"Snake" Marston of The Enforcers

Like many kids, I became a fan of Spider-Man on sight. He's a fun character (or at least he was at the time) but his wacky villains were, of course, a big part of the appeal of his adventures.  Guys like Mysterio, the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus...

So I remember how bummed I was when my mom brought home an Amazing Spider-Man issue for me in which web-head squared off against...The Enforcers.  It was a reprint of the book at right.

Man, mom meant well, of course, but...What a letdown. Spider-Man has all these wicked villains and mom buys one with these three losers who were already dated when I was a toddler.  Even the Vulture would have been greater cause for excitement.

Years later, I would somehow end up with another book which featured the Enforcers; Marvel Team-Up 138.

In this book, the person who hires the Enforcers adds a couple of members to the team.  What I'm only realizing, almost 30 years later, is that one of those recruits is Canadian.

The original three (Ox, Fancy Dan and Montana) were joined by a guy called Hammer Harrison (the dude with the metal gloves, obviously) and the skinny guy in black. The latter would be Sylvester "Snake" Marston, our Canadian content.

Snake, whose first name is surprisingly not Jake, has no powers as such, but he is an accomplished contortionist.  That doesn't sound like much of a skill to possess, but in one of his few appearances his ability is described as being "murderously efficient at silently crushing sinew and bone".  I can see how that would suck.

MTU 138 was not his first appearance, mind you.  That significant moment in comics history took place in Machine Man #16.  It would be about 12 years until Snake would slither his way into our lives again, appearing in a couple of issues of Daredevil in 1996, then in the Thunderbolts book a decade later. He was a member of the Enforcers in the former appearance, but not the latter, so presumably he is no longer on that team.

The Nationalist Superhero

I feel kind of bad.

During one of my many online searches for Canadian heroes, I came across Jason Dittmer's book "Captain America and the Nationalist Superhero".  In his book, Dittmer studies the significance of the flag-wearing comic book characters (including Captain Canuck) in society.

Amazon: "He argues that these iconic superheroes contribute to our contemporary understandings of national identity, the righteous use of power, and the role of the U.S., Canada, and Britain in the world."

The book was recently reviewed by Noah Berlatsky for reason.com. In his review, Berlatsky suggests that such characters have been increasingly irrelevant for some time.

From the '60s to the present—the period on which Dittmer focuses most of his attention—superhero comics have been a more and more marginal, subcultural interest.
...
Dittmer speaks approvingly of subverting nationalist superhero archetypes, oblivious to the extent to which globalization has subverted sovereignty. Nationalist superheroes aren't what they once were. And that, contra Dittmer, is why more people focus on fantasies and/or nightmares about power without borders.

I directed the review to Mr Dittmer as an opposing viewpoint, somehow not taking into account that he might find it disappointing. In this case, perhaps ignorance would have been bliss. If so, I apologize for that.

I haven't read Mr Dittmer's book (yet) so I can not comment directly on his position.  I do know that I largely disagree with Noah Berlastky's.

I think it is more accurate to say that the significance of nationalist characters has shifted. They are no longer used as inspiration, but they can still be reflective of a country's general mindset and as such be culturally significant.

I can only base this on my own experience. I recall watching the Vancouver Olympics in early 2010. As Canadians loudly and enthusiastically celebrated the country's success through its athletes, one announcer said something to the effect that "Canada has finally come of age".

Wow. That sounded a little heavy considering that it was in reference to a sporting event.

But it does seem, at least in my day-to-day experience, that displays of Canadian pride are more common of late.  Suddenly, Captain Canuck, and similar characters, started to be seen more frequently.   A movie based on the Captain is finally starting to get legs. An animated version of the character was recently revealed.  Canadian actor Nathan Fillion dresses as "Captain Canada" for Halloween, and the handful of pictures are displayed on many entertainment sites and social media.  We can now look forward to an anthology comic (True Patriot) and book (Masked Mosaic).

I don't credit the increase in expressive pride specifically to Olympic results, of course.  That was just an easy outlet.  I expect that the cause goes much deeper.

