posted March 21, 2003 12:36 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by India Ink:
I'm looking at the cover of Canuck Comics right now (it's a library reference copy, so I can only skim through it in the library) and there's that familiar face of Neil the Horse.

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Sounds familiar. But Neil's celebrity was pretty brief - not what you'd call a widely remebered fan favorite. It wouldn't surprise me if it appeared in the Georgia Strait. I remember the artist appearing once in a human interest news bit and that's all - never read the strip. Neil was a Disney-style B&W horse published in the late 70's or early 80's IIRC.

posted March 21, 2003 01:09 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Dr. Van Thorp:
Neil appeared in an issue of Charlton Bullseye

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I believe you, Doc. The thing is, Vancouver being the extreme West end of the Canadian part of the magazine distribution biz, there were lots of things that never got to my local comics rack when I was a kid.
I only recall seeing a Charlton comic once - I vaguely recall the logo. The only non-DC/Marvel titles that we saw regularly were Gold Key. We did get the Canadian published Capt. Canuck and the brief Atlas Comics line in the 70's. Perhaps youngsters who lived in the city had it better. Out in the 'burbs it was nie impossible to collect a series since distribution was totally random.

Thanks why the prospect of tracking down these "lost classics" published here in my home town is so exciting.

posted March 21, 2003 01:23 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Kamandi Last Boy on Earth:
Out in the 'burbs it was nie impossible to collect a series since distribution was totally random.

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'Twernt no such thing! I spent the first half of the '70s in White Rock (rural South Surrey, to be exact, but I bought comics in White Rock), and was able to get full runs of plenty of DC titles. It is possible that some titles saw NO distribution (I can't remember seeing Weird Western, but I wasn't interested in westerns then, either). My brothers collected several Charlton titles, such as Hong Kong Phooey, Six Million Dollar Man, and the Space:1999 magazine. Harvey stuff, esp. Richie Rich was common, too.

posted March 21, 2003 01:25 AM            

'Twernt no such thing! I spent the first half of the '70s in White Rock (rural South Surrey, to be exact, but I bought comics in White Rock), and was able to get full runs of plenty of DC titles. It is possible that some titles saw NO distribution (I can't remember seeing Weird Western, but I wasn't interested in westerns then, either). My brothers collected several Charlton titles, such as Hong Kong Phooey, Six Million Dollar Man, and the Space:1999 magazine. Harvey stuff, esp. Richie Rich was common, too.

posted March 21, 2003 06:54 PM            

In the early '70s, they could still be found at every newstand in town. I used to walk along Johnson Road in White Rock, from the Safeway on the corner of North Bluff (now a Shoppers Drug Mart?) down the hill to Buena Vista and back. There must have been a dozen places to get comics in that 1/2 mile (pre-metric conversion ) stretch.

posted March 21, 2003 09:51 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by NecessaryImpurity:
In the early '70s, they could still be found at every newstand in town. I used to walk along Johnson Road in White Rock....

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I grew up in North Delta in the 70's. The only place to get comics within walking distance was the spinner rack at Mac's Milk. The selection was definitely limited . Whoever picked the orders at the magazine distributorship, probably Jim Pattison's Mainland Magazines, didn't care much if I was trying to collect the full run of Kamandi or John Carter of Mars. When I ran my own bookstore in the 80's they weren't much better.

If you had a number of stores to go to, you probably got a much better selection of titles.

posted March 22, 2003 11:43 PM            

WE STAND ON GUARD FOR THEE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VIII. THE CHARACTERS

No fancy introduction needed here, so let's get to right to it. This is a non-exhaustive list, so please feel free to mention any I've missed. The only rule here is that the characters listed must either be depicted as Canadian or created by Canadian artists.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ALPHA FLIGHT
Creators: Chris Claremont and John Byrne
A team of Canadian super-heroes that first appeared in the American X-Men comic in 1979 before graduating to its own series in 1983. Orignally operating as the federal government's Department H, they went out on their own when cutbacks shut down their program. Original members included: Guardian, the flag-draped leader; Sasquatch, a hairy, superstrong giant; Snowbird, a beautiful shape-shifter who could become any of Canada's northern animals; Shaman, an Indian medicine man; Aurora and Northstar, French-Canadian twins with light and superspeed powers; Marrina, an aquatic woman raised by Newfoundland fishermen; and Puck, a midget acrobat. Team members came and went, and the series lasted for more than a decade.

