Them Other Canadian Heroes ...

[Powersurge]

Here is a little something I came across while surfing this morning ...

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/c/canada.htm

It is a page devoted to various superheroes, both obscure and not-so-obscure, of Canadian origin.

It makes one wonder why, with all of the talent and creativity Canadians regularly display, we "cant" (ie. won't, refuse too, etc.) create our own comic universe and company ... with interesting characters, consistently fair artwork, and entertaining stories. I betcha there is talent enough on this list alone to produce a title or two.

[Canucklehead]

Here is a little something I came across while surfing this morning ...

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/c/canada.htm

It is a page devoted to various superheroes, both obscure and not-so-obscure, of Canadian origin.

It makes one wonder why, with all of the talent and creativity Canadians regularly display, we "cant" (ie. won't, refuse too, etc.) create our own comic universe and company ... with interesting characters, consistently fair artwork, and entertaining stories. I betcha there is talent enough on this list alone to produce a title or two.

All in favor for a Beaver Boy solo title!

[Powersurge]

All in favor for a Beaver Boy solo title!

Okay, so not all of us are strong in the conceptualization department ( I noticed that while purusing the above link), but then others of us are lacking in the humour department. Its just a matter of getting it all arranged in the right places and proper order!!

[Canucklehead]

Okay, so not all of us are strong in the conceptualization department ( I noticed that while purusing the above link), but then others of us are lacking in the humour department. Its just a matter of getting it all arranged in the right places and proper order!!

Ha, just jokin man. I actually think it would be a great idea. I noticed they left a few notibles off the list though, including Fleur de Lis. I'd love to have Canadian Universe comics, yet sadly, I doubt the market is really there. Especially these days when all comic companies are having a rough time. If Marvel can't keep non-X or Spidey books from going under, with all the potential marketing they have. It's hard to think anything like that could survive. Although I'm sure Marvel could buy some of these characters up for cheap and have them in an AF universe.

[Powersurge]

Ha, just jokin man. I actually think it would be a great idea. I noticed they left a few notibles off the list though, including Fleur de Lis. I'd love to have Canadian Universe comics, yet sadly, I doubt the market is really there. Especially these days when all comic companies are having a rough time. If Marvel can't keep non-X or Spidey books from going under, with all the potential marketing they have. It's hard to think anything like that could survive. Although I'm sure Marvel could buy some of these characters up for cheap and have them in an AF universe.

Yeah, the practical, business end of making a comicbook work long term is definitely my WEAK point. The soundness of your point seem pretty obvious though.

From my own pov though, I see people all over the place on the internet writing comicbook stories, drawing superhero pictures, inventing and detailing heroes, villians, teams, "universes" ... doing almost all of the creative stuff necessary for a superhero comic, and doing it "just for fun".

Naturally, if there simply isn't a market for comics anymore, period, then nothing will help, but really, how much would the business end of producing a few hundred copies of a comic cost? Would the love of a few passionate and talented people be able to absorb that cost if necessary?

I mean, they are all out there, doing it (in scattered heaps) anyway, right?

[HappyCanuck]

'Surge, if you have any ideas, I can think of a few who'd be willing to make it work...

[Powersurge]

'Surge, if you have any ideas, I can think of a few who'd be willing to make it work...

Man, I got tons of ideas ... some better than others of course, but I've been playing/gamemastering superhero rpg's, et al. for some 20 odd years. I'd imagine others have lotsa ideas to, so I'd say its really just a matter of getting some interested folk together in an appropriate forum to share ideas and see if we can hit on some stuff that we all feel good about and can work with.

Should we just create a thread here? Ummm, this one for instance? Or do you think something more "unto itself" might be in order? We could always set up a forum on Yahoo! or whatever?

[cmdrkoenig67]

Okay, so not all of us are strong in the conceptualization department ( I noticed that while purusing the above link), but then others of us are lacking in the humour department. Its just a matter of getting it all arranged in the right places and proper order!!

Ha, just jokin man. I actually think it would be a great idea. I noticed they left a few notibles off the list though, including Fleur de Lis.

Fleur De Lis is there...you just have to go to the Northguard/Angloman link.

Dana

[Powersurge]

Here is a scenario a friend and I recently began. It takes place in a world next to identical to our own, with virtual ignorance amongst the general population of the existence of super powered beings, and with no super powered beings have powers beyond the reach of conventional science (eg. steroids, bone grafts, etc.). Of course, that is all beginning to change.

Event Horizon

NOUN: The region, usually described as spherical, marking the outer boundary of a black hole, inside which the gravitational force is strong enough to prevent matter or radiation from escaping.

SLANG: The "region" marking the outer boundary of any situation, beyond which the force of inevitability is strong enough to prevent escape; the point of no return.

While taking the scenic route through Cuthbert Holmes Park, a wooded park situated behind Silver City movie theatre and Tillicum Mall in Victoria, British Columbia, a duo of unlikely friends (styled after my friend and I) were nearly killed when a flaming object plummetted out of the sky and crashed landed near to them, sending all manner of tree splinters, rocks, stone shards, and dirt flying in all directions. Shaken, but uninjured, the friends quickly picked themselves up off the ground and rushed to the sight of the crash to see what there was to see. They soon found a fair sized crater, at the bottom of which sat a partially intact vessel of some strange, advanced-looking design.