Whatever the exact cause, I struggle to assume that the increase in visibility and acceptance of patriotic characters in the last 2-3 years is coincidental.  It may not always be in comic book form, but the actual format is irrelevant.  So long as the character's primary appeal is his nationality, then that should speak for itself.

The national superhero may no longer be used as a rallying point.  He is no longer a tool to increase patriotism.  I would suggest that he is now the result of it.  Simplified, when Canadians feel good about Canada, Captain Canuck (and similar characters) is cool.

Why Does Everyone Know Centrix?

Okay, "everyone" might be an exaggeration...But I've been surprised at how well known this character is despite appearing in only one book.  And within that book, it seems like he appeared in only one panel!

In the ongoing and never-ending DC vs Marvel debate, I am firmly in the DC camp. That may seem odd since Marvel has far more prominent Canadian characters, but aside from that bunch, Marvel offers very little else that appeals to me.

A lack of Canadian characters has long been an areawhere I've found DC Comics lacking.  From time to time, I would search for DC Canucks in the hope that one was introduced without my knowledge (this is how I found Dark Crow and Freight Train).  And in doing this, I always seemed to stumble into Centrix.  People discussing the subject of Canadian DC characters would miss Flying Fox, or Sparx, but invariably, there was Centrix.

So what's the deal with this guy?  Well, he first (and last) appeared in Justice League Quarterly #17, a book in which the Global Guardians get decimated in an attack from a long-time nemesis of one of the team members.  I don't own the book, but my understanding is that once the threat is disposed of, the Guardians replenish their ranks with some noobs, Centrix among them.

I believe, however, that the extent of his appearance is an image displayed on a video screen as existing members discuss the newcomers.  The page scan below is from the Crisis on Earth Prime blog, which dedicated a few posts to chronicling the adventures of the Guardians (post-crisis, pre-flashpoint).

Centrix hasn't been heard from since, which may actually be to the character's benefit.  As COEP points out, being a Global Guardian often leads to a pretty lousy fate.  DC writers seemed to use them an the comic book equivalent of wrestling jobbers (or how Brian Michael Bendis uses Alpha Flight).

For all that Centrix in-story adventures are quite...limited, somehow a few sites have managed to nail down his history and abilities.  Here's comicvine's take:

Mark Armstrong was a very successful advertising executive. He was so successful that he was able to retire at a young age. Thanks to his retirement, he was able to practice and hone his meta-human abilities. Centrix is one of the few public Canadian superheroes that used to fight small crimes until he was introduced to the Global Guardians by the Martian Manhunter...

Due to his wealth, he was able to finance the Global Guardians during his stay on the team.

Centrix can project invisible, energy force waves from his body. He carries projectiles with him that he uses to throw with his force waves, making them formidable weapons.

Presumably, the above was copied from the DC Encyclopedia as comicvine lists that book (and the updated version) as Centrix's only other appearance.

It's pretty easy to speculate that there is little future for this character when he arguably has not had a present.  Still, there are plenty of examples of little-known characters resurfacing to varying degrees, so who knows?  The mention of Centrix financing the Global Guardians reminded me of what Angel did for the Champions of Los Angeles years ago.  Centrix could do something similar with the handful of Canadian characters in the DC stable.  Or perhaps he could be behind the funding of the Sandmen, members of the World Army on Earth-2.  If someone at DC wanted to create a book based around its universe's Canadian content, Centrix could make a great instigator.

Brother, can you spare $10?

Is it possible to be addicted to Indiegogo / Kickstarter campaigns?  I have spent a boatload of money in the past couple of weeks on items I won't get to enjoy for weeks and in some cases, months.

Among the perks offered by the various campaigns that have caught my attention are a couple of inexpensive ones I want to share for different reasons.

The first involves the Family Dynamic again.  If you're not familiar with them, they've been talked about here before (seek out the tag at right).  They are included in the True Patriot book, a project that was ultimately successful and which is among the treats that I look forward to enjoying early next year.

Two of the gentlemen involved with that project, J. Torres and Jack Briglio, now have a Huricane Sandy disaster relief campaign going (note the "verified non-profit" tag on the page).  Among the perks is a set of the three Family Dynamic issues released by DC Comics a couple of years back.  The books will be signed by the creators (Torres and artist Tim Levins).