THE BRAIN
Creator: Leo Bachle
Dashing adventurer Gordon Bell (how much more Canadian can a name get?) proves that crime doesn't pay. That's about all I know about him, other than he appeared in Active Comics (1942-46).

BROK WINDSOR
Creator: Jon St. Ables
Brok Windsor was a rugged he-man whose adventures took place in the Canadian north, "in the land beyond the mists." He first appeared in the April 1944 issue of Maple Leaf's Better Comics.

CANADA JACK
Creator: George Menendez Rae
This acrobatic adventurer first appeared in the March 1943 issue of Canadian Heroes, a comic published by Montreal's Educational Projects. Jack was athletic, but wasn't endowed with superhero-level powers; he fought evil as an accomplished gymnast, horseback rider and jiu-jitsu expert. Unlike Johnny Canuck, most of Jack's adventures kept him on the homefront fighting saboteurs, kidnappers, firebugs, and POW escapees. He was helped by members of the Canada Jack Club, a children's group organized to support the war effort. Each issue of Canadian Heroes featured CJC news, contests, and a profile of an "honour member" who did something special for the war effort. Canada Jack retired in 1945 when Educational Projects ceased publishing comics.

CAPTAIN CANADA
Creators: Geoffrey and Scott Stirling
First appearing in 1980 in the St. John's Sunday Herald, Captain Canada appeared in the Captain Newfoundland comic strip in 1981, and a graphic novel titled Atlantis in 1984. Originally a young man named Daniel Eaton, Captain Canada was recruited by the powerful Captain Atlantis to fight evil. One of his exploits saw him rescue Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles from a giant robot that lays waste to part of Ottawa. Despite personal appearances by an actor dressed up as the hero, he didn't catch on.

CAPTAIN CANUCK
Creators: Ron Leishman and Richard Comely
Winnipeg artist Rob Leishman first came up with the idea for "the Captain" in 1971. He developed the idea with Comely, who was left to publish the first issue of Captain Canuck on his own in 1975. The Captain's costume was a spitting image for Canada's flag -- a red suit with a white stripe down the middle and a maple leaf perched on his forehead. Government agent Tom Evans is camping when he's seized by aliens and exposed to Zeta Rays, leaving him with twice his normal strength and speed. He fought everything from spies to aliens, but with as little violence as possible. He appeared intermittently throughout the 1980s and '90s.

CAPTAIN NEWFOUNDLAND
A superhero who first appeared in the weekly St. John's Herald magazine, Captain Newfoundland was not ashamed to literally put his nationality where his mouth was; his eyeless mask depicted a map of the island portion of Newfoundland. He first appeared in the Captain Newfoundland comic in 1981, and the graphic novel Atlantis in 1984.

CENTRIX
First appearing in DC's Justice League Quarterly #16 (1994), Centrix was one of the later members to join the Global Guardians, an international group of heroes based in the DC universe.

DEREK OF BRAS D'OR
Derek of Bras d'Or was based on the true story of Angus McAskill, the legendary giant of Cape Breton Island. A fisherman, Derek used his strength to keep his people safe. His adventures appeared in 1941's Triumph-Advenure Comics.

DIXON OF THE MOUNTED
Creator: Edmund Legault
Legault created Dixon of the Mounted as the lead feature for 1942's Active Comics. Corporal Dixon was an upstanding Mountie who protected his girl, Ruth Barton, from your usual dastardly types (and a few unusual ones). One storyline saw him tracking down the person selling "deadly" marijuana to the Indians. Later artists on the series included Ted Steele and René Kulbach.

FLEUR DE LYS
Creators: Mark Shainblum (writer) and Gabriel Morrissette (artist)
Manon Deschamps, a Quebecois super-heroine, is a martial-arts expert who joins Northguard as his partner against evil in 1984's New Triumph Comics. Sporting a blue-and-white costume similar to Quebec's flag, she also carried a non-lethal weapon shaped like a fleur de lys that protected her by producing bright flashes of light.

