[The Australian Panther]

While working on the Siegel/Spider post, I came across this, which is too good not to share.
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/scoop-new-marvel-brexit-british-superhero-team-comic-launches-empyre/

This team is the ending of Marvel's current BIG EVENT1

Look at the image on the site then read this comment!

SCOOP: New Marvel Brexit British Superhero Team Comic Launches In Empyre
Posted on February 13, 2020 | by Rich Johnston | Comments

It's a good week for comic book scoops on Bleeding Cool. More to come too. But this one will be closest to my heart. Bleeding Cool understands a new comic monthly comic from Marvel will star classic Invaders character Union Jack, alongside one hero from each of the main countries in the United Kingdon, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, just as we are all going through Brexit. And naturally, for a British superhero team, they will debut in the new Marvel event comic, Empyre. The sun never sets 

[paw broon]

Oh dear. I'm surprised the Welsh character doesn't carry a magic leek.  This could be pure Cuthbert (That's cringeworthy for the uninitiated)
There is a proud history of British superheroes, MMM and powered adventurers, often quirky, but also many who were created to mimic American superheroes.  TNT Tom and Ace Hart appeal to me more.
I don't read many modern comics and this looks like another I won't read.  I suppose, to be fair, I'll have to have a swatch at #1.

[Andrew999]

It would be so easy to have an Aussie team:

Kanga Girl - able to leap a building in a single bound
Joey - bashes his enemies to the floor with a single punch
Five-Eighths - Tosses gas-filled missiles shaped like rugby balls
Swagman - Sings his enemies to sleep with third-rate country songs
Boomerang - Whenever you offend her, it comes back on you ten-fold (inspired by my wife)
Sterling - The sophisticated British-born leader of the team, obviously

You can probably think of others - perhaps we should produce some scripts and offer them to DC?

[IronOutlaw1880]

I'd change Sterling for something more realistic:

Toothless - typical British-inbred missing most of his teeth due to lack of hygiene.

[paw broon]

HMMMMM.  Not quite sure how to take that comment. Perhaps you could let us know if it's a funny, which I hope it is.

[The Australian Panther]

This thread very quickly took a possibly disturbing direction I never intended.
I made it a separate thread because there was no other context for it.
I was commenting on an actual comic book team that Marvel has advertised. I was pointing out that that team was a collection of obvious national stereotypes.
I had no intention of ridiculing anybody. I find national cliches annoying and evidence of lazy thinking.
The idea of an indentifably Australian Superhero is one that has never really taken off. The classic Aussie Superheroes, some of which are on the site, like The Australian Shadow, the Panther, the Raven, Catman, Silver Starr and so on, are not specifically Australian at all. Shadow and Raven are English actually.
Back in the Eighties people llike Glen Glenn Lumsden, Tad Pietrzykowski,Gary Chaloner and David De Vries [Who identifies as a New Zealander] attempted to do Australian Superheroes, but that didn't last long.
http://www.tabula-rasa.info/AusComics/DavidDeVries.html   
The Cyclone Anthology featured
The Dark Nebula
The Golden Age Southern Cross
The Jackaroo
The Southern Squadron
The Squadron consisted of:- 
was led by a female, Lieutenant Christine Smith ( no superhero ID I think)
Nightfighter, a former Australian soldier, Adam West, [Yes] part of a program to create a super soldier
Southern Cross, a young, trendy North Shore fashion designer, Bertram Davis, from Sydney with psychokinetic powers.
Dingo, Costas Borgas, is the werewolf son of a Serbian immigrant.
This is what we come up with when we do it ourselves. Not the kind of obvious cliches that say Marvel or DC would come up with.
and

They cooperate closely with their New Zealand counterparts, the Waitangi Rangers

Cyclone ran 8 issues and became Southern Squadron which ran only 4 issues.

The original Cyclone! Characters have undergone something of a revival with the launching of The Dark Nebula[permanent dead link] webcomic in 2006. The website has been operation for a little over two years. This webcomic currently includes Dark Nebula, the Golden Age Southern Cross and The Southern Squadron. The new series of The Dark Nebula, The Southern Cross & The Southern Squadron graphic novels are also available on-line through Web Comics Nation

There was also David Carroll's Role-playing team PHALANX which I know little about.
http://www.tabula-rasa.info/Roleplaying/Phalanx.html
[Members of the Team
Lusus, Kankatha, Tiger, Ex Machina, Sun Strike]
I have, of course, indulged in the fan activity of compiling and creating my own team.
I think that a nationally identified team should be truly representative. So there would not necessarily be a member of a UK persuasion in a 21st Century team. . So maybe a Kanaka [Solomon Island origin], an Aussie like Russel Crowe who was originally born in NZ, A Tasmanian, An Asian (Chinese, Korean  or Maybe Malaysian), Maybe a Polish Australian [ I have many friends and acquaintances from Poland] and maybe a Lebanese Australian. Am I making my point?
Most attempts to create an Australian character from US publishers make me grit my teeth. I don't mind Captain Boomerang as a character but he speaks cockney, not anything that you would really hear out of the mouth of an Australian.

So maybe we can seriously use this thread to think about what believable National Superhero teams might look like. What should a Scots team, A French team, A Brazilian team ( to give a few examples)  look like?

Cheers!       

     

[Andrew999]

A Cornish team might look like this:

Arfur - Heroic leader and swordsman
Pasty Man - Gains super-strength and virility after eating a pasty
The Clot - Sends forth waves of fast-setting clotted cream to drench and immobilise villains
Gog & Magog - Two giants to provide the heavies in any combat
Morganna - Enchantress whose motives are clouded in mystery

I've restricted it to six as we now have a bizarre irrational Rule of Six in this country which means no more than six people are able to meet at any one time (it's a bit more complicated than that in the detail) - unless it's in a pub, restaurant or on a grouse hunt (really, that's true).

That does beg the question, what if the Rule of Six spreads to other countries?

The Avengers are currently overloaded with members - which six would you choose for the New Normal Avengers? And which six for the New Normal X-Men?

Will football be reduced in future to six-a-side futsal - and the scrum and a centre removed from rugby?

I think we should be told

[paw broon]

The start of a Scottish superhero group, with some who have actually seen print. Grant Morrison's Captain Clyde:-
https://globalvariables.net/2019/01/13/grant-morrison-captain-clyde-part-one/
and if I can dig up my digital copy, Muff Man with art by Colin McNeil.
Captain Empire by Dom Regan  and Black Ice, a Glasgow set superhero By Andy hope and Peter Coyle