U.S.Avengers #7

[iamrman]

Squirrel Girl and Enigma end up France and find it overtaken by HYDRA. Well, not all of France.

These HYDRA agents are crazy!

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

Things must be desperate if the British and French heroes are working together. Also, of course Al Ewing remembers the British Punisher!

Comments

[beyondthefringe]

It's even better than you might think - the Champions of Europe in that particular configuration, with Ares, Outlaw, and Guillotine as members, came out of the Contest of Champions series, which was both a sequel to Secret Wars in that it took place on what was left of Doom's Battleworld, and also a tie-in to the mobile game.

And that series did a lot of heavy lifting--resurrecting Night Thrasher, making Outlaw interesting, introducing several new characters into the MU, bringing back Ares... trust Ewing to make so much out of what was basically a game tie-in. :)

[stubbleupdate]

[onsokumaru]

And then they got defeated off panel by Malekith's army.
Now Ares is back at being a villain, Stick screwed up again in Daredevil, and Guillotine was among Nefaria's henchmen in the latest New Mutants mini (fortunalely, it was only in the first issue and she didn't appear again, so an editor probably realized she shouldn't be there)

It's frustrating to see all the settings and characters Ewing is throwing here and there, and nobody ever wants to pick them up.
Meanwhile Jason Aaron's pets keep getting used by several other writers.

[scorntx]

Contest of Champions got a lot done in ten-and-a-bit issues.

It's a great shame it didn't last longer...

[tcampbell1000]

Best Ares dialogue ever, and that includes anything written by Homer.

[stubbleupdate]

I quite like his spiel in Gillen's run

[tcampbell1000]

(Just coming back to this to say yeah, that's pretty good)

[zachbeacon]

Can't have a Marvel comic set in France without a Peregrine appearance.

[beyondthefringe]

France's first, greatest, and only superhero.
(Except for those guys the Thing met the one time...)

It really does baffle me sometimes how in your standard comic universe, America will have hundreds of heroes and villains, and every other country has like... one hero who's a total cliche. It's gotten better in recent years, but it's still major countries like Russia, England, Germany, China and Japan who can field actual teams (also Korea and the Philippines in Marvel)

Still, for 99% of the world, you could believe that there's next to no real superhuman action taking place. Wanna make trouble? Go to the Netherlands. There's one hero, he's got a windmill and tulips theme, and is no match for your average American rogue...

[full_metal_ox]

Particularly given that the first thing the OP’s intro (“Well, not all of France.”) brought to my mind were a couple French comic-strip kinda sorta superheroes, who might conceivably have modern descendants.

“Ils sont fous, ces agents d’HYDRA!”

[zachbeacon]

I think of him as the human equivalent of an Eiffel Tower establishing shot; you have to see him at least once so you know you're in France.

As to your other point, this is why I will always defend the Circus of Crime as a concept. After early failures, the Ringmaster and co mostly avoid NYC. They just happen to have the worst luck and run into superheroes in the middle of nowhere. A European tour would absolutely show them getting stomped by Windmill Woman and Tulip Boy.

[giraffesforever]

Squirrel Girl has flip-a-tank-over strength? Here I thought she just had squirrelly powers.

Also, setting up the c'est la guerre line for a french character is great.

[agharta75]

She has the proportionate strength of a squirrel. And the tail adds lift.

[agent8]

Not a tank, it's a 4-wheeled light truck. Probably weighs in at 5-10 tons. As opposed to a tank, that weighs in around 40-60 tons.

[super_fly]

She employed Judo to use the vehicle's own momentum against it
It's built using special lightweight alloys owned by Hydra to reduce transport costs
She rolled a Natural 20 on her grapple check

[scorntx]

A HYDRA agent there, learning there are actually worse things than the sky falling on your head.

(Remember Alesia!)

It was a thing in Guillotine's origin story that she was wanted by the authorities. Can't recall if Contests ever resolved that bit, but it doesn't get mentioned in US, but there's probably at least an issue's worth of story about the wanted 'criminal' having to team up with the non-criminal heroes in order to beat up the Rom- err, HYDRA, before Ares gets them all.

[blues32]

Squirrel Girl as a Dr. Who fan confirmed.

[mastermahan]

Things must be desperate if the British and French heroes are working together.

If there's one tradition that brings the British and the French together, it's beating the crap out of Nazis.

And if there are two traditions that bring the British and the French together, it's beating the crap out of Nazis and Eurovision.

[super_fly]

Beating the crap out of Nazis *during* Eurovision, I can't think of anything better for bringing feuding nations together