'Captain Canuck' Movie May Change Title for U.S. Release

TORONTO -- World sensitivities may have Marvel Studios changing its Captain America: The First Avenger title to The First Avenger in certain markets.

But American insularity has Canadian comic book artist Richard Comely considering changing the title Captain Canuck for the eventual U.S. release of his planned $15 million live action movie.

“Of course we want to get the movie into that [U.S.] market as much as we can. Still, Americans tend to be rather insular. And they’ll say, we already have Captain America,” Comely said.

Captain Canuck is the Canadian superhero launched in 1975 as a comic book by Comely and, after the second issue, by fellow artist George Freeman. The Captain Canuck franchise has been optioned many times over the years as a possible TV series or movie.

Now Comely says he has deal with an unnamed Canadian movie producer to be unveiled as early as next week that will give his Captain Canuck character long-sought big screen treatment.

Not since Stan Lee teamed up with Pamela Anderson on the 2003-04 animated series Stripperella has interest in a Canadian superhero crime fighter draped in a comic book costume been as strong. But cultural differences has a head-scratching Comely deliberating how best to get American cinema-goers to embrace another masked do-gooder from the Great White North.

After all, Superman can stop a speeding train. And Spiderman can leap from tall buildings. Captain Canuck, on the other hand, is polite as he battles to save men, women and children from a burning CN Tower in Toronto.

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“The reality is many Americans think we’re pretty boring. They just think of us not shooting each other much, we’re polite, we live igloos. We’re going to have to figure out a solution,” Comely explained.

Part of that solution may be Justin Bieber. “The kid from Stratford who just rules the world in terms of teenie boppers? I’m definitely going to write him in,” Comely said of Canadian-born Bieber.

As for who will dress head-to-toe in figure-hugging rubber to play Captain Canuck, there’s Canadian A-listers like Hayden Christensen, Ryan Reynolds or Ryan Gosling to consider for their on-screen crusading powers, or a new-comer. “At this point, there’s just as much value in finding a new face, as with going with a known entity. It worked well enough with Superman,” Comely said.