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I've done enough videos on Captain Britain and friends...kinda felt obligated to complete the set and do this topic too.(Video is patreon-exclusive, and will never be posted to unpaid platforms)

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Table

Well this made my thursday thx mate

m'paluo tenerise

I'm saying snakes' bubbles are diamonds as he's a snake and snakes hiss, which is harsh sound that is conveyed by the diagonal lines instead of the smooth curves of a normal speech bubble

Alijah Wakefield

I think it’s fun how you can make the union seem like a fun and interesting concept in a lore video, bc I guarantee I’d have hated it if I read the book myself

The Dragion

great video as always Also yes WONDER MAN IS SO GOOD! Everyone please watch it

TeaChaos

I like snakes -VwV-

べソ

I think Snakes’ bubbles may be rhombi because that is a snake pattern (think diamondback) that isn’t really on any other animal.

Tsa

in 20 years Al Ewing is going to bring these guys out in such a mind-blowing way, as he is wont to do

Tsa

I think his bubbles are diamonds because he is a gem 🥰

OrderlySummit

Britannia representing the UK as a whole instead of England specifically despite that being what she should represent is honestly very accurate to the way England sees itself regarding the UK in real life. I feel like the diamond speech bubbles may reference scales. I've got a few ideas of how I'd work with Kelpie specifically, tying more into Scottish folklore. Knowing you the answer is probably yes but I'm curious if you've read Once and Future.

Matthew Drew

Snakes remind me of a villain from doctor who

Sir_Superhero

Yeaaaah that issue with Britannia is another reason the book was controversial in the UK. People...didn't like her. Also yes I have read Once and Future!

Colin Peacock

Snakes might be my new favourite hero

Sir_Superhero

Yeah he really is just less humanoid Colony Sarff :P

Domicci

only heard of the union but that's because someone suggested them for marvel rivals. great video cant wait for ghost.

Pogmancer

The shimmering light lowkey has a lot of potential. Cool design, cool looking ability, a bit of mystery, theres something you can build on there.

Diego Montana

Man, where to start. The Union seems like a mess, made to fill a quota than chasing a passionate idea. That could be for a number of reasons, but with the lack of description of their powers and the half-attempt at making Brittania a “lasting” character, I can only see it be attributed to a lack of direction, like pulling ideas off the tack board. “Yeah, we haven’t done that yet, make it work.” There seems to be something there, though, but they didn’t want to risk a follow through, like they didn’t have enough faith in their own idea. It felt rushed. Imagine if each issue focused on one of the four eventual members so they each have their powers better developed and personalities shown more, with Brittania being a secondary figure through-line, like the team’s Nick Fury. Doubly so if they’re serious about the Snakes implication from that many years ago. Doc Croc could’ve been son of- or more likely, successor to- the original that fought Brittania back in the day, giving him a personal motivation not only to take up the mantle of Croc but to go after the rest of the team as well and it could’ve been much more realized. Hell, maybe even add a Hydra element in there too, to help with the smoothing over of Skreem—>Choir if they were gonna go down that route and ease her into a redemption-seeking anti-hero in her own eyes. Give me Brittania negotiating peace with Robert the Bruce. Show me how the shifting tide of imperialism and colonialism impacted the rest of the world, and her view of it, the introspection. Recreate the Captain Britain/America James Bond-esque spec ops missions in WWI with new technology and the horrors of war. Don’t break the first rule of writing, show us what she was doing. Give credibility to her character. The fifth issue could have been the premise of the first, throwing the four together into a haphazard scenario as a test to their skills and seeing them interact with one another for the first time. Could have played Brittania’s death as part of the gimmick to motivate them into believing it was real only for the threat to become real, thanks to Croc and gang and various spies set within each story. Brittania comes back, gimmick test is over and real fight begins. Not to mention the Catholic’s justified issues with Snakes. That’s its own can of.. snakes. Man, hindsight is a superpower. Great video, Sir. Especially given what you were working with. Hopefully the Union will build up to becoming a good team, maybe akin to some of the smaller sets like the various avengers or defenders. P.s.: youve given me a new Glorbo. Snakes feels like the only one that was born from either inspiration or ‘yeah, sure, why not.’ And it works.

