15 non-American Heroes (CBR article)

[Digifiend]

AROUND THE WORLD: 15 NON-AMERICAN HEROES

CBR.com has compiled a list of 15 non-American heroes. No surprise to see Judge Dredd on the list, but they also included The Dandy's Amazing Mr X. Nice to see obscure characters get remembered.

[colcool007]

That was useful as I am trying to track down a contact in Nigeria to try and get hold of some Power Man comics and I am going to try and use Jide Martin's Comic Republic as a starting point.

[SID]

Strange that they would choose Mr X instead of the likes of Hotspur's King Cobra. Then there was 2000AD's Zenith. And how about Marvelman?

[Lew Stringer]

Strange that they would choose Mr X instead of the likes of Hotspur's King Cobra. Then there was 2000AD's Zenith. And how about Marvelman?

It just shows a lack of proper research. I seem to recall that Mr X was featured in another article not too long ago, which the author may have seen.

There have of course been hundreds of UK heroes they could have chosen, including many British superheroes in the 1950s.

[paw broon]

Exactly Lew. And in any case, wasn't Mr. X Len Manners, not Les? Someone check please as I could be hallucinating.
Even the writer's selection of international heroes is odd, to say the least. Just a short rake around on the internet would have thrown up, at least, Fantax for France; another couple of Misters X in Italy; any number of masked, costumed heroes from Spain; a lot from S. America; Power Man - as Colin mentions - Tiger Ingwe and Mighty Man from S. Africa; De Moker, De Tweede Pimpernel from Netherlands.
As for the British selection, is JD there simply because he's famous? As Sid notes, "how about Marvelman". It would have been good to have name checks for the likes of, Billy the Cat; King Cobra; The Leopard; TNT Tom; Spring Heeled Jackson; Captain Hornet - the list goes on.
Nice idea but a bit weakly carried out, imo.

[starscape]

I wonder who the most known British super-hero is in the UK? Ruling out the likes of Desperate Dan and Judge Dredd (not really super-heroes IMO), I'd probably say it's between Billy the Cat and Captain Britain (age dependant). Can't see the likes of Marvelman or the Leopardboy being as well known (though I love 'em). So, I can only think of Bananaman coming close.

[paw broon]

Interesting question starscape. Depends perhaps on when the question is asked. Nowadays the general public will have no real idea of what's going on in comics generally, nevermind superheroes/MMM, and would probably know only JD and DD. Fans or readers will know of Captain Britain, JD(you're right, not a superhero) and a lot of us on here would probably go for Billy the Cat - I would.
But 30 years ago, no, wait a minute, that only takes us to the '80's. OK, a lot longer ago, Marvelman sold piles weekly and was well known. Having his own title would tend to make him more visible than the heroes in anthology titles. But I have always been aware of the other British heroes I mentioned above, and a lot more.
I'm curious to read other opinions on this

[Adam Eterno]

Interesting question starscape. Depends perhaps on when the question is asked. Nowadays the general public will have no real idea of what's going on in comics generally, nevermind superheroes/MMM, and would probably know only JD and DD. Fans or readers will know of Captain Britain, JD(you're right, not a superhero) and a lot of us on here would probably go for Billy the Cat - I would.
But 30 years ago, no, wait a minute, that only takes us to the '80's. OK, a lot longer ago, Marvelman sold piles weekly and was well known. Having his own title would tend to make him more visible than the heroes in anthology titles. But I have always been aware of the other British heroes I mentioned above, and a lot more.
I'm curious to read other opinions on this

Most people's answers would be age dependant I think. Captain Britain would be my #1 as I was 12 when he came out.

[Digifiend]

I wonder who the most known British super-hero is in the UK? Ruling out the likes of Desperate Dan and Judge Dredd (not really super-heroes IMO), I'd probably say it's between Billy the Cat and Captain Britain (age dependant). Can't see the likes of Marvelman or the Leopardboy being as well known (though I love 'em). So, I can only think of Bananaman coming close.

It probably is Bananaman actually, due to him having a cartoon that aired on the BBC and even got exported to the US.

[paw broon]

Interesting suggestion but I have to say that I know virtually nothing about Bananaman. Well, I suppose I'm vaguely aware of the character and I must have seen him at some time but he doesn't mean anything to me. So I'll stick with Marvelman or Cap Britain.

[Lew Stringer]

I wonder who the most known British super-hero is in the UK? Ruling out the likes of Desperate Dan and Judge Dredd (not really super-heroes IMO), I'd probably say it's between Billy the Cat and Captain Britain (age dependant). Can't see the likes of Marvelman or the Leopardboy being as well known (though I love 'em). So, I can only think of Bananaman coming close.

It probably is Bananaman actually, due to him having a cartoon that aired on the BBC and even got exported to the US.

Yes, Bananaman would figure highly in the public vote, for the reason you give.

I saw something like this discussed elsewhere and I don't think it even got past the public definition of what a superhero actually is, with some suggesting James Bond of all people.

[koollectablz]

Indeed, that wherein lies the rub..

What constitutes a superhero? We can all agree on Captain Britain for instance... but Billy the Cat, or James Bond..?

Hmmm, for me a Superhero needs to have some kind of extra-human capabilities to make them a superhero.

That way Ironman and Batman count (as they have a vast array of high tech gadgetry that doesnt exist in a similar way in the real world) but then just a highly trained athlete that dresses up in a costume probably wouldn't.

Me? I like Captain Blue, always did all the hard work while Captain Scarlet took all the plaudits just because he was indestructible. He was the hero, Scarlet wasn't.

[philcom55]

It's also open to question what constitutes 'British' in this context. After all, Judge Dredd is mostly set in America (as well as being created by an American-born writer and a Spanish artist).

[paw broon]

As Phil says; and then there's Cap. Britain, set in the UK but created by N. Americans. Also, as far as the term superhero goes, I always use it in conjunction with the term Masked Mystery (wo)Men to cover all those costumed/masked heroes who appear larger than real life, more exotic, downright weird at times, but not your everyday policeman, spy, P.I. Therefore in my world, and I know it's an odd one, Billy the Cat is alongside the British characters with genuine superpowers, e.g. TNT Tom, Marvelman or Ace Hart. A bit like the JSA, JLA and some other teams, where you have Mr. Terrific or Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy or Wildcat, for instance, in the same teams as Hourman and Flash.
Lew is right that there was a conversation, and I think it was here, a while ago on this subject.
Define superhero - and obviously some of us feel Batman is a superhero, albeit one with no super powers. Does that make Spring Heeled Jackson or Blackshirt or Black Shadow or Black Whip or Black Sapper (we really did go in for black adjective heroes, didn't we?) superheroes. Some had out of the ordinary gadgets setting them apart from the everyday, some didn't. Better, to my way of thinking, is to consider these disparate heroes as Masked Mystery Men and add the (wo) so you can add in Starr of Wonderland for instance.
Oh, I do love this stuff.

[colcool007]

I would add in The Scarlet Hawk, X-Bow, Flying Fury, Red Star Robinson and there is an argument for adding in The Time Testers and the obvious hero of Dan Dare.