He clearly lives ...In America!
"I don't know that I'd necessarily go out and buy a comic called 'Captain Belgium'."
— Paul Cornell, on US-based Marvel Comics' decision to cancel Captain Britain and MI13, Comic-Con 2010
Superheroes that are obvious about which country they live in, usually by name, Patriotic Fervor, or costume. The latter often overlaps with Wearing a Flag on Your Head.
If they love their countries, this overlaps with Captain Patriotic. If they are a representative of a specific ethnic group, then it overlaps with Captain Ethnic.
If they also have powers and other aspects related to their countries, then this overlaps with Captain Ethnic.
Compare For Great Justice, Captain Superhero.
Do not confuse Star-Spangled Spandex for being a sign of this trope.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- My Hero Academia
- One guess where Star and Stripe is from.
- Singapore has Big Red Dot, a reference to the country’s nickname of Little Red Dot.
- Salaam from Egypt. His name likely comes from an Arabic greeting and he wears a costume themed after ancient Egypt.
Comic Books
- Guardian (Mac Hudson) and Vindicator (Heather Hudson) from Alpha Flight. Furthermore, the original team concept had representatives from the various regions and populations of Canada: Mac is from Ontario; Heather and Shaman are from Alberta, with Shaman also representing the First Nations; Puck is from Saskatchewan; Marrina's from the Atlantic Coast; Northstar and Aurora are from Quebec (with Northstar being a former separatist); Snowbird's from the Northwest Territories; and Sasquatch is from British Columbia.
- "Major Maple Leaf" started out as Wolverine's mocking nickname for Mac years earlier, being a lampshading of this trope.
- In the 90s, the entire team's uniforms had the same maple leaf motif and only differed from one another in color scheme.
- Done intentionally in Astro City to allow for a strong sense of place when outside of the city boundaries.
- Las Vegas' big hero is the neon-themed Mirage.
- New York is defended by Skyscraper.
- Boston has the Silversmith (after Bostonian silversmith Paul Revere) and The Brahmin.
- Chicago has The Untouchable.
- Austin, Texas has Lonestar.
- Atlanta, Georgia (home of Coca-Cola) has The Real Thing.
- Detroit, the Motor City, has MPH.
- Los Angeles has Starpower, a Chrome Champion wearing an oversized film strip.
- Australia's most notable heroes include Kookaburra, Barrier, Bullroarer, and the Colonial.
- Later issues introduced another hero called Wolfspider, and the villains Coolangatta Pete, the Exo-Skells, and Jack Panzer.
- There's also a popular kids' cartoon called "Queenslaw", about a team of (fictional) Australian superheroes — Cap'n Cookaburra, Banana Bender, Goldrush, Krokolite, Seadragon, the Territorian, and Numbat.
- British crime lords include The Red Queen, Clever Dick, the Toff and the Headmaster of Crime, while its heroes include The Lion and the Unicorn, Larkspur, and Popstar.
- Germany has Iron Cross.
- Kenya has Anansi, who creates illusions.
- India has a team of super-powered street urchins called The Unclean.
- Brazilian heroes mentioned are the Birds of Paradise, a trio of flying, scantily-clad women.
- And inverted by the title location. Astro City is an American urbanopolis (wherever it is) as famous for its superhero population as, say, Detroit is for auto production.
- Captain America, the Patriot, the Spirit of '76, the Defender, Superpatriot, the Bold Urban Commandos, Nuke, Jack Flagg, Miss America, Free Spirit, and USAgent of Marvel Comics with America.
- Odd mini-reference from the "Marvel Zombies: Volume 3": "Captain Mexica," an alternate-universe version of Captain America (duh) from Earth-1519 "Aztec Empire never fell." Aztec-themed costume, little stylized "thingies" on his ears instead of wings, speaks in (presumably) Aztec hieroglyphics.
- The costume of Bucky/Winter Soldier as Captain America actually resembles the flag of Puerto Rico.
Obviously a case of artistic license (at least it is a territory of the US).
- The original Captain America costume had a similar problem - since that only has one star, it actually more closely resembles the flags of Liberia, Chile and Texas than the Stars and Stripes.