FLYING FOX
A member of one of Canada's many native groups, the young man who would become known as Flying Fox joined the Young All-Stars during the Second World War (he first appeared in DC's Young All-Stars #1 in 1987). He could fly with the help of a mystic cloak of fox fur, and joined the Allied cause when Nazis invading Canada's Arctic waters murdered his father, a tribal chief.

FREELANCE
Creators: Ted McCall (writer) and Ed Furness (artist)
Freelance first appeared in his own book in 1941, a rarity in a time when most heroes appeared in anthology titles. Published by Anglo-American Publishing, a company that made its fortune reprinting American superhero stories during the Second World War, Freelance was their star Canadian feature. In his book-length adventures, Freelance travelled all over the world to cause headaches for the Axis powers. He had no super-powers, but he was a highly athletic and resourceful adventurer, and he was often helped in his crusade by his ally, Big John Collins. His calling card was a tiny stick figure waving from its perch on a flying lance. He hung up his jodhpurs in 1946.

FROSTBITE
Creators: Dan Raspler and Dev Madan
First appearing in DC's Young Heroes in Love #1 (June 1997), Frostbite has been described as a "belligerent Canadian snow elf" by a member of his team. His dark blue hair and light blue skin, not to mention his piercings and body art, help him stand out in any crowd. Hailing from an area near Canada's Arctic Circle, his powers are pretty much what his codename suggests -- he can generate extreme cold to produce a variety of effects. His apparently bisexual orientation caused some commotion among fans of the title.

GUARDIAN
Creators: Chris Claremont (writer) and John Byrne (artist)
Guardian (also called Vindicator) was decked out in duds similar to Captain Canuck, taking the maple-leaf motif one step further. He first appeared in the American comic X-Men #109 as "Weapon Alpha" in 1977. James MacDonald Hudson was a scientist who developed a cybernetic suit capable of giving its wearer enhanced strength and flight; he joined "Department H" to create a team of heroes dedicated to protecting Canada. His creation, Alpha Flight, appeared in X-Men #120. They graduated to their own series, but Hudson was killed in its 12th issue.

THE INVISIBLE COMMANDO
Creator: Leo Bachle
Lee Pierce, a young officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, uses his powers to fight the good fight. He appeared in Commando Comics during the Second World War.

IRON MAN
Creator: Vernon Miller
Iron Man first appeared in Maple Leaf's Better Comics #1 (March 1941), making him Canada's first superhero. Not to be confused with the armor-plated Marvel superhero of the 1960s, he bore a closer resemblance to the Sub-Mariner. The lone survivor of a South Seas civilization that's destroyed by an earthquake, he lived alone in a sunken palace. He returned to the surface world to fight Nazis and pirates with his super strength and ability to leap tall heights.

JOHNNY CANUCK
Creator: Leo Bachle
Bachle was only 16 when he dreamed up Johnny Canuck, an air force captain who had only his wits and his fists to help him win the war. Johnny first appeared in Dime Comics #1 in 1942, and his adventures took him all over the world; in fact, it was only in his last adventure in Dime Comics #28 that he returned to Canada. He confronted Hitler face-to-face no less than three times during his career. Bachle later admitted he couldn't resist the temptation to insert references to his school chums and enemies into the stories. Sample Johnny dialogue: "The Germans had better start making stronger rope if they want to hold Canadian captives!"

KÉBEC
Captain Canuck's faithful partner, he was a French-Canadian superagent who, together with the Captain, symbolized Canada's bilingual culture.

KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED
Creators: Zane Grey (author) and Allen Dean (artist)
Grey adapted one of his novels to create King of the Royal Mounted, a Sunday color strip that first appeared in 1935 for (appropriately) King Features Syndicate; a daily edition was added in 1936. The strip continued until 1955; a comic published by Dell ran for 10 years, from 1948 to 1958. Sergeant King of the RCMP fought fur thieves, cattle rustlers, and assorted scoundrels across the wilds of Western Canada. He's helped by his loyal sidekick Pilot Laroux, his sweetheart Betty Blake, and her kid brother who was simply named "Kid."