Elisabeth Latini

My Head-Canon is that the bubbles imply *all* the snakes are thinking/talking and the diamonds are the unified voice/thought that comes out

whispymilo

amazing video as always sir, a minor gripe though is that you refer to snakes as being the 'irish' one which... if you know anything about irish and nothern irish history theres a bit of a distinction, it does feel like the way they took his character was just "oh shoot, we gotta have one for NI. its pretty much just ireland, right?" and made an irish based hero as opposed to a northern irish one. tbf, then they might have to open the can of worms that is the troubles

Tommy

I bought em. I read em. I liked it and I hope they get used some more by a better writer.

King 3DDD

Y’know when I got this notification I just thought “oh hey guess we’re talking about Union Jack today that’s cool”. Wasn’t expecting weird nonsense team that even I’ve never heard of.

Cutter

He's snakes because he's Irish. Like seriously, marvel?

HogfatherD23

Wonder Man was everything I wanted it to be

Yackronin

Marvel has routinely written it's UK sphere badly but like. not in a way that's different from how it treats any non-US area tbh. God I miss Excalibur...

Squid Boi

This video is one of those cases where you hear a word so many times that it loses all meaning. What kind of word is "Snakes" even

Loupy

Snakes and Corgi are really good concept. I believe there is something worth working with here and I would love captain Britain to take them in, especially flashbacks with Britannia.

Roman Wright

I fucking love Snakes oh my god. That’s my GUY. New blorbo unlocked

Christopher Ulichney

If these characters ever return Snakes and Craig the Corgi need to become a Groot and Rocket type team. The appearance of Union Jack would have drawn me I and made me buy this book if I was collecting comics at 5he time it came out. And since I love crap-tastic comics I may just have to go out and find this series so I can read it for myself now.

TerraTauren

Someone chuck Snakes and Kelpie at Gurihiru, make them vaguely cute and have them meet Jeff, problem solved. In all seriousness, what a WEIRD crew. Lotsa potential fun, but I feel like only Snakes has any sort of unique sauce or flavor that could get played with as it currently stands.

Colton Renaud

would love to see an alpha flight video as i feel like despite their decenetly long 130 issuie original run not many people know about them and then as we get into newer alpha flight stories im confidant most have not read them at all like the fall of x alpha flight series is really good

Freddie

The public vote comment read to me as purely a way to make a joke about how we like to do things like Boaty McBoatface and that’s it, one joke and the forget it

Colton Renaud

it is actually on marvel unlimited if you just want to read it and not have to hunt down physical copies

Kimplosion

Did a double take at the mention of Volcanna, because Volcana (one n) is a character dating back to the original Secret Wars, and I assumed there would be some connection. No, as it turns out

Archaeolinguist

Britannia’s design seems like such a waste, it’s pretty solid and would make a great Captain Britain character (hilariously), but no, dead English Wonder Woman rip-off.

Jenny Greene

If you're willing to talk about The Union, I'm left hopeful you'll one day discuss X-Statix.

Michael Hunsaker

Yeah Definitely a diamond back reference. Plus those bubbles make me think it’s the multiple snakes talking in unison

Benjamin Newlon

Snakes and Spiders-Man could be good pals

Marcia williams

Sir superhero next time you have a hard time opening just shotgun it and hope the audience understands it.

Toa Ventron

Snakes has now become part of my top 10 favorite marvel skrunklies. He is Snakes, and Snakes is cool.

Abidur Rahman

Can't believe I'm just now seeing this video and wow, I had actually seen this series on comic sites when King In Black was coming out but never read any of them because the concept seemed boring to me. And I'm very glad I did that cause what is this group.

Matthew Drew

This makes me think of the WWF faction the Union or formally the Union of People You OUghtta Respect Son (UPYOURS)

LimboBilbo

Three points: 1) This feels like a comic that slipped in from an alternate universe. And in said alternate universe we’re watching a video about obscure one time hero captain britain 2) I can see why snakes might piss off some iris catholics considering st Patrick is the patron saint of ireland, and it could be seen as kinda rude for a comic from the UK to make a plot point “one of the most famous stories about st patrick was actually wrong and he didnt do it as good.” 3) imo if they do anything with the union id like for brittania to get a past history

PoopyDick Parker

What a shock, Christians pearl clutching over something super fun and unique

Chandler Ford

I remember reading the first couple issues because I was in fact trying to keep up with King in Black as it came out. I actually dug their weird vibe a little and wondered what happened to them.

