The elusive Canadian superhero
I personally feel one of the reasons why a homegrown superhero comics industry never or at least barely took off in big numbers in Canada partly has to do with America’s habit of mythologising itself that American characters like Captain America, Superman and Spider-Man take on a mythical nature that Canadian comics creators can dream of. Marvel has a habit of mythologising New York City but so does DC Comics with Gotham, which is also a nickname for the Big Apple. Superman fights for truth, justice and the American way but no such equivalent tagline exists for Captain Canuck, the Pitiful Human-Lizard simply comes from Toronto just as Kebec simply comes from Quebec. It might be possible for a superhero series to succeed in Canada, though I think it has to be tweaked somehow to better fit Canadian sensibilities which is something some Canadian superhero writers have attempted before. But even then it seems Canadian superheroes, especially in their purest form, will always have difficulty taking off in Canada.
Canadian culture may entertain the idea of a superhero, but having a superhero story in practise is harder to pull off let alone a superhero story that’s firmly within the superhero genre. I remember somewhere at the Speculating Canada website that whenever Canadians do superhero stories, especially involving Canadian superheroes at all, they often push genre boundaries as to figure out a way to make the superhero genre fit Canadian sensibilities. Perhaps the Canadian superhero series that succeeded the most is the satirical Angloman, done by the authors of Northguard. Like I said, it pokes fun at Canada a lot whereas whenever Americans write American superheroes, they tend to be reverential of their country.
It’s not that Canadian superhero stories are impossible, but that it’s hard for them to take off in any way without at least some of them not fitting the superhero genre template to a T. Supposing if I were to work on a Canadian superhero mobile game where all the superheroes are detectives and police officers, it would also be another way to make the superhero genre fit Canadian sensibilities albeit in a different direction. It is possible for a Canadian superhero story to succeed, but if Angloman’s any indication its best chance of succeeding would be to take superheroes to a new and rarely done direction. It needn’t to be satire to succeed, since one could do the same with a stronger crime fiction influence.
But doing straight-up superheroes isn’t Canada’s forte, that’s something a few countries ever do let alone frequently so. The only countries that frequently publish superhero stories a lot and enough to justify a whole industry with are America and Indonesia, though there are others that I never brought up in any way. Canada isn’t one of them and even if it finally does these days, I don’t think Captain Canuck has the same iconic stature as Superman despite being a nationalistic hero. Even when people try to treat superheroes as if they’re ordinary people, they’re also built on iconic symbolism that they are icons themselves. When coupled with America’s habit of mythologising itself, that it shouldn’t come as a surprise that superheroes took off well there.
A good number of American superheroes aren’t just nationally recognised characters, they are also internationally renowned and something any Canadian superhero writer would undoubtedly envy. It’s pretty telling that Canada’s internationally renowned characters like Anne Shirley and Franklin the Turtle are outside of the superhero genre altogether, while Captain Canuck does have some fame he’s not exactly as well-known to many people outside of Canada the way even Caillou is, and that says a lot about why the superhero genre never took off big time there. Not as much as Canadian superhero writers would’ve hoped for, not to mention Angloman has difficulty getting collected.
A straight up superhero story is something many Canadians have tried, but could also never quite pull it off the way their southern neighbours do. While superheroes were there in Canadian comics before, the earlier ones never had the same staying power as Wonder Woman and Superman do. Especially Nelvana, who’s even the first superheroine in comics ever. There’s something about the superhero that Canadians like but could never localise for Canadian tastes even if they come close to succeeding. It’s something that will always be their white whale.
