Thursday, April 14, 2016

Dogwood City A to Z: London

Today seems like a good day to add a little more international flavor to the Dogwood City universe.  An occasional visitor from across the pond is the hero simply called London (a name made a little more intriguing to me now that we know Batman will soon be facing off against a vigilante called Gotham).  Naturally, London's British background helps him battle evil with the sort of manners and refinement that uncouth American heroes can only dream of:


 London's Golden Age origin is quite WWII-oriented.  As he is first introduced...


I don't think it would be too difficult to modernize this guy, letting him take inspiration from the horrors seen throughout London's history in order to improve his home.  One of the things that I think I really like about him is that he seems like he could easily be one of today's Real Life Superheroes.  The name and the costume are simple, classy, and timeless, like Will Eisner's Spirit.

Here he is at the PDSH wiki, and here's the issue where he first appeared.  Also, here he is fighting a boar:


This encounter actually took a rather grim turn, as the normally well-mannered London felt the need to display the poor pig's body for its villainous owner to find.  I think Rorschach would be proud.


Now, I can get fighting a boar in self-defense...but I think this little incident is worth retconning.  Golden Age comics are weird sometimes.

London
Real name:  Marc Holmes
Level 4
3 Hero Dice
Defense 13

Baton (melee) +3 (2D damage)
OR
2 fists (melee) +3 (1D damage)




2 comments:

  1. Like many golden age scenes, the boar thing would not fly in today's comics.

    This gent seems quite interesting.

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    1. Sometimes I like to think that some of the more WTF dark moments in today's superhero comics (especially DC...I'm looking at you, Geoff Johns) are tongue-in-cheek tributes to these little Golden Age moments. I don't think so, though...

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