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.

The ultimate british superhero is Doctor Who.

RPGPundit

I'm feeling that the definition of superhero in this thread is rather elastic.

I dn't class Dr Who as a superhero, nor the goodies.

Well I think getting run over by a train then getting up and walking away is pretty super heroic

The Doctor totally has superpowers.

In fact, the way he's written he's often bordering on old school Superman superpowers where he seemed to get a new one every week.

For fuck's sake in the first Martha episode he demonstrates an ability to excrete radiation through his foot.

Quote from: RPGPundit;470877The ultimate british superhero is Doctor Who.

RPGPundit

Bollocks...it's Withnail

I'm working under the assumption that the OP is talking about your capes and cowls supers, not just anyone that can do weird shit.

And I'm not a fan of the new Who's ridiculous abilities. Headbutt telepathy, cooling rod feet, spare hands or whatever. I think it's all gotten a bit silly and is clearly aimed at the kids market.

Your statement implies such stuff is a recent development.

That's really not the case.

I can't really comment on British SuperHeroes  from comics as I don't read comics.

However, I do watch the telly and British SuperHero TV programmes are usually comedies or try to have funny moments. We can't take SuperHeroes seriously, so make fun of the people or situations.

I was going to mention Misfits and No Heroics, but they have already been highlighted. Another is My Hero, which covers the life of Thermo Man http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Hero_(TV_series).

All of these TV programmes look at the everyday lives of SuperHeroes and ask the question "What would be different about life if you had super powers?" The answer - virtually nothing.

Heroes tried to ask the same question, but didn't answer it in the same way as it was more concerned about the conflicts between Super Heroes then the conflicts between being a Super Hero and having to live a normal life.

So, a British Super Hero would be doing his/her own ironing, going to the pub and complaining about the weather. Sure, the ironing could be done without an iron, going to the pub might take a couple of seconds and the Super Hero can change the weather, but that's beside the point.

Personally, I think that too much is made of the mundane, hum-drum nature of British SuperHeroes. I would like to see a British SuperHero who does Heroic things as well as going down the shops.

Marvelman/Miracleman was a UK creation... his second incarnation by Alan Moore was great stuff... and I'm not usually a fan of supers.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;470957I'm working under the assumption that the OP is talking about your capes and cowls supers, not just anyone that can do weird shit.

That's part of the question though. All the UK references we got so far - Sherlock Holmes, John Steed, James Bond - stand out by preserving their (relative) anonymity, not behind some laughable costume (which screams "Look at me!!"), but behind the everyman's dress style. Basically Clark Kent, minus the other half. It's that other half, the show off,* which is so undecidedly British - and in poor taste - that I can't ever imagine a British super hero. And the 'special powers' of a Sherlock Holmes are so deliberately not superhuman that they indicate just how far off the mark these characters are when viewed as supers. I think the OP is correct, then.

And thanks to Ian Warner for a(nother) round of impressive and delightful posts.

*This is often overlooked with James Bond. He only shows off towards the audience in the movie theatre and the lone woman, not to a public going oooh and aaah in the movie itself.

Quote from: J Arcane;470962Your statement implies such stuff is a recent development.

That's really not the case.

I did an article on that in Wizkid Who: I identified the Colin Baker Doctor as the worst offender of the Classic Series.

But compared to Tennant all the other Doctor's "emergency plot physiology" stuff is pretty tame.

Quote from: Windjammer;470971That's part of the question though. All the UK references we got so far - Sherlock Holmes, John Steed, James Bond - stand out by preserving their (relative) anonymity, not behind some laughable costume (which screams "Look at me!!"), but behind the everyman's dress style. Basically Clark Kent, minus the other half. It's that other half, the show off,* which is so undecidedly British - and in poor taste - that I can't ever imagine a British super hero. And the 'special powers' of a Sherlock Holmes are so deliberately not superhuman that they indicate just how far off the mark these characters are when viewed as supers. I think the OP is correct, then.

*This is often overlooked with James Bond. He only shows off towards the audience in the movie theatre and the lone woman, not to a public going oooh and aaah in the movie itself.

You're comparing apples and oranges.  Comic-book superheroes have colorful costumes because it is hard to distinguish between facial features in a four-color comic -  because of (1) small panel size, (2) low quality of the mass-produced art and reproduction; and (3) young readership demographic.  In movies, prose, or television it is easy to distinguish between characters and costumes are not necessary - though names are important in these media.  Thus, Bond and Steed still use their goddamn real names even when supposedly undercover.  

In any case, there are tons of American heroes who are not cape-and-cowl superheroes.  All of the above are most certainly showoffs compared to Lieutenant Columbo, for example.  James Bond is flashier than Jason Bourne or Jack Bauer.

The Early Doctors (particularly Patrick "Master of Disguise" Troughtan) had an element of ordinary mixed with show off.

Then of course came Tom Baker and from then on in none of the Doctor's Incarnations understood the meaning of the word subtlty.

Except maybe Ecclestone



Then again Ecclestone is such an awesome actor he doesn't need to dress like a colour blind dipshit to look alien.



Actually I don't think he did either. Oh well.

Quote from: Ian Warner;470975I did an article on that in Wizkid Who: I identified the Colin Baker Doctor as the worst offender of the Classic Series.

But compared to Tennant all the other Doctor's "emergency plot physiology" stuff is pretty tame.

On the other hand, Colin Baker for whatever reason had the best comics made of his doctor out of any of them, the Voyager saga.  

Also, he had the best comic-book companion; Frobisher.  I mean really, was there any other comics-only companion that was even vaguely memorable (in the sense that you'd actually want to remember them) other than Frobisher? I think not.

RPGPundit