Welcome to IAYTD and
welcome to Heroes Like Us, where we look at a certain identity and then look at characters
that have that identity from comic books.
Today we're talking about Canadian.
This one has been requested a lot and we're just getting into it, there's already at least
2 or 3 parts planned and so this is just part 1.
So if your characters that you love aren't here, they will be.
We're going to start this list with the most popular Canadian hero and we're just going
to get this one out of the way...
Wolverine.
His real name is James Howlett, from Marvel Comics.
Now I'm not going to go into too much depth here because most of you, even casual fans,
know enough about Wolverine.
Basically he is a mutant born with a healing factor that keeps him young for a very long
time.
It also lets him recuperate from wounds.
And when I say recuperate from wounds, it could be something small, a scratch, gunshots,
it could be complete and utter annihilation.
He can regrow.
It depends on who is writing the comic, his power fluctuates wildly.
Because of his ability, he was recruited by a Canadian organization called Weapon X that
experimented on him and because he could survive these procedures, they grafted a metal called
"adamantium" to his skeleton, so his bones are basically indestructible.
Oh and I forgot to mention this...
He also has claws that are made of bone that come from his hands.
Okay, so those are an actual thing that he had, before the Weapon X program.
But Weapon X coated them in adamantium.
So now he has these super sharp claws made of basically an indestructible metal.
When they did this procedure on him, they basically erased his memory.
I don't know if it was intentional or unintentional...
He kind of wandered around for a long time, aimless, lost.
That's where he took on the name "Logan."
He didn't really know much about his history or his real name.
He eventually found his way to the X-Men, where he served for a long time, eventually
becoming a leader of the X-Men, basically running the X-Men.
Until he actually died just a few years ago.
How do you kill him?
Suffocation.
So he was coated in adamantium and basically became a statue and died.
He of course won't be gone forever because no one stays dead but they did find a way
around this and they found a Wolverine from a alternate timeline called "Old Man Logan,"
which is kind of what the new movie is going to be based on.
And they brought him into our mainstream continuity.
So there's now a Wolverine that is much older, much more experienced, alongside the X-Men.
Wolverine has only been played by one person in live action and that is Hugh Jackman, who
has been playing him since the year 2000.
Now up next, we're going to start talking about the Canadian superhero team known as
Alpha Flight.
Just a preface, some characters are going to be in this video but we're going to spread
them out, so we're only going to cover a few each video.
So we're going to start with the twins Northstar and Aurora, from Marvel Comics.
They are twins and they discovered that when they come together, they can create this massive
concussive light blast.
But even when they're separate, they both have speed and the ability to fly.
When they come together, this is amplified.
So the two of them worked together for a time until eventually their paths started to diverge.
Northstar had a much more positive life.
He was featured in our Heroes Like Us: Gay edition because he did find, fall in love
with, and then marry the man of his dreams.
His sister however went a very different path, where she kind of... was not raised in a very
good place, her mutant abilities were not looked upon fondly, she was beaten, until
eventually her mind shattered and she now has multiple personalities as well as schizophrenia.
So she is constantly struggling with these mental handicaps that keep her from fully
functioning as a heroine in the Marvel universe.
Up next from Marvel Comics, is a younger character, relatively new, by the name of Transonic.
Laurie Tromette.
Basically when Transonic finds out about her powers, she is able to transform her body
into different forms that can help her travel with ease.
So she can fly at supersonic speeds and so she can change her body to be like a bullet,
or she can give herself wings in order to fly smoothly.
But she always has this blue metallic skin.
Again, she is relatively new, so she hasn't done a whole lot.
Let's move on.
Up next we're going to talk about a villain by the name of Wendigo from Marvel Comics.
Most prominently, this is Georges Baptiste and Paul Cartier.
So the Wendigo is actually a villain and this is actually a curse given to people that cannibalize
each other.
And so the first Wendigo was created, at least the Marvel Comics version of Wendigo, was
created when a group of people were stuck in the snow and one of them had to survive
and so he turned into the Wendigo when he... did what he had to do.
Now this first Wendigo was saved by a second person, who tried to take the curse away and
then took that curse on himself so that's kind of the two main Wendigos that we have,
are these two guys.
The Wendigo is basically super strong, durable, goes toe-to-toe with the Hulk, fights Wolverine,
like he's a heavy hitter but he lives in the woods of Canada, so he doesn't come into mainstream
stories that often.
So an interesting villain, but infrequent.
Now let's move onto DC's most prominent Canadian character and that is Booster Gold.
Booster Gold is a little confusing because his Pre-52 and New 52 stories are a little
different.
Back in the day, Booster Gold was not Canadian.
He was a time traveler from Gotham City, in the future, that had all this technology which
includes time travel, and he came back to our time and used his knowledge and these
skills to make money and become famous.
But when the New 52 happened, they rewrote his history and said that he is from Canada.
Now Booster Gold, aside from all this technology, doesn't have anything special about him.
So he has a ring that allows him to fly, he has these suits that allow him to withstand
damage and shoot blasts and all that stuff.
But there is nothing special about him as a person.
Now when Booster Gold was first introduced, he was a bit of a joke.
He was kind of always not doing great or he would misinterpret things, he was kind of
this foolish character and a bit of a joke, both in continuity and by the fans.
But in the New 52, they've started to give him some depth, including living with the
weight of things that he knows his decision causes this...
Or he knows what's going to happen and he has to live with that and that guilt.
And he becomes a much more three-dimensional character.
So in the newer stories, there actually is substance to him.
Lastly is another member of Alpha Flight from Marvel Comics: Guardian.
Guardian is James Hudson Jr. and he is the leader of Alpha Flight.
Now, like Booster Gold, there's nothing inherently special about James.
He just has a suit, called the Guardian suit, that allows him to fly, he's durable, he can
fight, things like that.
And basically he uses this suit to kind of lead Alpha Flight in battle.
And it gets a little complicated because he withstands some damage that should have killed
him.
And this alien race kind of repairs him but they don't understand that it's a suit and
so they intertwine his suit into his body when they bring him, basically, back to life.
So now Guardian is basically a cyborg.
In addition to the basic skills that it gives him, such as flight and super strength, he
also has some control over gravity.
So when he's flying, he flies faster when he's going in certain directions and he can
use gravity to move objects.
It's not clearly defined but it's interesting.
He is married to another member of Alpha Flight, which we will talk about in another video
by the name of Heather Hudson, who goes by the name of Vindicator.
So I think that's enough for this video.
That's what, 5 or 6 people?
We are going to do at least 2 more, so let me know what Canadian heroes you're looking
forward to seeing.
If it's about Alpha Flight, which Alpha Flight characters are your favorite and we will get
to them soon, I promise.
So thanks for watching and we'll see you next time, on Heroes Like Us.