- Besides, the design on Bucky's chest even more clearly resembles the original, triangular Captain America shield. Plus, old soldiers like Steve and Bucky would know better than to wear the actual flag of the US as a uniform.
- Minor Marvel villain Nuke, being essentially an Evil Counterpart of Captain America, is a surprisingly downplayed example; he has a Stars and Stripes flag tattooed on his face and takes "Red, White and Blue" drugs to fuel his super powers, with different colors affecting his mood/abilities (reds fuel his strength and drive him berserk, blues give him less strength but keep him from going too crazy, and whites cool him down).
- When Norman Osborn came up with the Iron Patriot, he did so by wearing a reverse-engineered Iron Man armor with a red-white-and-blue paint job... Which ironically made it look like the flag of Cuba (blue and white stripes and the infamous star-shaped arc reactor upon a red chestplate). Later versions, like War Machine's, give it a color scheme similar to that seen in Iron Man 3, more in line with the Old Glory.
- Captain Britain of Excalibur, and various counterparts like Union Jack and Albion.
- In Ultimate Marvel, Captain Britain is part of the European Defense Initiative, which as the Marvel Database Wiki states, is pretty much an European version of The Ultimates (completely eschewing the mainstream counterpart's mystical origins). Along with him, there's also a Captain Spain, a Captain France and a Captain Italy (the latter two have since died).
- Psylocke also briefly becomes Captain Britain.
- Paul Cornell's Wisdom: Rudiments of Wisdom and Captain Britain and MI13 run featured Captain Midlands.
- Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! has Yankee Poodle, whose name and costume were inspired by the (United Species of) America's flag and her powers (being able to project electromagnetic stars with one hand and stripes with another). Fellow teammate American Eagle, while having no powers, also has a patriotic theme to his costume and superheroic identity, though thanks to his personality and career in his alter-ego as a conservative radio talk show host, it's carried to a much further degree than Yankee Poodle's.
- DC: The Freedom Fighters (Miss America & Uncle Sam), Liberty Belle, Commander Steel/Citizen Steel/Steel, Skyrocket (US), KGBeast, Red Star (Soviet Union)
- DC Comics had a team of America-themed super villains: The Force Of July, enemies of The Outsiders. They considered themselves heroes, but were too extremist (and manipulated by a rich superpatriot type.)
- The entire People's Heroes team, even. Molotov, Hammer, Sickle, Bolshoi, and Pravda all proudly wore the red star on their uniforms.
- As well, from What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?, you have Manchester Black, who has a Union Jack tattooed on his torso.
- Also from DC's Russia, the Rocket Red Brigade, who all have the red star on the chestplates of their armor, and NKVDemon whose name is quite the stretch and who is definitely on the villain side of the spectrum.
- Jokingly parodied in the New 52 Harley Quinn with the Gang of Harleys. The Indian-American Harley is called Bolly Quinn, the African-American one from Harlem is Harlem Quinn, the Jewish one is Hanuquinnnote , the Chinese-American one from Queens is Harley Queen, etc.
- On a similar note, team-up series Harley's Little Black Book features the London Legion of Superheroes, who include Big Bad Ben, the Pub Crawler, and Double Decker.
- DC's The New 52: Futures End series has two supporting British heroines, Banger and Mash. (Bangers-and-mash is a traditional British dish consisting of sausages and mashed potatoes.)
- Paul Cornell's Knight and Squire features various British heroes and villains including Captain Cornwall (and his sidekick, Cornwall Boy), The Professional Scotsman, a cricket based crime gang called The Eleven, a neo-nazi Morris dancer called Morris Major, and a group of West Country cyborgs known as the Cydermen.
- Marvel: Major Mapleleaf, Red Guardian (Soviet Union, basically a recolored Captain America costume; later changed to Steel Guardian), the Guardian (who wears a maple leaf on his costume).
- Sabra from the Marvel Universe. "Sabra" is the term for a Jew born in Israel (or before 1948, in Palestine).
- Another Israeli superhero is Uri-On, who has a menorah symbol on his costume.
- The Marvel Universe used to have a Soviet superhero named Vanguard whose weapons were a hammer and a sickle.