Sam Lewis

I love that before the reveal, Snakes is named Snakes for no discernible reason. And then the reveal happens and it still doesn't make sense that he's named Snakes because either he's just not trying to hide it or he's doing a really really bad job and either way it's funny.

I_need_sleep

I need snakes and daredevil to meet for….. obvious reasons

TheToastanater

Maybe I'm wrong, but my theory about Britannia is that it was going to be Captain Britain. That's why it's a "classic" hero, and why they used a Captain Britain villain name as her old nemesis. Then marvel said, no you can't kill Captain Britain, so they just slapped a character together that was straight up wonder woman to take their place. If captain Britain is still Betsy braddock then that even connects that they're both women.

killer melon

Based on how the UK has a history of naming things by vote, IE: Boaty McBoat face, there's a decent chance the U.K. would've voted to name them Superu McHero team

Brechkfast

Damn you really plan your videos out for the future. I just rewatched the Inhumans video and you mentioned the Union at the end of that one!

Melody Jett Werner

I'm pretty sure that this was just something Paul Grist had as an indie spec project that Marvel looked at and said, "oh, we could try out some more British superheroes, swap out Jack Staff for Union Jack and we have a deal." cuz I believe this was Grist's first work with Marvel and he's done some stuff that's crossed over with Robert Kirkman's pocket of the Imageverse. that or Grist just thought he could do the same thing he could at Image (whose shared universe is extremely loosely defined and can work with characters who are introduced as being big deals). I haven't read this series, but I do recall the announcement and thinking that Snakes seemed interesting. I think he could really pop off in another team book or as a guest side character in a more popular series. his design and design alone is pretty dope, and Marvel needs more Irish characters (even if they're from "northern Ireland"). those Irish Catholics are so lame for whinging about such a cool, fun character, and he could absolutely play to anti-Catholic Irish folks (or at least those Irish Catholics who are "Irish first" enough to identify more with the pagans than St. Patrick). I also wouldn't be surprised if this was originally going to be a longer series and the pacing issues are resultant from having to winnow it down to a miniseries. that wouldn't be the first time.

Horrible Friend Brandon

so this video made me look at Paul Grist’s other work, Jack Staff, and despite what the quality of The Union would have you believe, it’s actually great! He definitely works better in a world where he can define everything.

Miles

These guys would not have been able to defend otherworld from a skull magic invasion

Miles

Would love to see a full deep-dive on Canada in Marvel. All the different Flights, the often horrific work of Department H, Captain Canada, there's a surprising amount of lore up there in the north that has been involved with a lot of popular Marvel superheroes.

Welpt

Actual British person here throwing their hat in the ring. This whole comic is hilarious to me because of the concepts they choose to adapt. the idea that Irish, Welsh and Scottish characters would follow actual real Britannia is insane. For non-brits here, that's like an Indiginous Hawaiian hero joining a team with Christopher Columbus. To clarify, Britannia wasn't real, but was a folklore figure converted into a propaganda tool during the height of the height of the British empire, specifically representing military strength. She is the face of multiple horrific conquests. If I had written this comic, I would have had Britannia act like Soldier Boy from The Boys, being a once great hero who now keeps more to the shadows because their methods are outdated. In the first issue the rest of the members would kill Britannia after it's revealed she's working with a villain to recreate the British Empire and they would become an anti-hero group akin to Spider-Punk. Btw, the "snakes" that St. Patrick drove out of Ireland were Pagans, so Catholics being mad about the character of Snakes makes me happy.

DoomerDodie

Maaaan these names. So, just to make a parallel to the Americans, this is like if Uncle Sam lead a team of Paul Bunion, Bible Belt and Southern Hospitality, and then 2 issues in a guy from southie call XXL Bully shows up and starts punching people.

Bydnelg

These characters have "guests episode" written all over them. Hope an upcoming marvel cartoon is willing to be weird.

Mike Fatum

I read this without any context, and assumed it was a sequel series to some other book I'd never read that heavily featured Union Jack and Brittania. Finding out that she only ever existed in this insane book is WILD.

