What Idealistic superhero would you invent?

[SSgt Baloo]

In the U.S., we've got Captain America and Superman, champions of the people and (to some extent) upholders of the status quo (Superman more than Cap).

 

What would a superhero that reflected the national character of your country be like? What might he be called? What do you think his powers would be? What would his costume look like?

 

The only non-US characters of that sort who weren't invented by US-Americans are Captain Canuck and Captain Britain (that I am aware of). By the way, anyone familiar with these two is welcome to describe them for me.

 

Seriously, what would Captain Scotland be all about or Captain France or... well, you get the idea and what would they likely be called besides "Captain-Somebody"?

 

I eagerly await your unAmerican responses, and I mean that in the very best way possible.

[Certified]

Re: What Idealistic superhero would you invent?

 

In the Metahumans Rising campaign I tried to write several "iconic" characters into the setting. However, the one that is directly tied to a country is RRX-001 The Red Juggernaut. Some of the concepts that he represented was the idea of unending might of the Russian people. Created through experimentation and an undisclosed loss of human life around that the Red Juggernaut was the immovable wall of the iron curtain holding the Russian lines in World War two and later disobeying orders to prevent outright war with the US during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Red Juggernaut fought for the ideals of Communism and equality amongst all people and more than once sacrificed for this concept. This caused his inevitable fall turning against his leaders when the USSR turned away from communism for a democratic state.

 

RRX-001 The Red Juggernaut powers were fairly straight forward. Considered one of the strongest Metahumans ever to live he was able to deflect an inbound missile targeting the US. Additionally, Red Juggernaut's flesh was nearly impenetrable having stood up to German artillery fire in the War.

 

During this same time there was also a US hero of virtually identical powers by the name of American Armor. One of the first Metahumans he was a solder in the first World War American Armor gaining his powers manifested after surviving the initial event that sparked widespread Metahumanity. American Armor was a leader in both World Wars and helped serve as beacon to the US and other countries for his bravery. Because of American Armor's background, a black American he also served as a catalyst for racial equality although never an activist himself. Seeing himself as a citizen and a solder first the respect he commanded virtually forced some minds to accept ideas of equality.

 

While working on the background I tried to show the confusion and differing opinions of the North Korean and Viet Nam wars. In the settings time line one of the remaining US 7 (Metahumans that fought along side American Armor) was captured after crossing the 38th parallel. The US allowed the hero to be taken captive. Disobeying orders American Armor crossed over to rescue the Metahuman known as Patriot. During their escape he is cut down by enemy fire. His death is seen as a tragedy and a betrayal by the government. Later, it would become clear that a Korean forces had retained a potent Metahuman mercenary capable of suppressing others powers. However, the loss of American Armor was felt by the entire country as a passing of an age.

 

Other characters written as representations of differing points of views in history include Doctor Midnight (No relation to other Doctors or Midnights) representing pulp era hero and patriotism he served as a covert agent and spy, and Moon Dog who was raised to be a loyal solder and served well but became disenfranchised as the Viet Nam conflict escalated, yes my dirty hippy hero turns into a weredoggy.

 

There are others that I written about in passing but don't have enough story to really put down concrete ideas here. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, I think I've written enough.

[assault]

Re: What Idealistic superhero would you invent?

 

There isn't really a single character that fits the bill for Australia. However, since the question is "reflect(ing) the national character of your country", I would go with the Southern Squadron.

 

Their comics are online, but contain coarse language that may be inappropriate for some readers.

 

 

Southern Squadron comics

They also appear in some of the Dark Nebula stories on the same site.

 

[Egyptoid]

Re: What Idealistic superhero would you invent?

 

I'm not from Egypt. But one could Imagine two archetypical Egyptian Superheroes,

 

one powered by the new ways: guns, islam, fervor, faith, miracles

 

one powered by the old ways: swords, polytheism, devotion, superstition, spells.

 

they would both agree that egypt wholeheartedly needs defending,

and then would they ever agree on how to go about doing so....

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: What Idealistic superhero would you invent?

 

Captain Canuck has had several incarnations over the years since Richard Comely launched him in 1978. He's never really taken, because, well, that's not how Canadians are patriotic. He doesn't address bilingualism, the ambivalent English/proud Scottish heritage, the constitutive anti-Americanism, or, above all, wilderness. (Don't get me wrong about the anti-Americanism. The point of Canada is that it decided not to be American. Our nation would not exist but for that conscious choice.)

I think it is telling that Comely himself is (was?) a Mormon from southern Alberta, a community that is perhaps unfairly caricatured as people who look across the border for guidance on how Mormons should live their lives, and so try to be red-blooded Canadian patriots in exactly the same way that American Mormons are red-blooded Americans.

Red Ensign sounds much more true to the spirit of the old-time Canadian funny book super-patriots, but Wolverine, for all his cheesiness, has pretty much got the lock on what it means to be an iconic Canadian superhero.

From now on, that's going to be the template.

[Clonus]

Re: What Idealistic superhero would you invent?

 

There was a Frenchman on a DC heroes RPG list who had a series of French homemade superheroes. He started out with his symbol of the nation heroine, "Marianne". Marianne is the equivalent of the American Uncle Sam, an imaginary personification of the nation from a work of art. Specifically she's what they call the woman in that famous "storming the barricades" painting depicting the French Revolution. His version of Marianne was a Wonder Womanesque brick with ancestral memory to make her the living personification of French history.

 

As for Captain Canuck, as you might expect he was kind of a lamer. He had two sidekicks representing francophones and anglophones and the three of them were government agents in costumes who spend all their time fighting an evil American corporation that wanted to take over the Canadian government. Northguard was way better in both dialogue and patriotic costume. For some reason that escapes me an evil corporation implanted a forcefield generator in his body that let him create forceshields and forceblasts. Then there's Canadiana: http://www.sandycarruthers.com/canadiana.html.

Also there's Captain Newfoundland who appeared in a Newfoundland newspaper comics page. He had mental powers and a connection to Atlantis. Then there was the brief Golden Age of Canadian superheroes created by trade restrictions during World War II. About the only of 'em that anyone remembers is Nelvana of the North who only had powers in northern Canada and had vaguely defined magic powers.