All-American Alien

I pointed out somewhere why Canada doesn’t seem to have that many well-known patriotic/nationalist superheroes the way America does, characters like Captain Canuck and Northguard have come close but still don’t epitomise Canadiana the way Superman and Captain America do with Americana. While it’s true both Canada and America attract a lot of immigrants, but the American dream is a more salient concept in a way the Canadian equivalent wouldn’t be. The American dream involves making it big elsewhere, especially when moving to America where one would be a small fish in a big lake back in the old world.

Even if one of Superman’s creators is Canadian, he came to live in America eventually. I don’t think there’s ever any well-known Canadian superhero that’s really an alien the way Superman is, I actually I don’t think there’s any in Canadian superhero comics at all and that’s saying. Captain Canuck is more mundane, he’s just a Metis man just as Northguard is Jewish. Superman has been assumed to be Jewish by the way of his creators, but he also epitomises the American dream. He is an immigrant who made it big in the United States, compared to his doomed life in Krypton.

While there certainly are superheroes in Canadian comics who are probably scions of immigrants themselves, yet not a single one of them is stated to be extraterrestrial the way Superman is. Or for another matter, Martian Manhunter and Starfire and both of them are aliens who made America their home as well. Even Marvel’s Carol Danvers is part alien herself, no such equivalent exists in Canadian superhero comics, well not in any way that I know of. There’s really no Canadian Superman to speak of.

That’s not to say there aren’t any Canadian superheroes, but there’s really no well-known Canadian superhero that epitomises Americana and the American dream the way Superman does for America. The Pitiful Human Lizard may be one character closely associated with Toronto, but he himself isn’t that well-known so he’s never going to be a real equivalent to what Spider-Man is to the Bronx even if he inspired the former. There’s no Canadian equivalent to Marvel’s close association with New York, even if Canadians have succeeded in creating a shared universe and even then it took them a long time to do it.

The only other superheroes to be closely associated with any Canadian locale are Fleur de Lys and Kebec, that’s just them and The Pitiful Human Lizard whereas Marvel has a wealth of superheroes associated with New York. Let’s not forget that Gotham is a popular nickname for New York, so in a way Batman is also associated with New York. The main difference between Batman and the Pitiful Human Lizard is that Batman is a globally recognised character, so with both Batman and Marvel in general there’s a tendency to mythologise New York City just as Superman does for the Midwest.

Neither Human Lizard nor Fleur de Lys are mythologisations of their respective locales, even if Canadian superheroes can and do work to some extent I don’t think Canada mythologises itself to the same extent America does. Add lack of a recognisable Canadian dream and you’d get why it’s so hard coming up with a well-known patriotic Canadian superhero. This may not always be the case for other countries, even if both Britain and Ireland have the same problem as Canada does but it does explain why America has this strong desire to mythologise itself.

It becomes blatant when it comes to the way Batman’s Gotham approximates New York, how Marvel characters live in a fantastical version of New York and why Superman’s associated with the American heartland while Fleur de Lys just comes from Quebec.

About Time

If I’m not mistaken, when it comes to Canada it’s caught in a quandary where it is both culturally and geographically close to America but also not quite it given its stronger tie to the United Kingdom. This might explain why superheroes as written by actual Canadians seem to be in an awkward position of being almost but never quite superheroy in some regards, since it’s in this uncanny middle ground of being almost like a regular American superhero story but also not quite it too.

The original authors of the Northguard stories have gone on to satirise Canada with Angloman, but the use of geopolitical commentary’s there in Northguard as well. Compare this to the unabashed jingoism of something like Superman where he fights for truth, justice and the American way. Another Canadian nationalistic hero, Captain Canuck, has never been described in the same way and still isn’t. Superman even epitomises the American immigrant experience and the American heartland.

Well, what Superman’s adoptive parents are farmers while the same can’t be said of both Northguard and Captain Canuck, the only Canadian superheroes to be explicitly associated with a given province are Kebec and Fleur de Lys. Even if Canadians attempt to do nationalistic superheroes, they neither come off as reverently nationalistic (Angloman) nor are this nationalistic as their American counterparts are (Northguard, Captain Canuck).

But I think Canada might have a chance at having a genuinely distinct take on the superhero genre, that is without being constantly overshadowed by America due to some number of reasons. One of which is rather unlikely and kind of shocking to say the least, perhaps it’s best to turn to the path rarely ever taken. The use of superheroes as actual police officers may have been done before, especially by Alan Moore if I’m not mistaken.

The fact that he’s British makes such a take all the more novel as it’s barely ever attempted before, or at least not done that frequently given DC and Marvel do have proper detectives. The fact that America has a strong tradition of vigilantism would make an uneasy fit for both Canadian and British cultures, but I think the superhero-cop hybrid angle would be a good way to differentiate the Canadian school of superhero writing from its American counterpart. If because that takes superheroes to a rarely done direction.

