. He first appeared as minor character in the Super Friends animated shorts, which aired in 1981 season and later in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show as a full-time member. El Dorado spoke English with an accent, sporadically substituting common Spanish words or phrases, such as adding words like "rapido" and replacing nearly every instance of "yes" with "si".

In El Dorado's debut episode "Alien Mummy" it is revealed that he is of Mexican descent. The narrator sets the scene by describing the location as 'ancient Aztec ruins in the Mexican wilderness'. One of El Dorado's lines is "these are the mysterious ruins of my people".

Powers and abilities

El Dorado's powers were not well-defined and were highly ambiguous. His most frequently used ability was teleportation, which he accomplished by wrapping his cape over his body and vanishing. Anyone or anything he wrapped his cape around could also be teleported with him, and there appeared to be no limit to the distance he could travel. Another of his frequently used powers was the ability to generate illusions. Defined as "holograms," these illusions were also capable of fooling other senses, as they sometimes generated noise and could be touched; he once created a sea monster which roared loudly, and on another occasion generated a pile of fake dolls a villain was forced to physically dig through.

He also exhibited some degree of mental powers, including telepathy. During the series' opening theme, he is at one point shown to be hovering, suggesting flight capabilities, and he would sometimes enter from the side of the screen as if he were just landing.

He may have also possessed superhuman strength, as he once competed directly against Kalibak in physical combat and was also seen on several occasions to lift heavy objects with little effort. Knowledgeable about Pre-Columbian history (yet vague in his explanations), he assisted the Super Friends whenever they were forced to enter unfamiliar ruins or areas in Latin America. No official origin was ever given to explain El Dorado's past, nor the method through which he had acquired these powers. They may be mystical in nature and he is empowered by ancient magic and his people's warrior-spirit, possibly derived from ancestral "Ancient Aztec Sorcerers". Another possibility is that his powers are purely psionic, and the Aztec elements are incorporated purely for thematic purposes.

In other media

Television

• A modernized, teenage version of El Dorado appears in Young Justice: Invasion voiced by Freddy Rodriguez. Here, he is given the name Eduardo "Ed" Dorado Jr. and is seen as one of the teens kidnapped by the Reach. In the episode "Runaways", it is revealed that Ed has now begun to manifest teleportation abilities as a result of experimentation from the Reach. His father Ed Dorado Sr. (voiced by Bruce Greenwood), a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist whose life's work centres around Rannian Zeta Beam technology (for teleporation) surmises that his metagene acquired this ability "opportunistically" as a consequence of his father's work. It was mentioned that Eduardo had run away to be with his dad. Even after an argument with his dad and getting tired of the testing, Eduardo was among those who ran away from S.T.A.R. Labs. He and the other runaways are stopped by Blue Beetle (who reveals him to be Tye Longshadow's friend Jaime Reyes) convincing them to listen to him. Eduardo and the other runaways return to star labs to help Blue Beetle battle Red Volcano (who's after the disassembled Amazo) saving the scientists and staff with Eduardo saving his dad. When Blue Beetle ignores the potential harm he is causing during the battle, and tries to forcibly take them with him, Eduardo and the others escape. The group return to the bus station they had destroyed in their earlier escape (alluding to Statics hideout) and are met by Lex Luthor who recruits them to become the Light's own team of enforcers. In "The Hunt", Eduardo and the other runaways destroy everything in sight relating to the Reach. He joins his friends in the attempt to rescue the Team (whom have been captured and imprisoned in Warworld that is now under Reach Control) and battles both the ship's enforcers and Black Beetle. After everyone is rescued thanks to the intervention of Arsenal, Nightwing offers the runaways a place on the team and plans to kick off Arsenal for his recklessness despite his saving the abductees, but the latter refuse and leave. After Arsenal convinces them that Lex Luthor is no good, Tye and the others depart on their own with Arsenal. In "Endgame", Ed teams up with Captain Atom to take down one of the Reach's magnetic field disruptors. Later, he gets offered to join the Team, but refuses and decides to move back in with his father.

• El Dorado makes a cameo in Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon as a banner in the Hanna-Barbera Comi-Con.

Toys

El Dorado was scheduled to be one of the few Hanna-Barbara original heroes (along with Black Vulcan and the Wonder Twins) to receive an action figure after Samurai. However, the Super Powers Collection line was canceled before the figures could be made.

El Dorado was released in Series 18 of Mattel's DC Universe Classics along with several other Super-Friends/Super-Powers themed figures.