NELVANA OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
Creator: Adrian Dingle
First appearing in Triumph-Adventure Comics in 1941, Nelvana was a semi-mythological heroine who received her powers from her father, Koliak, the King of the Northern Lights. Such powers included -- but weren't limited to -- flight, light-speed travel along a "giant ray of the Aurora Borealis," invisibility, shape-shifting, telepathy, and immortality. Initially, her adventures had her fighting the Axis powers, but her foes also included subterranean creatures and aliens. She later adopted an alter ego as secret agent Alana North, and her adventures took place more often in the civilized world than in the frozen North. Her last story appeared in the third issue of Super Duper (May 1947). Nelvana is considered the first Canadian female superhero.

THE NORTHERN LIGHT
Creators: T. Casey Brennan (writer) and John Allison (artist)
The Northern Light first appeared in Orb, a Toronto-based independent comic, in 1974. He wore red and white tights, a red cowl, white gloves, and a flowing cape (which was later dropped). His first adventures took him to Mars, which didn't exactly emphasize his "Canadianness." He was revamped by writer Jim Whaley and artist Jim Craig for his second (and last) adventure in 1975. Alien experiments leave architect Ian Davis with a number of light-based powers, including invisibility, the ability to radiate energy, and the ability to transport himself along beams of light. He destroys the alien conqueror who experimented on him, but not before losing his family. Limited distribution and Orb's demise kept Northern Light from taking off.

NORTHGUARD
Creators: Mark Shainblum (writer), Geoff Isherwood (pre-debut artist), Gabriel Morissette (debut artist)
Originally a young student named Phillip Wise, Northguard's adventures took place in a realistically rendered Montreal and often involved real-life characters. First appearing in New Triumph in 1984, Northguard faced off against foreign governments, multinational corporations, and a menacing, right-wing organization called Manifest Destiny. He got his force-blast powers from the "Uniband," a cybernetic weapons system developed by a Canadian corporation. He partnered up with Fleur de Lys in later adventures.

THE PENGUIN
Creator: Adrian Dingle
Not to be confused with Batman's archenemy, this Canadian crimefighter and superspy first appeared in Bell Features' Wow Comics #15 (1943). The Penguin was an odd bird, to say the least; he wore a bird-like mask, white tie and tails as his costume. He was also set apart by the fact that Dingle concealed his identity from the readers, and he was regularly unmasked by his foes (not that they lived long enough to reveal his name). Dingle renamed his feature The Blue Raven when Bell, which was trying to crack the U.S. market, didn't want a legal conflict with National Periodical Publications, the publishers of Batman comics.

REX BAXTER
Creator: Edmond Good
This Flash Gordon-type hero first appeared in Dime Comics #1 in February 1942. He was introduced as an "adventurous young soldier of fortune" returning home from action in Africa. A Nazi U-boat torpedoes his ship, sending him and shipboard acquaintance Gail Abbott adrift. They land on a tropical island, where they naturally find an entrance to a subterranean civilization and get entangled in royal intrigue. Good left the strip to do the Scorchy Smith strip in the U.S., and Adrian Dingle took over with issue #14. A postwar story saw Rex tracking down the fugitive Adolf Hitler.

ROBIN HOOD
Creators: Ted McCall (writer) and Charles Snelgrove (artist)
The legendary archer who stole from the rich to give to the poor has starred in several strips in England, France, Spain, and the U.S., but one of the better ones appeared in the comics pages of the Toronto Telegram newspaper in 1936 and ran until the mid-1940s. The stories shied away from the established legends and put Robin Hood and his men in new adventures: defeating invading Norsemen, restoring King Richard to the throne, and fighting the dreaded Red Roger were all par for the course. Reprints of the trip appeared in Anglo-American's Robin Hood and Company from 1941 to 1947.

WOLVERINE
One of Marvel's -- and hence the USA's -- most popular characters is a short, bestial mutant with razor-sharp claws and a rapid healing factor. And if that doesn't sound weird enough, he's from Canada. Wolverine first appeared in Incredible Hulk #180 in 1974, originally as a government super-agent before joining Prof. Xavier's new X-Men team. The character went on to become one of Marvel's most profitable properties, winning a wider audience in the live-action X-Men movie in 2000. Early tell-tale signs of his Canadianness included a fondness for beer and plaid shirts.

posted March 23, 2003 04:10 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Stan Brown:
THis is from _Canuck Comics: A guide to Comic Books published in Canada_, ed. John Bell (1986):

"On September 15, 1939 shortly after Canada's declaration of war against GErmany, the Foreign Exchange Control Board was established to oversee th rationing of foreign money, something it would do with varying severity until 1951. In December 1940, as Canada's trade deficit with the U.S. grew and British gold shipments were curtailed, government intervention in the economy broadened with the introduction of the War Exchange Conservation Act. Aimed at countries outside the sterling bloc, it was primarily designed to conserve American dollars by restricting the importation of non-essential goods from Canada's largest trading partner.