Imagine if superheroes were actually and legally law enforcers, police officers and detectives who use their powers for forensic investigation. That’s pretty different from American superheroes like Barry Allen who are technically law enforcers but resort to vigilantism to take on criminals, I feel by hewing superheroes more closely to crime fiction would give it a big edge over the American school of superhero writing since it’s something that might align more with Canadian values.

That’s my preference to be honest but it is necessary for the Canadian superhero school to find its own voice if it doesn’t want to be overshadowed by or assimilated into its American counterpart, since it would be wiser to pursue and peruse conventions of another genre altogether to actually stand out in a good way. So using crime fiction as a major base and influence would be one interesting and meaningful way to make the Canadian superhero school stand out without being readily assimilated into its American counterpart.

Then we get into one unlikely factor that would make the Canadian superhero school actually stand out is when America goes into a big decline, that’s if you believe somebody like Celestial and her blog The Master’s Voice. It’s full of prophecies, some of which have already been fulfilled in some way. She has a series of prophecies detailing America’s inevitable decline and fall from grace, both geopolitically and spiritually.

If America does decline as a superpower, which it will in the near future, on one hand Canada might need a new superpower to look up even if it’s something as shocking as Russia. On the other hand, America’s loss would be Canada’s gain. Canada is culturally similar to America enough to act as an adequate substitute, at least when it comes to soft power.

Celestial had this prophecy where Americans would flee to neighbouring countries for safety during the second civil war, which will happen in 2024 if Donald Trump ever gets shot and Kamala Harris does become US president. Some of them might be Christians who will have a shot at starting life again, continue their ministries there and even allow revivals to happen in both Mexico and Canada. They might even be the lucky ones as they will lead normal lives again, even if they now live in another country altogether. If America becomes a Russian colony, then Canada would be its nostalgic reflection.

Canada will house a substantial number of American refugees, since America and Canada are this culturally similar that they could easily assimilate into Canadian culture. Even if American entertainment continues to be made and exported elsewhere, it will eventually decline over time the more America declines as a superpower and the backlash aimed at it grows stronger even in its former allies and colonies like the Philippines and Nigeria. Nigeria will bear such a grudge towards America for enslaving Africans that it will make the Congo nuke it to pay for its crimes.

So the backlash towards America and anything American will be strengthened over the years, the more America gets into real trouble once Barack Obama becomes US president the third time. Kamala Harris would be the president in the interim, but even her term will cause America to sink real badly. It would be real hard to be proudly American because by then some will become ashamed to be American, if because America’s heading into big trouble and there’s nothing that will stop nor prevent this from happening.

American entertainment conglomerates might not stand a chance, at least reputation wise the more they start killing Christians when the Beast System is installed in earnest. They might still be successful in the near future, but even they will be brought down by factors beyond their control. Especially if it’s something that hurts their reputation and brand image, to the point where Canadian brands are the more socially acceptable and beloved substitutes. Marvel’s reputation would be really tarnished if its owner starts killing Christians.

Its Canadian counterpart would go unscathed and become more widely beloved by many, in fact it could even happen before America becomes overrun by the Beast System. I had this prophecy somewhere that Disney’s legacy will be undone, in fact in ways that would be unthinkable to the modern mind. Disney will be usurped by something else, so Marvel will be usurped by something else as well. Something will take Disney’s place as the leading family entertainment company/brand, logically something else will take Marvel’s place as the leading superhero brand.

It might not even be Canadian, but if America does decline as a superpower then the Canadian superhero school will finally stand out more meaningfully. Without DC and Marvel overshadowing it, the Canadian superhero school might even develop in ways the American superhero school never bothered to. The Canadian superhero school might have its chance to shine, though I think it takes two unconsidered factors for it to actually stand out more.

Up North

Canada is kind of interesting in its own right, especially when it comes to how its cultural identity is built on both France and Britain. What’s even more fascinating is that Canada does have its own superheroes, but it’s only now that it has its own shared universe. That’s right it took more than a decade for Canada to get its own shared universe of superheroes, these are mainly published by Lev Gleason (formerly Chapterhouse Comics). There were superhero comics in Canada before, such as Nelvana and Iron Man then you have Captain Canuck and Northguard.

It’s not uncommon for Canadians to work on US-based superhero magazines, at this point some Canadian cartoonists who worked on any one of the Lev Gleason magazines also worked on any one of the DC and Marvel magazines. Out of all the nationalities that worked for DC and Marvel, it’s Canada that’s next door both geographically and culturally. This is pretty much why Canadians get mistaken for Americans, if you want me to be honest the Canadian accent is practically or at least mostly indistinguishable from the general American accent.

But even then, Canada has its own culture that anything written by a Canadian will reflect a Canadian sensibility to varying degrees. So it is with Canadian superhero stories, where any attempts at creating a Canadian superhero will involve infusing American concepts with a Canadian touch.