This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog will look at a French-created figure.
GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE (Guardian of the Republic)
Origin: This costumed hero works in a semi-official capacity to safeguard the people and government of France against external and internal enemies plus menaces created by super-science or the supernatural.
Various figures have been trusted with the Gardien mantle ever since the 1780s and in my opinion this fictional character has the most detailed chronology of any multi-generational line of costumed heroes outside the Phantom.
In a nice touch the Marquis de Lafayette was secretly the very first Gardien de la Republique (seen in costume at right) when he returned to France after America’s Revolutionary War. Since then, as mentioned above, the title and costumed identity have been passed down to other figures for nearly 250 years.
Beginning in World War Two, several Gardiens have had costumed female sidekicks who all used the nom de guerre “Marianne.” Continue reading
CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #1 (October 1975) 
MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #1 (January 1977) 
The team name Sanduguan dates to the era of Filipino resistance to the Spanish colonial forces. Rebels would take an oath of blood to the cause. Sanduguan, the term for the oath ritual, has also been translated as One Blood and Blood Pact. 
SANDATA (Weapon)
THE SHADOW
Comment: Many of this hero’s villains were femmes fatale along the line of 
LONER – In 1988 the U.K. comic book Wildcat introduced a sci-fi character called Loner. This figure was, shall we say, reminiscent of America’s 
In the year 2492 a huge spaceship called Wildcat searches the universe for a planet fit for the human race to settle on as Earth faces destruction from a meteor storm. Loner was the world’s highest-paid mercenary warrior and bought his way onto the Wildcat by chipping in twenty million in financing. 
THE RED CROSS 
FROM BENEATH THE RUE MORGUE (2004) – This Dark Horse comic book companion to the Van Helsing film is set in between scenes in the movie. After the death of Mr. Hyde in Paris, we see that Van Helsing winds up arrested for murder. 
That lab is the lair of THE Dr. Moreau in his younger years. The mad scientist has created a number of beastly man-monsters that are barely controllable, unlike his later experimental creations. 
DETECTIVE COMICS Vol 1 #400 (June 1970)
The anguished Langstrom realizes he must go into seclusion until he can devise a cure for his condition. That night he happens by as Batman interrupts the Blackout Gang’s attempt to rob a Gotham museum. 
PENITENTE (Penitent) 
To redeem himself in the eyes of Heaven, the Penitente had to save seventy times seven the number of innocent victims he had killed while alive. As part of this purgative servitude he would also be periodically pitted against dark forces which had escaped from Hell. 
Comment: Our hero rose from his grave and masked his decaying, scarred face behind a red cloth like those worn during Brazil’s Procession of the Penitents. 
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