Sir_Superhero

YEP. That was a VERY common experience among people who picked this book up. It really was just not written like an introduction. So weird.

Reader

I love that in flashpoint there is also a team of British superheroes that are also lead by a woman name Britannia

KingsDay

I think Snakes and Craig the Cybernetical Enhanced Corgi are going to become two of my Marvel Glup-Shittos, so thank you for that Sir.

Zach

20:59 *Leonardo Dicaprio meme*

Horrible Friend Brandon

the snakes weren’t pagans. I also love Brennan Lee Mulligan but he was just completely wrong.

Welpt

Is all of your history based on comedy skits? There is no record of snakes in Ireland, so at best the myth is just false, but there must be an an allegory. Pagan Druids literally have a known history of conflict with Catholics, but that doesn't fit the narritive, so it's replaced with snakes.

Sir_Superhero

No, he's right, there's no evidence it was pagans :P There isn't an allegory for every myth, and even if there is one in this case, it could be ANYTHING. Myths are...weird. Jumping to the assumption that it was pagans without evidence of that is as baseless as anything else.

Welpt

It's crazy that you anylise nedia for a living and you think myths don't have a meaning behind them. As for the snake thing, it is true that 'the snakes are Pagans' is a blanket statement, so let me rephrase. Ireland doesn't have snakes, but they do have Pagan Druids, therefore only 1 group could've been opressed by the Catholics. In the case if the Union, they absolutely could've just had snakes in Ireland in that world's history, but my statement about it being funny that Catholics are offended by it remaigns true.

Sir_Superhero

And your source for the snakes specifically representing oppressed people is what? And for the record, I never once claimed "myths don't have a meaning behind them", in fact I said the opposite. Myths can come from ANYWHERE, from literally any source. The snakes could be disease. The snakes could be a weather pattern. There are so many things it could be, narrowing it to the assumption of oppressed people is incorrect logic.

Welpt

Those examples given are allegories with less evidence. As I said, there is recorded history of Catholic/Druid conflict, so it is the most likely.

James Lynas

He's not three leprechauns in a trenchcoat, let's just marvel at that.

TK

Sure it might be more likely than the others but that doesnt exactly mean there is evidence for it, you can believe it to be true and you wont exactly be wrong because there is no right answer the only wrong thing to do is telling people what is is without a preface like "some believe the snakes are pagan" though it is the internet and I have believed much more blatantly incorrect things than this that I have read online so it doesnt matter too much

Charlie Dayson

I wonder if at some point Britania was meant to be Spitfire, and then they were told they weren't allowed to kill her for shock value after one issue and they replaced her with an OC, but didn't bother to change the references to her being an established character? At least, I'm going to choose to believe so unless told otherwise, because it makes me feel better about Marvel's hiring policies! Also I assumed Britania representing the UK and not England was some actually pretty good political satire about the political relationship between the countries that make up the UK, and then you got to Bulldog, and I relised I was giving this comic waaaaaaay too much credit, lmao

Charlie Poat

Britannia is like the Red Letter Media episode of Best of the Worst, where Colin from Canada is there for an episode after not showing up for a long time and him saying “I was here this entire time.” Cuts to a montage of badly green screening him in the background of previous episodes.

Victoria Wesson

I am really sad that the backlash seems to have left Snakes behind. In the panels post-The Union you show, he (they?) never show up, which leads me to believe that Marvel is hesitant to touch him. Such a shame because he's, imo, the coolest of the group. I'd love to see him again.

Cassie O'Donnell

Wow, a British-Isles-based villain-turned-hero with sound powers! How original! The only thing that would make her better is if she was am ex-cop, or maybe the daughter of an existing character with the same concept. Maybe she could have a relative with plant powers, too!

Dylan H

Who is Snakes in this parallel?

Dylan H

I have watched the first half 2.5 times. Watched it once and paused to finish later, came back and rewound the britannia death, got to the part on issue 2 and realized that Snakes had stunned me so severely that I forgot every other character in the book

DoomerDodie

Bible Belt, it's something religious taken literally so I imagined he's just a bunch of belts wrapped around a bible

cgirl7

idk why but i could’ve sworn the union was connected to betsy braddock becoming captain britain and brian braddock becoming captain avalon. like in my head before i watched this video they were just part of the team because british lmao

Ian Mathewson

Agreed. It's especially weird with Snakes and Kelpie. Those two would work better as villains.