"Among the items banned were fiction periodicals and comic books. As a result, the government inadvertently layed the groundwork for an indigenous comic industry. As long as foreign comic books flowed freely into Canada, none of the nation's publishers could afford to compete. Printing costs, market size, distribution obstacles, and other factors all militated against the possibility of a Canadian firm wrestling any appreciable portion of the market from American publishers like Fawcett and National Periodicals."

The ban was instituted in Dec. 1940, and the first Canadian comic books appeared around March, 1941.

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In "Spectre Archives", the Oct '40 issue of More Fun has the price as "15˘ in Canada". This lasts until Jan '41. I'd seen this price differential in other Archives, and had originally thought this was just some exchange rate effect. Then I remembered both countries had silver coin, and thought it would be impossible to have anything other than a 1 to 1 exchange rate, so I attributed the difference to a tariff. I just now skimmed a paper from UBC that pointed out that government monetary policy could lead to imbalances between currencies, even if they were tied to a fixed standard such as gold or silver, so maybe the price differential was due to exchange rate difference after all.

posted March 26, 2003 03:57 PM            

I say this because--given my vaunted interest in both Canadian history and comics history--I have had ample opportunity in the past, well before the advent of the internet, to learn about Canadian comics and Maple Leaf comics in particular--such that it almost seems I've deliberately ignored this history, until now.

I know in the past I've seen articles about Canadian comics and I've thumbed through available copies of Great Canadian Comic Books and Canuck Comics.

But I'm really embarassed because there is a book that I've had for many years now, a valued resource on things Vancouver--and it (briefly) tells about Maple Leaf comics.

This is The Vancouver Book by Chuck Davis (J.J. Douglas, 1976). Back in the seventies Chuck Davis was an admirable local journalist (in print and on TV) and our whole family dug whatever he had to say on any given topic. I seem to recall that my older brother got this book by Davis and it was passed around among the family, until finally I stole it, and I've had it eversince. So it's very likely I read the piece therein on Maple Leaf, but failed to commit it to memory.

More recently there's been a new version of this book--called The Great Vancouver Book, I think--but I haven't checked this out and don't know if the Maple Leaf entry is duplicated in that edition.

My aged newsprint copy of The Vancouver Book shows one full page and one half page of art from Maple Leaf--both by Vernon Miller, the full page being "The Adventures of Professor Miles & Bobby in the Earth Torpedo" and the half page being a splash panel of "The IRON MAN" (showing a Sub-Mariner-like Iron Man soaring above an exploding ship).

The accompanying short article on "Comics" (p. 425) is written by David Grannis (then owner of Collectors Books and Comics, which was at 3626 West 16th--any new info on what Mr. Grannis is up to now would be appreciated):

quote:

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The Maple Leaf Publishing Co. at 849 Homer St. in Vancouver was the third largest of Canada's wartime comic companies. Maple Leaf recruited largely local talent, and put out 4 titles with a broad range of appeal. There were teen-age heroes (Pinky), child heroes (Lucky), policemen (Sergeant Canuck of the B.C. Police), airplane pilots (Mono, the Air Cobra), rocket pilots (Cosmo), cave men (Piltdown Pete), freedom fighters (Deuce Granville and his Jumping Jeep Men) and animals (Rags, the Marvel Dog--and in quite another vein, Jose Turkey). The typical format was 6 or 8 stories in a 48-page comic, including a contest or letters page, but no ads except for war stamps ("HELP KEP THE BOMB BAYS FULL") and other Maple Leaf Comics (namely Bing Bang, Lucky, andRocket).

Though Maple Leaf art tends to be crude by current comic standards, humour, imagination, and humanity were the characteristic qualities of Maple Leaf Comics. When the flood of American comics was interrupted by the war, the company was born out of nothing, and when the flood resumed at war's end, Maple Leaf and the other Canadian comic book publishers were washed away. Meanwhile Canada had 5 years of good Canadian comics, and their passing is to be regretted.

