For example, is Alpha Flight very well-known or popular in Canada? Excalibur in the UK?
When I grew up in the UK, other than the huge big name characters (e.g. Spiderman) Marvel was not a particularly big deal (British comic books like 2000AD and Action Force were much more popular with me and my school friends)
This was in the 80s however when Marvel movies were a joke. I suspect with the rise of Marvel movies and the Disney-Marvel merger things have changed drastically.
The 80’s are when I was introduced to comics, pretty much. Never knew that people thought Marvel was a joke in the 80’s. Never thought that. To me they were always the best and most influential.
The Marvel movies in the 80s were a joke. The comics were just not particularly popular in the UK (in my social group at least)
I suspect that has changed but I have no evidence for that (my nephews and nieces are not super into comic books of any kind)
I remember thinking Alpha Flight was kind of cool when I was a kid. “Hey, Puck is from Saskatoon! That’s where I live!”
I liked John Byrne as an artist, too.
I just remembered that there were DC comics set in the UK as well, so of course the question extends to them as well.
Marvel tried a whole UK line in the 90’s- OTTOMH, Team Helix/ Codename Genetix, Digitek, Motor Mouth and a few others. IIRC, the line lasted about a year.
You couldn’t even buy a Marvel comic in Latveria.
Nice.
I can just imagine what the French thought of Batroc the Leaper.