Ian Mathewson

As a Scott myself, I find Kelpie very lacking. Her design and personality have nothing to do with any kelpie fairytales. Her water powers are a stretch, and the shape shifting though accurate reads like an afterthought. I honestly think it would have been more apt and interesting to have her be a villain instead. Also, kelpies are fairies, not demons.

Dee Mayday

Funnily enough, Invincible did almost exactly this. The universe was already established with Youngbloods, Spawn, Savage Dragon, and many more. When Invincible was published, it introduced the Guardians of the Globe as an already prevalent superhero team, even though it was never mentioned anywhere before. It then kills most of them off, I believe, only an issue or two later.

Jack Epic

i think britania could have been a very cool character and i wish we just got to explore her instead lol

HungryWinner

It's kind of wild they didn't use the pre-existing x-men characters for a team like this. You could still do the "one person from each nation" thing, Wolfsbane from Scotland, Pixie from Wales, Banshee from ireland, Captain britain (Brian or betsy) for england/the UK and Union jack for england/UK. Presumably including Pete Wisdom as a government handler.

shesk

I'm Irish so I'd just like to mention that the insulting part about Snakes as a character is not that he is made of snakes, that's a shockingly strange puritanical stance that I didn't think any Irish people who would ever read a comic book would take, but the fact that he is the representative for "Ireland" in the UK themed team... Ireland is not a part of the UK! My own personal politics would still have me cringing at a Northern Irish representative but at least that would be accurate to reality.

Tim Shady

I like Snakes, he is Snakes.

Zakron Westfield

I really like that he’s not TRYING to hide it. He just noticed that people tend to like him better when he wears a hoodie, so he wears one, and he doesn’t even realize that people don’t know he’s snakes. After all, he does keep saying “I am snakes.”

Arnout Matthew Andrews

As far as I can tell, Saint Patrick did convert many pagans to Christianity and also drove all the snakes out of Ireland separately. These are distinct feats rather than one being a metaphor for the other. (I think)

air

English here wow this is funnily bad and the idea the english hero is the one who doesn't like overs is funny. If I wrote it I would have had like you said about the memory thing but it be a main billionaire villain manipulating people view on British history and pride by some magic they got and then was going to use her as a celebrity and a super powered hero. I would also have it be more a fetch quest to get 4 magical items (plus that diamond thing) from each country and that be the reason why the 4 heroes plus secret evil Britannia. i would change bulldog to be a hero based on Beowulf like someone fused with a bear due to alchemy and due to that be an outcasts of society. He be the first one to be requited and then scream and then snakes be a villain for a bit until a twist reveal and then go off until the final fight. Kelpie would be the last and the team would freak out due to the myths about kelpies until it's revealed they were placed as a guardian of it. Then the dr croc stuff happens to get the crystal (original dr croc hired by the billionaire) and when all 5 items are in the same room they would combine in to a staff implied to be merlin's then the Britannia reveal and then the team have to fight her and try to gain the staff to then dispel the magic that created Britannia and then the government approach them to form union but they decide to decline and be a team of British heroic freaks dealing with magical stuff and the billionaire be their main villain. also snake defiantly seems like the best character from this.

snakebit1995

I know I’m 4 months late to this video but I have to say this. Choir is the worst character in this, she is almost 1 for 1 a direct ripoff of Songbird. She is a person experimented in and given an implant that gives her sonic powers like super screams and sound barriers. She works for a villain before turning her life around and becoming a hero on a rag tag team that does not get along while dealing with being tempted back to the dark side. She is just Songbird with the serial number fired off. At least the others are kinda unique this character is a badly written knock off of an already popular-ish character

Fishdragon

ngl i kinda would've expected the welsh rep to be a red dragon-themed hero or something, but maybe that was too obvious?

