Line #11 ComicBook/Northguard


1	[[quoteright:140:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/northguardmc1_cover_small_10.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:140:Northguard the [=ManDes=] Conclusion #1]]
3	[[quoteright:140:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/northguardmc2_cover_small_9528.jpg]]
4	[[caption-width-right:140:Northguard the [=ManDes=] Conclusion #2]]
5	[[quoteright:140:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/northguardmc3_cover_small_451.jpg]]
6	[[caption-width-right:140:Northguard the [=ManDes=] Conclusion #3]]
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9	->''"My name is Phillip Wise. I'm a superhero, or so I like to think.\
10	In reality, there's no such thing as a 'superhero.'\
11	There are only suicidal idiots in costume playing 'let's pretend.'"''
12	-->-- ''Northguard: The [=ManDes=] Conclusion #1, 1989''
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14	Northguard was a fictional superhero comic published in the mid-1980's and early 90's by the independent publishers Matrix Comics and Caliber Comics, noteworthy for being one of the few [[UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} Canadian]] superhero comics of the late 20th century. Created by comic book writer Mark Shainblum and illustrator Gabriel Morrissette, the character first appeared in [=NewTriumph=] featuring Northguard #1 (September 1984). Four more issues were published by Matrix from 1984-86, and then the series went on hiatus until 1989, when the story arc started in issue #1 was finally concluded in the mini-series Northguard: The [=ManDes=] Conclusion published by Caliber Comics.
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16	Published several years before ''Dark Knight'' and ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', Northguard was arguably the first North American superhero series to be influenced by Alan Moore's DarkerAndEdgier approach to the genre, although it also owed a lot to the spy and thriller genres.
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18	Though not as well-known as Richard Comely's earlier Canadian superhero series ''Captain Canuck'' or Marvel's contemporaneous Canadian superhero team ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'', Northguard achieved a certain degree of pop culture notoriety when Fleur-de-Lys, a supporting character, appeared on a Canadian postage stamp in 1995.
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20	Notable characters and concepts in Northguard include:
21	* Northguard (Phillip Wise), a Montreal student and comic book fan in his early 20's who becomes an AscendedFanboy when he is chosen to wield a superweapon called the [=UniBand=]. Against the wishes of his patrons, who think he's crazy, he has a [[CaptainPatriotic nationalistic maple leaf costume]] designed and uses the [=UniBand=] to become a superhero in a world largely without superheroes.
22	* Fleur-de-Lys (Manon Deschamps), a Tae Kwon Do champion who befriends Phillip and eventually takes on a Quebec flag-based superhero persona on her own, initially just as a gag to counterpoint the silliness of Phillip's Northguard identity. But eventually she is armed with a fleur-de-lys shaped taser weapon, and the gag takes on a life of its own.
23	* Steel Chameleon (Edward Holman), an American Vietnam veteran and freelance espionage agent, hired by PACT and given a holographic chip that allows him to change his appearance by pressing buttons on a calculator watch.
24	* The PACT Corporation, an idealistic Canadian research firm which has taken on the role of combatting [=ManDes=] when the authorities refuse to believe it exists.
25	* [=ManDes=], or Manifest Destiny, an extreme right-wing terrorist conspiracy which wants to overthrow democracy in North America and replace it with a racist, totalitarian theocracy. They have targetted Canada first because it's the weaker target, and because they believe it that it was created by the devil to deprive the USA of a portion of the American continent.
26	----
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28	!!This book contains examples of:
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30	* TheAce: Steel Chameleon.
31	* AmbiguouslyJewish: Averted. Not only is Phillip Wise unambiguously Jewish, but he's also the adult child of Holocaust survivors. This provides a major element of the series' subtext, as Northguard identifies [=ManDes=] and their white-supremacist agenda with the Nazis who murdered his grandparents. Not entirely correctly, to be sure, since [=ManDes=] are also Christian Identity theocrats.
32	* {{Angst}}: And lots of it.
33	* AscendedFanboy: Comic book fan who invents his own superhero identity. Everyone else thinks he's crazy.
34	%%* CaptainGeographic: Twice, with Northguard and Fleur-de-Lys.
35	%%* CaptainPatriotic: Ditto.
36	%%* ConspiracyRedemption
37	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Reverend Tyler, the leader of [=ManDes=] and its front, the Ultra Corporation.
38	* DarkerAndEdgier: One of the earliest superhero series to attempt this trope, well before Dark Knight and Watchmen.
39	%%* HonestCorporateExecutive: Ron Cape, the head of PACT.
40	* PeaceAndLoveIncorporated: Averted. PACT really IS all about peace, love and putting profits second.

Context ComicBook / Northguard