A Costume Preference
You know what I don't think we see enough of? Costumes inspired by the flag of the country the character is from. It's such a great look...
United States of America...
Britain...
Canada...
China...
Russia...
Germany...
Turkey...
Japan...
Israel...
Syria...
Am I missing anyone (thanks to everyone who has suggested a character I've missed...it's really interesting seeing them all next to each other like this)? No duplicates of flags already represented, please!
Let's see some more flag-inspired costumes, comic book creators!!
United States of America...
Britain...
Canada...
China...
Russia...
Germany...
Turkey...
Japan...
Israel...
Syria...
Am I missing anyone (thanks to everyone who has suggested a character I've missed...it's really interesting seeing them all next to each other like this)? No duplicates of flags already represented, please!
Let's see some more flag-inspired costumes, comic book creators!!
posted by Brian Cronin at 5/02/2006 12:10:00 AM
40 Comments:
Heh, good to see Sabra, Israel's only superhero representing.
Major Mapleleaf
Vindicator
Rocket Red
Jack Staff
I'm thinking there was a Japanese character in DC comics who had a rising sun costume... but can't for the life of me remember anything else.
also, the various "patriotic" characters "inspired" by Cap like Fighting American, Super-Patriot, Uncle Sam, etc.
More people should forget about ALpha FLight--it was a horrible book.
But Guardian's costume was cool.
I'm thinking there was a Japanese character in DC comics who had a rising sun costume... but can't for the life of me remember anything else.
Yes. I believe that was "Rising Son," a member of the Global Guardians.
Hey, you forgot Captain Britain! See if Alan Moore will blog for you now!
DC also had The Janissary, whose costume was based on the flag of Turkey.
There may have been more in the "Planet DC" series of annuals (2000).
Actually, as an German, I have to say that the costume, name and idea of a national super-heroe like "Captain Germany" (Marvel) ist totally inane. (I have mocked the whole character at lenght at http://nemedhouse.blogspot.com/2005/10/uebermensch-ueber-alles.html)
Shamrock!
I wish that I could read German so that I could read the mocking of "Captain Germany" (or whatever his name was - I can't recall). I remember those Captain America issues - when Gruenwald was on, he was dead on, but when he was off, well, sometimes it wasn't pretty.
I do like the costume design though - the German flag has a nice look to it I guess...
Wouldn't Captain Nazi fall into this category?
"Shamrock!"
Ireland's flag isn't a big shamrock, silly!
Captain Canuck!
Defensor for Argentina and Collective Man for China (from CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS). Vostok for post-Soviet Russia (from CAPTAIN AMERICA).
Oh, that wacky Gruenwald.
"tenzil said...
Wouldn't Captain Nazi fall into this category?"
Only if the Nazi flag was olive green.
Only Captain America, Vindicator and Union Jack get away with it (of those seen here at least). The rest look stupid.
As for Hauptmann Deutschland, well it's a step up from Blitzkrieg, but a baby-step at best.
Google's translator was pretty much stymied by Axel's Hauptmann Deutschland page. I thought the idea of the character was OK, but the costume? Way too derivative of Captain America's, and obviously so, to the extent he looks like he has an inferiority complex or something.
A "national superhero" needs to project confidence in his identity - whatever the country. Even Captain Luxembourg should look like he's proud of being a Luxembourger, not like he's lamely trying to ride Captain America's coattails.
Another example: If you go by the Fantastic Four movie (and I can see many reasons why you wouldn't want to), scary iron masks are a time-honored Latverian symbol, making Dr. Doom's outfit a "national" look of a sort.
And even in the comics, Doom's such a "L'état, c'est moi" kind of guy that even if he started wearing a pink muumuu, the pink muumuu would instantly become the national dress of Latveria....
No Captain Britain? Or is he grouped in with Union Jack?
What about those 'Batmen of Many Nations'?
Captain Canuck!!
http://www.captaincanuck.com/artwork/images/artwork_08_04.gif
Mark Millar has introduced a European Union-themed superteam in Ultimates 2, with a Captain Italy, Captain France, etc. Their costumes all look pretty good, if generic, so maybe you're onto something.
