Inspired by the trade war and tariffs between the United States and Canada, Trump and Musk have been turned into supervillains in Captain Canuck comics. The character is essentially the Canadian version of Captain America. Captain Canuck first gained popularity in the seventies, and it seemed as if the popularity lessened quite a bit, but the tensions between the two countries seem to have brought Captain Canuck back into the spotlight.
In a Reuters video you can watch here, you can see the cover of the 50th Anniversary Issue of Captain Canuck comics, Captain Canuck himself is wagging his finger at Trump. In drawings by the creator of Captain Canuck, the character can be seen either lifting Trump and Musk by the pants or possibly giving them wedgies.
In the same video, co creator of Captain Canuck Richard Comely said, “All of a sudden, Trump gets into office and he starts talking about annexation and tariffs. All of a sudden, Canadians are looking to Captain Canuck as a symbol. And it’s basically, to them, Captain Canuck symbolizes independence.”
Comely further explained the feeling of rising Canadian patriotism in the 70s and how that connected to the character. “I think there was an undercurrent, so to speak, in Canada in the ’70s. So I think Canadians were starting to feel like they should acknowledge the fact that we had our own country, and we had our own culture and be proud of the fact that we were Canadians.”
Comely went on to describe some of the original storylines within early Captain Canuck comics that featured various groups and countries attempting to take over Canada. In regards to current events, he said, “Of course, never, never in any of those stories was it America that was going to be taking over Canada.”
"It's got a lot of Canadians, you know, thinking about their identity as Canadians and feeling more united as Canadians. We feel like, okay, we've got to stand in opposition to these proposals," He said, still regarding current events and tensions between the neighboring countries.
"So in a sense, we have Mr. Trump to thank for a bit of resurgence."
Captain Canuck comics were created by Richard Comely and Ron Leishman. The first version of the character was named Tom Evans. He was a secret agent for Canada that came into contact with aliens who gave him superhuman strength, but there have been other iterations as well. Darren Oak took up the mantle of Captain Canuck for only a few issues and a version with David Semple ran for a similar amount of time.
In 2012, the character began to see a resurgence in popularity when Comely started publishing the comics again with Marvel artist Kalman Andrasofszky. There was even a crowdfunded animated series and there’s now a live action version in the works, though details are extremely limited.
What do you think about the resurgence of Captain Canuck? Let us know in the comments!