When considering superheroes, traditionally, the United Kingdom is not the first country to come up in discussion. The birthplace of the notion of ‘super’ comes from the States (yes, well done guys. God bless America, etc.) with the likes of the iconic Superman and other early super heroes.
The Japanese have taken the idea and run with it in other directions to produce a vast catalogue of rich and completely unique fantasy.
So of course, Japan and the USA are often the countries at the top of the agenda in a discussion about heroes and their origins.
The UK does have some claims to ‘super’-fame, mostly thanks to Alan Moore; the bearded “ceremonial magician” and Charles Manson look-a-like that produced such opuses as Watchmen and V For Vendetta.
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“One word balloon in From Hell completely hijacked my life… A character says something like, ‘
The one place gods inarguably exist is in the human mind’. After I wrote that, I realised I’d accidentally made a true statement, and now I’d have to rearrange my entire life around it. The only thing that seemed to really be appropriate was to become a magician.”
– Alan Moore
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When you look at some of his work, like From Hell, V For Vendetta and Watchmen, it’s not difficult at all to understand that Moore is an occultist and anarchist. These views have translated well into themes for his work with Marvel UK & DC Comics.
Clearly, Moore is a man with a serious dedication to his cause and lives according to his own comic books’ teachings.
Any association that the rest of the world has with the British superheroes is probably based on this eccentric creative genius. In fantasy literature, we (the United Kingdom) are well recognised for J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll and many others. But the majority of these writers’ works predate any appearance of superheroes, or the comic book as a genre. Moore takes almost all of the credit for the world of UK ‘supers’, dominating that particular geographical niche.
How many super heroes/vigilantes can you think of that come from this side of the pond that Alan Moore isn’t in any way responsible for?
It’s probably a very short list.
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| Captain Britain (known briefly as Britannic) created by London-born Chris Claremont and New Yorker Herb Trimpe, later used in stories by guess who – Alan Moore! |
One of my personal favourite heroes however is from the UK, and has recently caused a small media stir. He is very typically British, but in a hugely different way to Moore’s serious, political style.
Bananaman is the Monty Python of the superhero genre, tongue-in-cheek, childish and surreal.
Bananaman is to Batman, what Python is to Seinfeld.
The British sense of humour doesn’t always go down well in the states, and this is probably one of many reasons that the Bananaman comics probably wouldn’t have been successful anywhere outside of the UK had the publishers been brave enough to try it at the time.
Essentially, Bananaman is a spoof of Superman and Marvelman (Mick Anglo’s UK take on Captain Marvel, reimagined by Moore (again) for Warrior Magazine) created in 1980 by Steve Bright for DC Thompson Comics’ Nutty, The Dandy and The Beano; some of the longest running comic books in the world.
Eric Wimp (later named Eric Twinge) is an ordinary schoolboy who lives at 29 Acacia Road. But when he eats a banana (often brought to him by his faithful pet Crow), he becomes the rather hapless hero, Bananaman. Who inexplicably, is a fully grown adult superhero. He wears a blue costume with a yellow twin tail cape that resembles a banana peel, has super strength, electro-thermal underwear and can fly, although with the slight handicap of having to ‘swim’ whilst in the air.
To boost his strength and ability whilst in his Bananaman form, he simply needs to eat more bananas.
However, too many bananas can bring on instant obesity and over-ripe, rotten bananas are his kryptonite. His powers and appearance vary depending on the banana he eats. For instance, if he eats only the top half of a banana, more weight will be transferred into the top half of his body. The effects of eating different kinds or amounts of bananas are inconsistent throughout the series, but are only ever really to serve comedy purposes, hindering Eric some way in his heroic duties.
It was made into a television show in 1983 that proved to be popular amongst children, despite some subtle adult humour. The show only ever made a few seasons and was on the air for about 3 years until it was re-shown in the mid 1990’s. It was also shown briefly in Australia, and in the US on Nickelodeon in more recent years but unsurprisingly it was not especially successful. It’s brief but memorable appearance on the UK’s screens gave the show a cult following, all of whom will be extremely excited at the news released earlier this year.
Most of the humour in the Bananaman comics and the TV show was reliant on other superheroes to reference and make puns on. In fact almost ALL of the humour was based on a terrible pun of some kind.