Now Vancouver is again producing comic books. Several "underground" comics have been published here, mostly by Georgia Straight editor Dan McLeod, featuring local artists Rand Holmes, Brent Boates and Ron Falcioni. However, their comics contain a sex and drug orientation that prevents them from having a mass appeal. Some relatively innocuous undergrounds have also been produced locally, but these tended to be too philosophical , paradoxical or ethereal to have broad appeal. Two good examples of these are In the Time of the Clockmen (drawn by local journalist Bob Hunter and published by McLeod) and Gearfoot Wrecks (drawn by Leo Burdick and published by Pulp Press).

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The last paragraph is probably even more obscure in its references than the preceding paragraphs on wartime Vancouver comics. In the middle of the seventies the Georgia Straight was trying to shake off its underground rag image. Previously, in the late sixties/early seventies, the Straight (aka Vancouver Free Press) was an outlaw leaflet of the hippy vanguard in Vancouver. In elementary school I remember forbidden copies of this obscene publication being passed around from hand to hand under our desks--and myself being shocked by some of the graphic comic depictions! To this day, my mother believes the Straight is still an obscene rag--and I don't dare bring it into the house when I'm visiting her for fear of that shocked look of disapproval. Although in fact it has become a middle-of-the road weekly, like many of the other free weeklies in Vancouver--akin to the Springfield Shopper.

Bob Hunter was a prominent columnist for the Vancouver Sun in the seventies (which was then more in the middle as a newspaper--and not ultra rightwing as it is now). But Hunter was also a founding member of the Greenpeace movement, and he soon left his newspaper career in favour of his environmental crusade. I suspect that the seventies comics mentioned by Grannis (none of which I remember ever seeing) were along the lines of much home-made hippy art of the time. Part of a whole "underground" arts movement of the time, which included the Vancouver Poets.

***

posted May 12, 2003 08:28 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Stan Brown:
If Commando Yank was drawn with a Union Jack on his chest, imagine of the Shield was drawn as a Canadian Shield--with a costume modeled on the Red Ensign! Wouldn't that be cool?

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posted May 12, 2003 09:21 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by NecessaryImpurity:
By the late '80s, comics had disappeared from newstands all over North America.

In the early '70s, they could still be found at every newstand in town. I used to walk along Johnson Road in White Rock, from the Safeway on the corner of North Bluff (now a Shoppers Drug Mart?) down the hill to Buena Vista and back. There must have been a dozen places to get comics in that 1/2 mile (pre-metric conversion ) stretch.

Thirty years later, based on my visit last November, not a single building has the same business it did back then. White Rock has become a village of boutiques.

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I found a letter from the town where I live (Brighton, Michigan) on the letters page of a 1968 American Comics Group comic.

This town has a population of about 2,000 in the late '60's. There was one locally owned drug store, and two small grocery stores that I know to have existed at that time, and American Comics Group managed to get their product distributed to this town.

Now the town is completely suburbanized, and the town and surrounding township have a population of over 50,000. Comics are available on one spin rack at the Borders next to the highway. There are occasional issues of Superman or Archie digests on Meijer's magazine rack.

posted May 15, 2003 06:31 PM               

Oh please, somebody, have a scan of this one!!!

It's almost as weird as Madame Fatal or Gay Ghost.

posted May 16, 2003 10:21 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Bgztl:
Polka-Dot Pirate?!?!?!?

Oh please, somebody, have a scan of this one!!!

It's almost as weird as Madame Fatal or Gay Ghost.

Any more information on this oddball title/hero?

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Anybody?

I know the clock is ticking down on these threads, but I would love to know about this one.

posted May 16, 2003 05:48 PM            

Back in the early days of the Canada Whites studios were turning out hundreds of characters annually in hopes that at least one could match the popularity of the American heroes. With such a glut of heroes, good names were hard to come by, hence the Penguin and other faux pas monickers such as Whiz Wallace, Hugh Dunnit or Polka-Dot, Lady Pirate. After you get past the nearly unpalatable name you discover a hero every way the superior to the American heroes, including Batman.

________