"National" super heroes (like Captain America), from other countries, in U.S. comics?

Cafe Society
#1

That was the best, most descriptive, thread title I could come up with that was shorter than a paragraph. If you can think of a better way, I’d like to see it. :wink:

Anyway…recently, I’ve had an interest in amassing a list of “Nationalist” superheroes shown in U.S. comics, and I was wondering if anyone here could help me out.

The criteria? The hero has to be a public “symbol” of the country he or she’s defending. Captain America counts, but Superman wouldn’t. Moreover, most (if not all) “Nationalist” are actually openly working under the auspices of their government.

Being from a country doesn’t make automatically make them a “Nationalist” character. (Wolverine isn’t seen as representing Canada; Colossus isn’t seen as representing Russia.)

Characters from Nazi Germany don’t count, becuase a) they’re out-and-out villains, and b) there are about a billion of them. (That’s understandable, really…how better to make a scary villain than to give him a German accent, and paint a swastika on his skull?)

However, characters from other totalitarian states (Soviet Union, Red China, etc.) do count.

Characters from fictional countries, however, do not count. (No Namor, Aquaman, Black Panther, etc.)
Anyway, so far, I have…

Canada: Major Mapleleaf (Obscure as hell, and probably not winning any contests anytime soon. But he’s still on the books.)
China: Collective Man (ibid)
Israel: Sabra
Russia/Soviet Union: Rocket Red Brigade; Red Guardian; Soviet Super Soldiers, and probably a score of others.
Saudi Arabia: Arabian Knight
U.K.: Captain Britain

…Mostly from Marvel comics, I should note.

So…who am I missing?

#2

Kathy Ireland.

#3

There’s a whole SLEW of Cpt Britain variants.

Hauptmann Deutchland.
Alpha Flight is associated with the Canadian Government, if that counts.
Seraph (Isreal).
Shamrock.

#4

Sunfire was, at the least, the self-proclaimed national hero of Japan for a while (and may still be; I’m not sure).

#5

Captain Canuck. Of course, Wolverine was Canadian as well.

#6

Captain Canuck was a Canadian book, though.

And Wolvie was disqualified as Canadian but not Captain America-ish.

#7

DC’s Global Guardians are strongly associated with specific countries but I don’t know if they’re “national symbols” in the way that Captain America is. Off the top of my head I recall Godiva (Britain), Jack O’Lantern (Ireland) and Tasmanian Devil (from, um, Tasmania I think).

Marvel has Union Jack (WW2-era British).

#8

Wonder Woman is the national hero, UN representative, and ambassador to the United States for Themyscira, an autonomous Greek city-state.

#9

Ignore my post, upon rereading, I see you are only including real countries.

#10

Russia: Red Trinity (defected and became Kapitalist Kourier).

#11

Here’s a big honking list of them

Foreign Super Heros

Apparently even New Zealander’s have a bunch of them

#12

An International Catalogue of Superheroes- with some pics

Here’s another page with links to international and other group ID superhero sites -

#13

The Guardians card game included Captain South America, a big fat guy in orange spandex wearing a sombrero and toting a submachine gun. Does he count?

They also had the Disgruntled Postal Worker, a little skinny guy in a postal uniform blazing away with two submachine guns at nothing in particular, but he wasn’t so much a “national hero” as a “government employee,” I guess…