The announcement in March this year of a Bananaman movie took the UK by surprise, and it is still uncertain whether it’s a hoax or not. The website that has been launched to promote the 2015 movie release simply reads “#PeelThePower” and plays an orchestral version of the cartoon’s theme tune.
It seems unlikely that anyone would be willing to make the irreverent Bananaman into a movie considering the current popularity of the serious superhero genre.
But maybe another parody is due, and the people allegedly behind it would be perfect for the job. The movie’s website displays both the logo for DC Thompson comics (Bananaman’s original publishers) and Elstree Studios; a British studio whose name you might recognise from titles such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Kick Ass, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Dark Crystal and Willow, to name a few.
To be the perfect tribute to the comics and TV show, it’s essential the studio behind the movie have a grasp of 1980’s kitsch, cartoon comedy, action and the sentiment of a super-anti-hero. So Elstree would be the obvious choice by any banana-fan, which is what makes the prospect of the film so exciting, and at the same time a little suspicious.
Is this too good to be true?
The internet is already littered with articles speculating the movies authenticity, but searching the ‘hashtag’ #PeelThePower reveals that more information is slowly leaking out in the form of official looking posters:
This and the cryptic website is all us banana-fans have been given to whet our appetites thus far, but needless to say we are suitably excited for 2015 to be the year of the banana. UK cosplayers will surely have a new favourite in the run up to the movie’s release, the comic has an array of great characters to choose from:
Doctor Gloom, one of Bananaman’s many nemeses and an obvious direct parody of Doctor Doom. Skunk Woman, an homage of sorts to Cat Woman. Appleman, a parody of Bizarro. Witchy Woman, suspiciously similar to Scarlet Witch.
And of course Bananaman’s trusted sidekicks Crow, a crow and Chief O’Reilly, an Irish policeman who is absolutely awful at catching criminals and relies solely on the help of Bananaman to put the above super-villains behind bars and prevent them from taking over the world.
Stephen Hawking would be the perfect new hyper-intelligent sidekick for the hyper-stupid Bananaman. But even if he is a fan of the series I doubt he’d be willing. This photo was snapped at a stag party, the cosplaying gang accidentally bumped into Hawking on the street.
What are the chances?
A lot of the talk on Twitter about the movie seems to lead in the direction of a movie revival of other British cartoon superheroes. One being Danger Mouse, another tongue-in-cheek lampoon, voiced by the popular british actor David Jason. Danger Mouse is a secret agent and a mouse, of course. His antics are usually similar to those of James Bond but always a lot funnier and with fewer deaths. It is probably the most popular cartoon of its kind (in the UK at least) and it’s extremely surprising that Bananaman may have beaten him to the big screen, especially seeing as the actor who voiced him continued to become more famous long after the show finished.
As a kid I always thought Danger Mouse was naked except for his belt and eyepatch. I later learned that he wears a white turtleneck, and I suppose the belt implies that he is wearing white pants.
SuperTed would potentially be another British superhero to consider, although strictly speaking he’s Welsh and I’m sure the proud nation of Wales would like me to make that clear.
He was originally created by Mike Young as a story to help his son overcome his fear of the dark. These stories were made into a book and eventually a TV show in 1981. Being a proud Welshman and determined to prove that the UK held talent that lay outside the London area; Mike chose to work with the brand new all Welsh speaking network S4C, knocking back offers from even Warner Brothers who had also expressed an interest in the project. Way to go Mike – you could have bought yourself a new son who wasn’t afraid of the dark!
SuperTed unzips his skin to reveal a super suit underneath! Surely it would have been less weird if the suit was the thing that zipped on and off, but those kooky Welsh folk must have thought otherwise.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Welsh language (much like everyone in the world who isn’t from Wales) then check out SuperTed.
So we’re not great at the hero thing all the time.
We’re much better at making fun of it with potentially copyright infringing parodies. But these parodies themselves have become so popular and so engrained in our culture that they are just as important to us as the ‘real’ superheroes.
No one could ever overlook the fantastic work in the field of genuine ‘super’ by British writers, but the art of manipulating this theme into a caricature or satire often goes unappreciated.
Of course I probably got more out of the latest meaty X-Men movie plot than I will the Bananaman one. But even though I’m anticipating this, I and many like me will still pay to see it on the big screen out of loyalty to our childhood and will still enjoy every second of it.
Sometimes a little fruity, but always a banana.