- Downplayed for both villains Omega Red and Crimson Dynamo. Although their color schemes have the red of the Soviet Union, neither Omega Red's costume nor that of the Crimson Dynamo includes a national symbol of the Soviet Union (hammer and sickle, red five-pointed star) or Russia (double eagle).
- While he never had his own series, the Marvel Universe version of Germany has Hauptmann Deutschland (translation: Captain Germany) as its national hero. At other times, he has been known as Vormund ("legal guardian"). The comic's German translation avoided the trope and changed his name to Freiheitskämpfer ("freedom fighter"), since an overly militaristic/patriotic name would be more representative of Nazi Germany than of the Federal Republic which the Hauptmann was supposed to represent.
- The '80s indy superhero series Northguard, published by Matrix Comics. A serious series which nevertheless lampshaded many Captain Geographic clichés.
- Captain Nazi from Captain Marvel was this when he was first written during World War II. Not that he isn't an example by default.
- And let's not forget virtually every Nazi or Axis-allied character from the Golden Age. Both Killer Sharks also proudly wore the Swastika, for instance, as did Baron Blitzkrieg.
- The Shield from Archie Comics, who was temporarily integrated into The DCU along with his other MLJ/Archie/Red Circle pals. Of note is the fact that he also happens to be one of the earliest patriotic heroes, and the design similarities between his costume and Captain America's original shield forced Marvel to change the shape of the latter. Archie's collection of some of the Shield's first comics proudly proclaims that he was the very first superhero to wear the Stars and Stripes. Which makes him the Trope Maker, at least in America.
- Wonder Woman, for the US, despite not canonically being born there. Post-Crisis her costume was explained to be modeled in honor of a female American pilot who crashed on Themyscira.
- Wonder Woman (1942): In the Silver Age Steve Trevor once temporarily gained Flying Brick superpowers and went out as a star spangled hero named Patriot, and later Wonder Man.
- Presumably the same for Wonder Wabbit from the Just'a Lotta Animals of Earth-C-Minus from Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!, who even lampshades her costume choice when Yankee Poodle compliments her on how patriotic it looks.
- Other: Captain Canada/Captain Newfoundland (from the obscure Geoff Sterling comic Atlantis), Captain Canada (the cartoon one), Captain Canuck, Johnny Canuck (all Canada); Captain Euro and Europa (European Union. Yes.).
- Captain Chicago, the superhero of comics and Real Life, wears a Chicago flag and a hat shaped like the Sears Tower.
- The Batmen of All Nations are each named after their culture's historic warrior archetype, and wears a costume based on that: the Knight and Squire of Britain, the Musketeer of France, the Ranger and Scout of Australia, the Legionary of Italy, and El Guacho of Argentina. Batman (Grant Morrison) revealed that several of them had moved away from the archetypes since their last appearance, and then reinvented the concept entirely as Batman Incorporated. Batman Incorporated also reveals that the Knight used to be a member of a group called the Victory Vs, led by Mr. Albion, named after an old name for the island of Britain, and wearing a George's Cross on his chest.
Films - Live-Action
- Invoked by the Motherfucker in Kick-Ass 2, who picks the names of each member of his Legion of Doom; the Brawn Hilda gets dubbed "Mother Russia".
Literature
- Justice Squad: Ivy, hailing from the UK, has the Union Jack on her top.
- Save the Day plays with several superhero-related tropes. One of the characters, Titan Tomcat, the hero of Toronto, proudly wears the colors of Canada on his costume. In a world where all other Canadian superbeings are criminals or villains though, it's perfectly understandable that he'd want to show an heroic version of Canada to the world...
Live-Action TV
- Every member of Battle Fever J has a shield on his or her chest bearing their nation's flag. This is mainly because the show was a loose attempt to adapt Captain America as a Toku series.
- In Goodness Gracious Me, there is the Punjabi super-hero BhangraMan, who defeats his foes through his amazing superpower of Indian folk dancing. BhangraMan is meant as a double parody, firstly of comic super-heroes in general, and secondly of the home-grown Indian variant such as Shaktimaan and Nagraj.
