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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8 | |
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. |
19 | |
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 | ---- |
27 | |
28 | !!This book contains examples of: |
29 | |
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. |
41 | * WearingAFlagOnYourHead: Northstar wears a Canadian maple leaf, Fleur-de-Lys a Québécois, well, fleur-de-lys. |
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