Friday, January 29, 2010

Superdupont




Superdupont is a French comic created in 1972 as a parody of both Superman and French national attitudes (or, rather, their caricatural perception outside and inside France).

Superdupont is the son of the unknown soldier buried under the Arc de Triomphe. He is very patriotic, sometimes chauvinist, and empowered by superpowers that help him to defend his country against a secret organization called '"Anti-France", a sectist and terrorist organization that wants

to destroy France.

"Anti-France" was originally a pejorative term used by the nationalist intellectual Charles Maurras.

Anti-France agents are all foreigners (non-French) and thus speak the fictional language "Anti-Français", a mishmash of English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and German. This movement is intended to

ridicule the paranoia of certain French people who consider the foreign and unfamiliar as a threat against France.

The physical appearance of Superdupont is a superhero version of a caricatural Frenchman (specially, as seen by the Anglophone world): he wears a beret Basque, a striped jersey, charentaises, a

baguette under the arm, a tricolour belt held by a safety pin, and a long blue cape. He also supports economic patriotism, as he smokes Gauloises cigarettes, he drinks red wine, he eats French cheese and refuses to be painted using China ink.

Like Superman, Superdupont is able to fly but seems less superpowered than

Superman. By luck Superdupont is a master in the savate also known as boxe française ("French boxing"), which gives some superiority over his opponents.

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