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Sorry, I was laughing so much at the idea of Murdoch and quality news being in the same sentence that I passed out...

I was too busy picturing the Australian supervillain Cyberswine swinging into battle on a long rope, emitting a leather-lunged battle cry of "scuuuuurilouusss".

I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Falcon 7.

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/c/capcave.htm

All is not lost!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus,_Robot_Fighter
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/m/magrbt.htm

In much the same sense that a cow could, in principle, eat you.

The Man-Eating Cow laughs at your principles!

Sure. He tried to get this guy appointed but it was blocked at the last minute ... :)

Calling Magnus, Robot Fighter http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/m/magrbt.htm or his dad....

He was defeated in an epic battle by Chairface Chippendale

Yeah, I know he is not a Captain, but I like this one better

That one's funny, but even funnier is the other, "we're totally serious about this, eh", Captain Canada.

Nowhere near as cool as this guy: http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/c/capcana1.htm!

And lets not for get the mighty Super Gran
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/s/sgran.htm

The data they release is mostly on suspects arrested and/or assets seized. Law enforcement doesn't want you to know about "perfect crimes" that resist solution. Fu Manchu-type supervillians use the abacus. Occidental criminal masterminds before the age of the PC tended to use sliderules. Except, of course, The Napoleon of Crime, Adam Worth, the most famous criminal of the Victorian Age and the model for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's insidiously brilliant Professor Moriarty, who solved all equations in his head. An American-born Jew who rose through the ranks of New York's Jewish underworld, Adam Worth amassed millions and built a criminal network that reached from New York to London, Paris, and South Africa. Professor Moriarty The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief, by Ben Macintyre -- Jonathan Vos Post

Chairface Chippendale?

If it does die, it will reincarnate itself as a similar company with a different logo.

I have the man for the job!

Eh, there's plenty of Superman and Batman clones around. Marvel's got the the Squadron Supreme, a JLA clone invented in the 1970s for an unofficial JLA/Avengers crossover (the same year, DC created an Avengers clone to meet the JLA). Hyperion and Nighthwak are the Superman and Batman characters. Image introduced Supreme (no connection) in the 1990s, a Superman-like character who accumulated many elements of Superman's mythos that DC discarded in the mid-1980s. The Authority's Apollo and Midnighter are very much like Superman and Batman (except for being a couple). Big Bang Comics is all about taking classic comics characters and trying to duplicate the feel of the 1950s stories -- their Superman/Batman clones are Ultiman and the Knight Watchman.

And so on.

Of course, lawsuits over clones go back decades. Consider the twisted case of Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel. He was introduced just two years after Superman, and by 1941 DC Comics had filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against them. It took years, but Fawcett lost and ended up cancelling all their superhero books. Oddly, DC ended up buying Captain Marvel from them, but the trademark lapsed, and Marvel Comics introduced their own Captain Marvel, leading to another legal battle... which is why both DC and Marvel now have characters named Captain Marvel, but DC has to use the name Shazam on the covers.

"If you already have hands, double your typing productivity as Four-arms-man!"

Too late.
Morgan Stryker was already invented.

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/s/stryker.htm

We do have some thing like that, actually... ;)
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/s/supdupont.htm
But well... It is more about parody than anything else.

But the cartoon sucked. Always sucked.

OK, let's review...

Transformers was aired in 1984. Cartoons (anime or otherwise) with good storylines were rare, if not unique. After all, what was the competition?
He-man? Voltron? Mazinger Z (pfft) ?

Transformers was written for young, gullible kids. Yes, it was also made to sell toys, but what difference does it make with other cartoons of today?

Anyway, it was a show about good vs. evil. And the evil characters were REALLY evil. I loved the way Megatron planned the destruction of the autobots, he was evil, and i just loved that (well actually i hated him, but you get the point). We rarely see characters like him today. And remember, in 1984, kids weren't aware of conspiracies, and intensive drama was definitely taboo. We were children! We didn't have to worry about terrorism, drugs, or our best friend committing suicide. We just wanted to play, have fun, and watch some TV.

Call me naive, but it was a show perfectly adapted for our young, innocent mindsets. And we loved it.

