Apr 05 2009
Superhero Soldiers
In my list of common day jobs for superheroes, I forgot soldiers. Ack! How did I miss that? Anyway, I just added them. What sort of tips would you recommend for an author writing a story about a superhero soldier?
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Check out THIS superhero
Zombie marine!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1713627&l=085a08f3a0&id=531103567
Unless I’m very mistaken, that’s not a superhero soldier.
I’d recommend reading Captain America by Brubaker, Ultimates 1 and 2 and War Heroes by Millar
I like the premise of War Heroes. It did have some of the usual military cliches, but to a tolerable level.
I suppose I should be more tolerant of Captain America. But, frankly, I’m around 20 years too young to get anything out of stories that have been heavily influenced by Vietnam.
Why has everyone heard of captain America, but not Captain Britain?
I have a few theories.
1. Captain Britain wasn’t a soldier. I think he was a physics student. I don’t think that physics students are interesting as soldiers.
2. Captain Britain has a magical origin story; Captain America gets his power through science. Nowadays, comic book audiences overwhelmingly prefer science to magic. (With the possible exception of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I’ve never seen a magical superhero’s comic hit the top 10 in terms of monthly sales).
3. Marvel’s an American company and American readers make up a much larger portion of its audience than British readers do. So it doesn’t surprise me that Capt. America would get many more stories and better exposure.
^^ That was me btw. And seriously, it was written by Alan Moore and featured Nightcrawler and Shadowcat. What’s not to like?
Yeah, he had a magical origin but he was part of Marvel canon so I’m don’t see a problem. I’m not suggesting he fits with the soldier idea, just bugs me that he is so obscure compared to Captain America. But I suppose that is more than just the fact that one was american and one was british.
I think that Marvel would be a bit more comfortable working with an American character than a British one. But I don’t think that’s the main reason that Captain America is on the cusp of being an A-list character and Captain Britain is not particularly close.
Also, Captain America has been a pretty major part of The Avengers.