Collective Man (http://www.marveldatabase.com/wiki/index.php/Collective_Man) bears a striking resemblance to the chinese flag.
Thank you Contest of Champions! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contest_of_Champions)
>>As for Hauptmann Deutschland, well it's a step up from Blitzkrieg, but a baby-step at best.
Well, the concept of a national heroe always has to fight with national stereotyping. Maybe DC and MArvel should ask people who always live there to create these characters, or help as consultants. Then at least they would get the basics right. (Hear that, Marvel?)
And yeah, a German hero called "Blitzkrieg" is creepy. Like a american heroine called Sandy Creek, or a guy from the south clad like a clansman. (or a french guy called "Captain Frog-Eater"?)
P.S. Sorry for the inconvenience - if I could write English as well as I can read it, I probably would have written that article in English. Google translations always are pretty ... odd.
I don't think this is always the case.
For Instance.
Captain America is the only 'American Flag' based costumed crimefighter that had a spectacular looking union suit. All the others really sucked.
Having grown up in that country, I want to see a Captain Luxembourg right now. The costume ought to show how he's different from Captain France, Captain Belgium, and Hauptmann Deutschland, and not just Captain America.
America is not the name of the country.
The name of the country you want is United States of America.
America is the name of the continent.
farz
Actually, if you want to be specific and a jackass, you'll need to specify North or South America to discuss a particular continent.
Now, that would be really funny.
Can you imagine Marvel publishing "Captain South America - the World's Most Latino Magazine"?
One linguistic oddity is that there really *is* no non-ambiguous short word to substitute for "people from the United States of America."
"American" is indeed ambiguous, but you got anything better to use? I've seen "USAn" used in some particularly pedantic Internet neighborhoods, but to the extent that works, it only works in writing, not speech.
There are slangy terms like "Yank," but that itself is imprecise, as no doubt many residents of Georgia or Alabama would have a similar reaction to that of an Edinburgh native being called "English."
In All Star Squadron, Roy Thomas introduced the KKK-themed supervillain Real American - and if you're looking to find the Confederacy-themed version of Captain America, you're not going to do much better. Stars and bars, white hood, the whole nine yards.
There are slangy terms like "Yank," but that itself is imprecise, as no doubt many residents of Georgia or Alabama would have a similar reaction to that of an Edinburgh native being called "English."
Darn tootin'.
The last series of "Captain Confederacy" (via a Marvel imprint, maybe the last days of Epic) had a bunch of other "national champion" characters for the various Great Powers of that world, many of which were pretty cool.
USSR, not russia
Thanks to John for finding a good pic of Collective Man!
Well, the concept of a national heroe always has to fight with national stereotyping. Maybe DC and MArvel should ask people who always live there to create these characters, or help as consultants. Then at least they would get the basics right. (Hear that, Marvel?)
Hell, they should have somebody to just correct them whenever a writer gets pretentious and starts to write in languages he doesn't actually speak. I'm willing to do the job for free if we can avoid Claremont's "plus ce change, plus ce meme chose"
or Casey's "Gewehr er runter wie ein hund". Those make me itch in bad places.
No one's mentioned the USSR-based Tick villain, The Red Scare!
@ Dizzy
You are totally correct. Check the language & check the geography. A few month ago I was howling out loud when Marvel published a Silver Sable-comic that started with a picture of some giant castle on a Alp-like mountain range, captioned: Hamburg, Germany.
Well, I live in Hamburg, and the highest thing here is a 200 m hill. Plus: Hamburg is a city state. No place for mountains & castles.
Again, I had to mock Marvel (http://nemedhouse.blogspot.com/2006/01/marvel-comics-direkt-vor-der-haustr.html)
...and I fear I have to do it again.
Thanks, Simon!
I added Batal!
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I like the Syria one looks pretty cool, and the Canadian one also. I normally don't notice that but I'll try to see i can find more of those.
Union Jack is pretty cool, I wonder how come I don't remember him from before, it looks like a character I would recognize normally.
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