I guess that would be Slaine then.

The odd spoiler follows.

In an interview I read recently, Moore says something along the lines that he doesn't think there will ever be a market for a film where the hero is an anarchist terrorist. Obviously we don't know whats in the film, but even though its been made I sort of share his skepticism. One wonders if V really does remain a terrorist who goes around blowing up public buildings in the film for no other reason than to make people think and feel freely...seems a little unlikely "in the current climate". My money is on them twisting that element to make it the struggle of the lone hero against the repressive regime, but the subtlety in what V's aims actually are, and the moral ambivalence, will be long gone (if you take out the motivation than V is undiscernable from say Rambo, both blow lots of things up to fight Bad Guys(tm) ). Also, is it really going to begin with the attempted rape of a underage prostitute by the secret police? And can we really trust Elrond to keep the damn mask on all the way through? A flashback (yes, yes, but look how its drawn) or an unmasking would ruin the whole thing. I can't think of many Hollywood stars who'd be prepared to do that as a leading actor (David Prowse will of course always be the exception, but he wasn't as such a Hollywood star, he was the Green Cross Code man!)

As to Hollywood getting England wrong, we are so well used to that, to be honest it barely registers anymore. It was going on long before any of us were born. One sort of grows up realising theres a special mythological England with bizarre Ye Olde customs and behaviour that exists in films and the one you actually live in. But then thats probably true for everyone across the world to some extent. And being the sinister villains rather than the lantern jawed hero is fine with me as well, they always have the best lines anyway. Our accents (e.g., the woman in Frasier...wtf?), our culture and our history are regularly and comprehensively pissed all over in the name of the North American market, but heh, as the Voice of Fate would say:

England Prevails.

What happens when an Engineer plugs into a Nurse? Do they get this? http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/l/lordfanny.jpg

Flying Squirrel - not really flying, but one hell of a long jump.

tell that to rocky! :)

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/r/rockymoose.ht m

some species can fly (ok, "glide") rather long distances... up to 1500 feet (!)

http://www.edhelper.com/AnimalReadingComprehension _86_1.html

I was unaware that ESR had replaced Oscar Goldman as the head of the OSI. Now I hear that he is stepping down. I wonder who Steve Austin's new boss will be?

won't be long now .....

"All crime is committed by the living, therefore life itself is a crime."

Sidney De'Ath

Here..

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/m/marvin.htm

Remember, he's Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun To Be With..

BTW, you're both talking about the same guy - the Ghost who Walks AKA Walker AKA the Phantom.

Even Australia had their own X-Men style superhero team - the Southern Squadron, who in Australias owns style tended to be a bit rough around the edges [*]. They were created by David de Vries. This became a quite polished title with it's own sense of identity over time.

I think this brand of localisation is nothing new - and I can't wait to see what comes out of it. Hopefully not a Spiderman Clones saga.

* I don't think I've ever seen another comic where a lead comments to another "Besides, who looks at the mantlepiece while you're stoking the fire?" with regards to a prospective date.

Hm, seems to me that this is your interstellar traveller: King Ghidora. He is also known as "The God from Space", "The Strongest Foe", "The God of Mass Extinction", "The Great Devil That Comes From the Sky", "The Thousand Year Dragon King" and "Guardian God of the Heavens" in his various incarnations, both good and evil.

December 20th is his fortieth birthday, and Toho isn't throwing him a party. (Well, they did in 2001, but he wants another one.) So he has been showing off, with close asteroid flybys, fireballs, three naked eye comets, and the discovery of Planet X (Sedna).

So relax, and enjoy the show. Give him some popcorn offerings (so he doesn't have to fling asteroids into corn fields to make his own). And pray Mothra that he remains in a relatively good mood, because if he doesn't, it's curtains for the human race!

Happy Birthday, Maha King Ghidora!

what about shaloman?

As for the "mischevious gamers," I don't even *want* to think of what kinda "heads" they would appropriate in a game of SOCOM!

Are you sure you wouldn't want to play as Chairface Chippendale?

Cool! Now I know why Bird-Man has to recharche......

Marvin the Paranoid Android. Brain the size of a planet...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Rabbits!