You might have heard that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now a Marvel comic book hero.
The alternate cover of issue No. 5 of Marvel’s “Civil War II: Choosing Sides” shows Trudeau wearing a maple leaf tank top and sitting in a boxing ring, surrounded by Canadian superhero posse Alpha Flight.
In the story, Alpha Flight is at an ethical impasse.
It has to do with a mysterious character named Ulysses. He has the ability to predict crimes before they happen, a skill that could be useful to the crime-fighting team. But the group is split. Some members of Alpha Flight are in favor of stopping crimes before they happen, but others, like Iron Man, argue that they can’t punish people who haven’t yet done something wrong.
And so, they decide to pose the question to their prime minister.
We won’t give away more than that here. (The comic book goes on sale Aug. 31.)
But why the boxing gear, you might be asking? Well, it is part of the story. The illustrator behind the cover, Ramón Pérez, says he wanted to show how Trudeau is different from other prime ministers.
“I didn’t want to stick to the more traditional suit-and-tie political image,” he said.
The last Trudeau featured in a comic book did indeed have a more traditional look.
Nearly 40 years ago, Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre, appeared in the 1979 issue of “Uncanny X-Men,” the same issue that introduced Alpha Flight. He showed up in two subsequent comic books: “Alpha Flight Vol. 1 #1” and “The Incredible Hulk Vol 1 #162.”
The plot thickens.
The elder Trudeau’s role in “Uncanny X-Men“ was to personally dispatch Alpha Flight to go after the X-Men. Before then, Alpha Flight were employed as official agents of the Canadian government. You can see that scene here:
And now they’re teaming up with Justin Trudeau.
The current prime minister is slated to appear in yet another comic book this year. Trudeau officially endorsed this cover of “Captain Canuck,” which should be on shelves in North America and the UK within a few weeks.