Making their way to the bottom of the crater they found an opening in the ship. Deciding to investigate even closer still, the two entered the craft, but no sooner had they when a number of mechanical tendrils reached out from the ship itself and overwhelmed them. They were quickly strapped to cold, steel upright beds and rendered unconscious.

----

When the duo awoke they found themselves sharing a hosptial room in Victoria's Royal Jubilee Hospital. Each had a strange sense of themselves, and recalled fragments of a profound dream, but before they could really discuss it between themselves, an old nurse came in. She explained that they had been brought in yesterday evening, that their kith and kin had been notified of their whereabouts, and she also remarked that they were very lucky to have survived the meteor crash, especially with all of the strange, toxic gases it had been releasing. When they asked her about this, she told of how the government quickly moved into the area and sealed it off for public protection due to the toxic nature of the meteor.

For the rest of the morning both the friends were quiet and withdrawn, unsure what to make of their experience yesterday eve. Then, around noon, a doctor came in, gave them both a clean bill of health, and "released" them. As they made their way out of the hospital "Jamey" remarked that "it looked like a ship to me". "Me too", replied "Gerard".

These comments led into greater and more open conversation about what they had experienced. Both admitted that they felt they had been enhanced by the ship, and each did in fact have a keen sense of what those enhancements were. Both of them also had a patchy memory of being spoken to by an idealised human man of wisdom and authority. From what they could recall from the foggy, fragmented memory, this "man" spoke of somekinda of threat making its way toward Earth. Gerard thought the being had said that they had been given their powers to help fend off this impending threat, but Jamey remarked that this was an assumption, and that the message had not been so precise. It merely referenced indirectly that the gift of the powers was somehow related to the impending threat. Whether they were to use these powers to fight against the invaders, or for them was however in nowise stated. And afterall, if their bodies could be altered so easily by the alien technology, why not their minds? Did the "memory" itself not imply the ability to manipulate the mind?

Parting ways at the downtown junction of Douglas and Yates Street, the friends agreed to get together within the next few days to test out these supposed powers of theirs ... if indeed they really had powers and this wasn't all somekind of shared delusion ... perhaps brought on by the strange gases this "meteor" supposedly released.

[Powersurge]

Here is my character from, errr, "Event Horizon"

Picture

Real Name: Jamey Robinsson
Occupation: Housedad
Identity: Secret
Place of Birth: Oromocto, New Brunswick, Canada
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Shelly Johnson (wife), Sandra Robinsson (daughter), Edward Robinsson (son)
Base of Operation: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Height: 5 ft. 11 in.
Weight: 145 lbs (apparent), 200 lbs (actual)
Eyes: Green
Hair: Brown

Strength Level: This hero is capable of military pressing 400 lbs with relative ease, 800 lbs with substantial effort, and up to 1 ton in rare moments of both extreme distress and ideal conditions. Even at his slight 145 lbs, he is capable of lifting with the strongest of super heavy weights ... and surpassing them.

Known Superhuman Powers: Beyond his super human strength this hero has limited invulnerability, enabling him to shrug off both the blows of most trained and untrained regulars, as well as bullets up to 9 mm. He is perfectly comfortable in temperatures ranging from 32 degrees C to -1 degrees C.

He also possess the ability to see patterns of energy across the infrared and electromagnetic spectrums, and can fire blasts of cosmic energy from his eyes capable of burning through steel plate.

Finally, he possess the ability to fly at speeds reaching up to 300 mph.

[HappyCanuck]

I've already gave my opinion in a PM, so I won't reiterate here. Just give what I said some thought, 'Surge.

[Julesville]

SPAWN was Canadian?!?!?! No way! Didn't he work for the U.S. Government?!?!?!

[Legerd]

Todd McFarlane the creator of Spawn is Canadian.

[RatCat]

Are they supposed to be Canadian heroes or Canadian creators? If both then Superman could be listed there (although they only seem interested in independent characters)

Here's a question. Does DC have any Canadian heroes? To me is always seems like they ignore us completely. While Marvel has characters like AF, Wolverine and Deadpool.

[HappyCanuck]

Are they supposed to be Canadian heroes or Canadian creators? If both then Superman could be listed there (although they only seem interested in independent characters)

Here's a question. Does DC have any Canadian heroes? To me is always seems like they ignore us completely. While Marvel has characters like AF, Wolverine and Deadpool.

DC's characters are more supposed to be along the lines of 'anywhere' characters - hence why most of them live in fictional cities, so that you can get a grasp that they could be from anywhere, anywhen type scenarios. Marvel was all about taking their superheroes and setting them in real places, making it all the more... real to the reader, because these are happening in places they could actually go. According to an interview with Stan Lee once apon a time ago, he could remember shortly after they first introduced Spider-Man that he'd come across kids who were constantly looking up, hoping to catch a glimpse of the wallcrawler swinging between buildings.