Three signed comics about a Canadian super-family for $10 going to charity?  Yeah, deal.

The other perk should come as no surprise; it involves the Redorik Trade Edition box currently showing on the right side of the site.

I became interested in Redorik because, based on his profile, the character appeared to be Canadian.  Regardless of whether he is or not, his publisher most definitely is.  Crystal Fractal Comics is based out of Toronto.

CFC appears to have a very rich fantasy world mapped out.  In order to complete Redorik's story, they are offering a print version of any of their books, signed and numbered, for $10. The store page of their blog will give you the best idea of the type of stories that CFC has begun to tell.

$10 is a rather painless way to support "local" talent so I would encourage comic fans to participate in this campaign. I hope that it takes off and enables Crystal Fractal to further expand what appears to be a very interesting line of books.

Les Supérieurs t-shirt

I've been following the Watchguard Universe since stumbling across Runabout a few months ago during a Google image search.  In the weeks since, a few more members of the Watchguard U's Canadian team, Les Supérieurs, have been revealed and Charlie McElvy, the man behind the Watchguard Universe, has run a successful Kickstarter campaign geared towards funding the first comic book based on his characters.  To this point, they had been created specifically for a supplement to a role-playing game.

Back when I first posted about Runabout, I commented that he'd look great on a t-shirt.  Several of the Watchguard Universe characters had already found their likeness copied onto cotton, but no member of Les Supérieurs (Runabout's team) received that treatment. Earlier in the week, I joked with Charlie (on Twitter) about now demanding a Supérieurs shirt.  To my surprise, Charlie called my bluff and prepared one.

Click on the image above to open the page on which these are being sold in a separate tab.

Man of my word, I ordered it that evening and was notified by Redbubble the following morning that it had shipped, so I'm quite grateful for their speedy service.

As to the Supérieurs team itself, the following was posted by Charlie on the Watchguard Facebook page in September:

I'll be bundling all of the Supérieurs together, adding in some villains & standees, and an adventure or two to give them a full sourcebook of their own (not as large as the WG one, though). If you own the individuals, you'll be getting a massive-discount code.

The standees (pdf's which detail an individual character's background, powers, etc) were released as samplers.  You could purchase them for $1 each (still can) to get a feel for the content of the Watchguard soucebook.  I already have those, including WW2-era heroine Lynx, so I'm pleased to hear that there are still plans to expand that corner of the Watchguard Universe.

Masked Mosaic Cover

The Masked Mosaic anthology seems to moving right along.

Earlier this week, co-editor Camille Alexa revealed the book's cover.  A small version of it is on display below, but Mrs Alexa's blog post about it includes a far larger, high quality version as well as some teaser one-liners in regards to the book's content.

Ain't it cool? :-) 

I'm enjoying trying to match parts of the mosaic to the titles of the stories announced and to the teasers in Mrs Alexa's post.  I expect that the guy screaming next to the word "Canadian" is one of the Mexican luchadores wrestling primordial evil in Vancouver, for example. And the red-lipped lady to the left of that image reminds me of the style used for the Batwoman books.  One Steve Thomas is credited (on Twitter) for the work by (the other) co-editor, Claude Lalumière.

Much like True Patriot I would love nothing more than to see become successful enough to warrants future volumes.

Red Leaf signs Eric Douthitt to draw the Mountie Brigade Saga

Red Leaf Comics first made TSOG HQ aware of the Mountie Brigade back in June.  It will be a color series featuring the future Leaf Angus MacSorly set on Mars in the year 2112.

Last week, publisher John Michael Helmer announced that Eric Douthitt would be handling art duties.  Douthitt is drawing the first Chapter, entitled "The Searcher, part 1".

This is not Eric's first assignment for Red Leaf Comics.  He has already drawn covers for Abominable Tales #1, The Leaf #5, and The Leaf #8.  He's also completed part 1 of a four-part short story featuring a new Canadian modern spy in the Red Leaf universe. Here is some (unfinished) art as a teaser.

Helmer describes Douthitt as "a phenomenal new talent with a diligent work ethic and a professional attitude that supports Red Leaf Comics and its core principals".  Here's an interview with Douthitt from this past June, including some examples of his work.