please help me develop a truly English Superhero - Page 4

Australis · November 9 2009, 01:38 PM

I see Dan Dare, Holmes, P. Fogg, and so on. Have we talked about LXG? Didn't notice it. Mind you, I disagree with a large proportion of fandom and think Alan Moore is a wanker.

Anyway, this next bit is a little convoluted, but bear with me.

Back in the early Metal Hurlant days, Moebius as ked Michael Moorcock if he could use one of his heroes, urban hipster and needle gun slinger, Jerry Cornelius, as a hero in a comic strip, which Moorcock agreed to. Thus was born 'The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius'. After a while, Moorcock didn't like the direction it was taking and asked Moebius to drop Cornelius*. He was dropped, the name shortened to 'The Airtight Garage'. I think another influence on Moebius was a Cornelius side character, Major Nye, veddy British, stiff upper lip, and all that. With the changes, Moebius started a new strip whose name I can't recall, but his story is part of 'TAG' and 'The Man From the Ciguri', and is called Major Grubert.

He typified a very British hero to me - pith helmet, linens, stiff upper lip covered with a thin moustache, eyes fixed on distant horizons, cool on the hottest days and most tense situations. He's an example of the classic Brit type, the Explorer, or the man who guards the frontier. That's the guy you want.

* ETA: While looking around, found this, from Moorcock himself on his website:

I loved The Airtight Garage of JC but someone told Moebius, absolutely wrongly, that I wasn't happy with his use of the name.I learned all this much later...

I couldn't find a really good image of him online, but these will give you an idea:

Chaos Descending · November 9 2009, 03:50 PM

intrinsical wrote:

The Doctor

He is the quintessential British superhero, and certainly someone no American could ever dream up.

Well, not US American, but North American, anyway. (Doctor Who's creator was a Canadian).

Broccoli · November 9 2009, 05:17 PM

Australis wrote:

I see Dan Dare, Holmes, P. Fogg, and so on. Have we talked about LXG? Didn't notice it. Mind you, I disagree with a large proportion of fandom and think Alan Moore is a wanker.

Alan Moore sucks. I his stuff when he works on other, established properties (Superman, Batman, etc), but his original works, while having interesting core ideas, are very blah.

Alpha_Geek · November 9 2009, 05:20 PM

OK, so have some archeologists discover Excalibur. The sword is discovered to have some DNA, but at least 2 samples. Figure out a reason for them to want to reconstruct the DNA, and you can have Arthur with Mordred as his nemesis.

Perhaps these guys aren't superhero and supervillian enough though.

wamdue · November 9 2009, 05:28 PM

Alpha_Geek wrote:

OK, so have some archeologists discover Excalibur. The sword is discovered to have some DNA, but at least 2 samples. Figure out a reason for them to want to reconstruct the DNA, and you can have Arthur with Mordred as his nemesis.

Perhaps these guys aren't superhero and supervillian enough though.

I actually quite like that, plus we get to explore why someone would want to bring back Arthur.

O'Dib · November 9 2009, 05:34 PM

Would be interesting to see Arthur, a Breton (right?), adapt to a world that got taken over by anglo-saxons. Would he want to lay claim to power? And how exactly does an ancient king translate to superhero?

darkwing_duck1 · November 9 2009, 05:39 PM

Broccoli wrote:

Australis wrote:

I see Dan Dare, Holmes, P. Fogg, and so on. Have we talked about LXG? Didn't notice it. Mind you, I disagree with a large proportion of fandom and think Alan Moore is a wanker.

Alan Moore sucks. I his stuff when he works on other, established properties (Superman, Batman, etc), but his original works, while having interesting core ideas, are very blah.

I haven't read LXG the book, but I thought the movie was really good!

darkwing_duck1 · November 9 2009, 05:43 PM

O'Dib wrote:

Would be interesting to see Arthur, a Breton (right?), adapt to a world that got taken over by anglo-saxons. Would he want to lay claim to power? And how exactly does an ancient king translate to superhero?

Depends on which Arthur...the "historical" Artur (sp?), the Roman general or King Arthur of Round Table fame?

I wouldn't bring back Arthur himself. I'd bring back his bloodline, via a descendant. Do the whole secret society/rightful heir thing a la the supposed Sangre Royale explanation for the Holy Grail...

Meredith · November 9 2009, 05:46 PM

SpiderPlantMan!

Herkimer Jitty · November 9 2009, 09:21 PM

Angle-Grinder Man.

Best English superhero ever, IMO. (Besides the aforementioned Doctor and James Bond, of course).

Mistral · November 10 2009, 01:53 AM

How about Eddie the Eagle? Isn't he an English hero?

captcalhoun · November 10 2009, 12:52 PM

no, he's a national laughing stock.