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine has the fictional comic book hero Captain Latvia, the favorite of Charles's adopted Latvian son Nikolaj. Charles buys an action figure for Christmas, then tries to take down a Latvian Mafia operation that delays its shipping.
Video Games
- Statesman, his daughter Miss Liberty and her daughter Ms Liberty from City of Heroes.
- The robust costume creator also allows one to make his or her own Captain Geographic.
- Freedom Force:
- Heroic Minuteman is a Captain Ersatz version of Captain America taken to the extreme with the American Revolution era three pointed hat and scepter topped with the American bald eagle as well as a red white and blue costume.
- His arch nemesis Nuclear Winter wears the fuzzy hat and dresses much like a cold war era Soviet officer, only with more red like their flag. He's probably meant as an Ersatz of the 50s Red Skull, a Soviet-allied villain who impersonated the original Skull for effect.
- The sequel's Blitzkreig wears a reddish Nazi uniform and carries a staff with a Reichsadler stuck to the top, while the Red Suns all wear rising sun facemasks.
- Averted by Touhou Project's Clownpiece, who wears American-flag clothes and has stars-and-stripes danmaku but isn't American (she's a lampad, a madness-causing type of fairy from Greek Mythology). The reason she wears them is to function as a Brown Note to the Lunarians, reminding them of the first time humans landed on the moon (a major Berserk Button for them). The fans (especially Americans), however, love to use her as Eaglelander type-2 incarnate.
- In Evil Genius 2, two of the Super Agents fit this:
- Agent X, the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Super Agent, is literally dressed in the Stars and Stripes, even being called "The Star-Spangled Planner" in-universe. However, he secretly hates the whole "Agent X" gimmick and would much rather be Sam Hill, the reporter he once was before he dug up dirt on the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. president and was reassigned to hunting down evil Geniuses.
- The Blue Saint, the S.M.A.S.H. Super Agent, is a Spanish-speaking Masked Luchador wearing two bandoliers of grenades shaped like chili peppers which just screams "Mexico".
Web Original
- Played for laughs in the Whateley Universe with the character
CAPTAIN CANADA!Cerebrex. He's a student at Whateley Academy whose powers work best if he gets properly psyched up first, and waxing over-the-top patriotic about the Great White North is his method of choice. Oh, and he can't actually officially call himself 'Captain Canada' because, possible copyright issues aside, school rules don't allow students to use ranks or titles they're not actually holding in their 'real' identity in their code names... - How to Hero discusses heroes like these in their entry on state-sponsored heroes.
- Captain Euro provides a strange multi-national example of this trope. A web-only comic hero originally sponsored by the EU in the early 2000s to promote pan-European patriotism, Captain Euro's home country is appropriately left ambiguous. He operates throughout all EU member countries to provide emergency relief in a battle against Eurosceptic super-villains.
Western Animation
- Major Glory from Dexter's Laboratory. Gets a Lampshade in one cartoon where a villain beats up Glory and holds him by the legs in imitation of a flag.
- In one The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode, Blossom briefly remodels herself as "Liberty Belle" with a stars-and-stripes motif. Funnily enough, there actually is a patriotic heroine in DC called Liberty Belle.
- The Super Hero Squad Show episode "O Captain, My Captain!" featured Captain America leading a squad composed entirely of Captain Geographic — Captain Britain, Captain Canada (Wolverine forced into Alpha Flight's Guardian's outfit for the time being), Captain Australia, Captain Brazil, and Captain Liechtenstein ("tiny, but economically prosperous!"), all wearing their respective flag-themed spandex outfits.
- American Maid of The Tick.
- The live action version used Captain Liberty, who has a torch and tiara like the Statue of Liberty.
- Also from the animated version, Blitzen and Eclair (whose names are the Dutch and French words for "lightning"), the superheroes of Belgium, emphasizing the Dutch/French mix of the country.
- Parodied in Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) with the Plymouth Rocker, Salem's Witch and Slam Adams, a team of Massachusetts-themed supervillains.
- What If?...: Instead of Peggy Carter being referred to as a gender swapped version of Captain Britain (since she's an alternate Captain America in all but name and country of origin), Peggy's superheroine alias simply referred to just her name as Captain Carter. She has a Union Jack on her suit and shield otherwise.