DreamyDrimi

Coming back to watch this again after introducing friends to my boy SNAKES!!! What an incredible weirdo I love him

Alex Bogart

Personal headcanon for your fictional team, but im adding real American heroes like Bigfoot and Phillip Cheesesteak

Pumaloaf

I like the concepts of these characters, I agree with your closing, I hope they get some better appearances sometimes

Yes, THE Salty-Unicorn

I used to say when o was a kid that swear words make it funnier, S_S is the only person who I’ll stand by that with

Misael Duran

Heck, if they wanted an Irish superheroine with a Sonic Scream, they could've just used Siren. Though, I'm under the conspiracy that the Union was created specifically so that Marvel would have British heroes not directly connected to the X-Men. I know this comic came out several years after the Disney purchase of Fox, but delayed production and COVID could've just led to the Union coming out when it was no longer needed. At least that's my theory.

Misael Duran

That's why I personally believe the Union was created specifically so that Marvel can have new characters not directly connected to the X-Men. While the Union came out several years after the Disney-Fox purchase, it felt like Marvel Comics was still following the anti-mutant mandate in some aspects of their publishing years after the purchase. Obviously, it's not a perfect theory, as Hickman's X-Men run was starting at this point, but it's only thing that makes sense to me.

Misael Duran

The main reason why I wanted to watch this video, and pay for Patreon for a month, was to see if Sir would validate a personal conspiracy about the Union. I've also been curious about the book/team since it released, so there's that. Brief refresher on Sir's Inhumans video, but there was a period when Marvel was doing everything in its power to undermine the X-Men and mutants. This was during a time when Marvel Studios didn't have the film rights, leading to the great Inhuman push of the mid-2010s. The initiative was a disaster, and the X-Men film rights fell back to Marvel with Disney's purchase of Fox in 2019. However, despite publishing Hickman's X-Men comics around this time, Marvel Comics still had a very anti-mutant mentality when it came to its publishing for next few years. This is likely because ideas took several years to finish production, meaning many of these concepts were made before the purchase was finalize. I feel like Union was initially made under those original anti-X-Men guidelines. Since Excalibur and the entire Captain Britain lore were so heavily tied to mutants and the X-Men, it felt like Marvel wanted to make a new team of British heroes that weren't tied to mutants. That way they could own the full film rights of these characters and potentially make new property to draw in British people. Of course, that didn't work out for Marvel Comics. Nonetheless, I think their attempts for international teams have worked better for its Asian Superheroes. So I hope the company try again with a British team, yet this time maybe have Excalibur be the anchor point rather than be ignored.

Ennbeard

This really feels like someone had their own story in their head for who knows how long, and finally got a chance to push it through. Failing to realize that it didn't fit in the Marvel universe and should have been an indie title, though many creatives don't get to be choosy.

Bob Mcgrob

Making Brittania a xemnu thing would have worked really well considering real world brittania is propaganda and in universe the team is seemingly formed largely for public appeal. I could see a Union Jack comic or something investigating why the hell there isn’t more records of brittania if she’s been around for so long, and then reveal she’s not dead, she’s some sort of psychic entity as per the ghost thing. That might not work for Union Jack specifically but that would be a fun way to make this require even more tangents.

eman5112

Ooof, that Wonder Man plug didn't age super well...

InkMaster

Is the reason that the Welsh hero has a sonic scream only because Wales sounds like "wails"? Because otherwise I don't see a connection between her name/theming and the country she represents, which every other core member has.

TATO

Okay but could you imagine if Marvel rivals made a member of Union like Choir a future playable character? what would you even do in that situation

agreydolphin

i love snakes i want more snakes pleasepleaseplease

agreydolphin

this is very unfortunate because now i want to read this comic for Snakes but i also don't want to read this comic because it sounds. bad. i don't want to read that??

agreydolphin

if marvel rivals makes anything playable it *better* be Snakes. but also that would be wild

agreydolphin

you know that's probably true

Thomas

I remember reading this, and thinking it sounded cool because I like the idea of other countries having their own superhero teams. I don’t hate this book, but I wish it had been better and maybe a bit longer.

Enea

So are we all collectively ignoring that the union is literally almost bar for bar the team from dispatch just not written as good?

Kinzuko97

Damn. Now I wanna see a character like Bible Belt.

HMShadow

i do love your videos but my god snakes is from Northern Ireland which is a completely different country but to ireland, ireland is NOT in the UK but Northern Ireland is in the UK, being from Northern Ireland I hate it when people call is “Ireland” when it’s just not a

James Schulps

I just want Snakes back. Actual inspired idea wasted on this