I've long been impressed with the Champions line of comics. When the books began being published in the mid-80's I ignored them in anticipation of a quick cancellation but they are still being produced more than 25 years later.
With a little free time on a long weekend, looking for cheap entertainment, and figuring that such a large cast is bound to have a Canadian character, I purchased a few digital versions (from DriveThru) of their books this morning. And I was rewarded with Can-Con right off the bat!
Sort of. "Reward" is a relative term. The character I found is a villain named The Amazing Darkon. And he is pretty awful.He appears in the first issue of Flare (at right), who arguably became the company's most visible character. That book has a publishing date of November 1988, by which time the Champions team book was already about two years old, so it may be that Darkon was already a running gag by then.
Flare's abilities are light-based so naturally she must deal with a villain with darkness control powers. Seems like a good fit, right?
So what makes him so bad? Read for yourself...
That is an awful lot of stereotyping in less than one page!
It actually gets a little worse. He wears a cardboard (??!!) hat which apparently serves no real purpose. I suppose he just likes its appearance. Here is our boy on the back cover.
Shockingly, writer Dennis Mallonee resisted the temptation to Darkon wear a toque.
This guy is pretty much Heroic's version of DC's Dr. Light (well, from before Identity Crisis anyway...); a lightweight jobber. I don't know how many more appearances he makes. Mercifully, it doesn't seem to be very many.
A character named Lady Darkon appears in later issues of Flare's adventures, however I am unaware at this point whether she is also Canadian or has any direct connection to our boy. Perhaps her name is based on obtaining her powers (if she has any, and whatever they may be) from the same source as the original Darkon.
Whatever. That's not a mystery I'm in any real hurry to solve, frankly. Mind you, she seems like a completely different type of character which, of course, can only be to her credit.
It actually gets a little worse. He wears a cardboard (??!!) hat which apparently serves no real purpose. I suppose he just likes its appearance. Here is our boy on the back cover.
This guy is pretty much Heroic's version of DC's Dr. Light (well, from before Identity Crisis anyway...); a lightweight jobber. I don't know how many more appearances he makes. Mercifully, it doesn't seem to be very many.
A character named Lady Darkon appears in later issues of Flare's adventures, however I am unaware at this point whether she is also Canadian or has any direct connection to our boy. Perhaps her name is based on obtaining her powers (if she has any, and whatever they may be) from the same source as the original Darkon.Whatever. That's not a mystery I'm in any real hurry to solve, frankly. Mind you, she seems like a completely different type of character which, of course, can only be to her credit.
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