I always thought that Doctor Who and Harry Potter were archetypical UK superheroes.

Quote from: Soylent Green;470541Yeah, but we are also the country of Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Emma Peel and John Steed, which aren't technically superheroes, but they are still near superhuman crime-fighters.

They're pretty much all arseholes though. Wouldn't want to know any of them socially.

I'd still prefer their company over that of, say, Captain America or Superman. Too boring.

Weren't The Young Ones a superhero team?

Quote from: tellius;470501No Heroics is the perfect example of British Super Heroes.

They mostly hang around at a pub. I thought it was fucking brilliant and I really wish a second season was commissioned for it.

Yeah, i think that's about right. A missed opportunity there, i think.

Quote from: IceBlinkLuck;470506It's been a while since I read my copies of Planetary, but I seem to remember an issue where they go to a funeral in London. I think Warren Ellis uses that issue to discuss the differences between the way the U.K. sees superheroes and how the U.S. sees them. I'll need to go back and read the comic again to be sure about this.

That would be interesting, if you have the time to check it.

I suppose the classic interpretation of British supers is mythological in nature, as opposed to scientific. Power comes from the land, or Excalibur or something like that.

V for Vendetta is ostensibly somewhat more than human and based in fascist Britain.

Does a superheroine get her bazookas out for the lads mags or page 3?

What about 'muslamic' superheroes? Or (god forbid) some knucklehead from the EDL?

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;470576I suppose the classic interpretation of British supers is mythological in nature, as opposed to scientific.

Ooh hey that reminds me of that comic book Finn although I'd have ascribed that more Celtic roots than British as such:



Feckin awesome. I could see a countergovernmental movement of superheroes on that basis.

Lets not forget we have a group of the most powerful heroes/villains (varied by episode) in the World in Britain.



They also have a smash hit single

And the most environmentally friendly and economical Super Hero transport ever...

Quote from: Soylent Green;470527...Likewise they still bounty hunters in the US,  ...

Really???

There's a TV program on channel 4 next Friday called Superheroes of Suburbia which follows 3 blokes who dress up as superheroes and cruise the streets after pub closing time...

It's a documentary!

Still, the Dark Spartan has an awesome costume - must cosplay.

Quote from: Soylent Green;470527Likewise they still bounty hunters in the US,  

Quote from: Omnifray;470626Really???

Yes, although Boba Fett they aren't. American bounty hunters mostly exist to capture bail jumpers, and must be allowed to cross jurisdictional and state lines to catch and return these bail jumpers so they are much more savvy about laws than the stereotype ever was (if they were a Traveller character, each Bounty Hunter should have Bureacracy-1 as a skill).

Quote from: Omnifray;470626Really???

You mean you've never watched Dog the Bounty Hunter?

Inshallah, the first muslim superhero. He also has the privilege of being the first britain to have superpowers (in the modern age).

King Arthur really does return and commandeers Stonehenge as his point of power.

Grimeboy (or girl) is a young black kid that survives a shooting, miraculously, and manifests superpowers.

The Red Dragon, and probably his Scottish equivalent, appear with interests in devolution.

Beneath Westminster Abbey something stirs in the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Tommy Smith comes back to life as the latest incarnation of that magical archetype at the whim of Dr Dee, the Eternal Alchemist.

Quote from: danbuter;470752You mean you've never watched Dog the Bounty Hunter?

He is so fucking not representative of any bounty hunter I have ever met....

Marshall Law is Pat Mills British take on American Super Heroes though it is set in America, as is Judge Dredd of course another MIlls invention.
Then you have a range of attempts from Excalibur , that re-imaged Captain Britain without all the cool Arthurian backstory, to Zenith and on the telly Misfits (which is skins meets the X-men).

There is a strong mythological edge to the top British comics though, The Invisbles are superheroes but armed with magic rather than radiation poisoning, and Tim Hunter is like the British teenage equivalent of Dr Strange, only with cryptic faeries, a tough little Irish girlfriend and some really good writting.
Of course the ultimate British Superhero is John Constantine, a chainsmoking Scouse anarchist conman.