5 Ways Superheroes Were Changed In Other Countries

Unsurprisingly, Flushman was the publisher's worst-selling title, because what the hell is a Flushman. It also didn't help that Perfil's comics had amateurish lettering, a shockingly belligerent fan mail section (with editors commonly insulting readers), and seemed to be printed on toilet paper. At least that last part was consistent with the bathroom theme.

After exactly 49 issues of Flushman, Perfil lost the DC license and fired all their employees without any notice. Today, the company is much more successful publishing gossip, news, and T&A magazines. We're just sad we never got to see a crossover with The Whizzer.

So if Kauka didn't like the Americans or the Soviets, who did he like? Well, let's just say he turned the villain of one story into a greedy Jewish stereotype straight out of 4chan. Also, in one comic, Kauka uses the big rock Obelix/Barabbas likes to lug around as a metaphor for a "guilt complex" that Germany should leave behind. Yeah, other than murdering millions of people, what did Germany have to feel guilty about?

Some critics described the comic as "nationalist-fascist propaganda." That wasn't exactly what Asterix's original creators were going for, so they took away Kauka's license. Undeterred, Kauka started a thinly disguised Asterix and Obelix ripoff called Fritze Blitz und Dunnerkiel, but he soon removed the "thinly disguised" part and renamed it Siggi und Barabbas, exactly the same name as his now unauthorized translation. We're assuming he felt no guilt about that, either.

Problem is, it's still extremely obvious in the show that these characters are horny for each other. In an attempt to avoid corrupting '90s kids by showing them a gay couple, the dubbers accidentally created an incestuous one ... which explains a lot about some of the most disturbingly popular online porn genres these days.

Sailor Moon also censored gay male characters by pretending they were flat-chested women. Something similar happened in the show Gatchaman, known in the U.S. as Battle Of The Planets, G-Force, or Eagle Riders, depending on how old/into obscure TV shows you are. The main villain, Berg Katse, has the ability to turn male or female. In order to "simplify" that, the original U.S. translators pretended that Katse's female form was a different woman in almost every episode -- sometimes Katse's sister, sometimes a trusted commander, and sometimes some totally unrelated lady, all of whom happened to look the same. Not confusing at all!

In other instances, the translators change characters' genders to make the shows more progressive. Many of the Japanese shows Power Rangers was cobbled together from only included one female team member. So, in the name of equality, the U.S. producers simply had a female actor dub a male characters' lines during the action scenes. In other words, no, that wasn't a roll of quarters Trini the Yellow Ranger was always carrying in her pants.

Trying to keep the gravy train going, the English publisher responded to this setback with more plagiarism of their own -- as in, they just hired someone to continue the series under a slightly different name. Captain Marvel became Marvelman, Captain Marvel Jr. became Young Marvelman, and Mary Marvel switched genders and became the paradoxically named Kid Marvelman (make up your minds, is he a kid or a man?).

The villains were recycled too: the short, glasses-wearing Dr. Sivana was replaced by the short, glasses-wearing Dr. Gargunza, while Black Adam was upgraded to a nearly identical-looking character by the superior name of Young Nastyman. The publisher even continued the numbering of the old Captain Marvel comics and exported these ripoffs to other countries. They also remained faithful to the gee-whiz tone of the original stories ... until a young new writer called Alan Moore got involved, anyway.

In the '80s, Moore revived the dormant Marvelman franchise and immediately set about Alan Moore-ifying it. He revealed that the character's innocent childhood adventures were the product of brainwashing and filled his new ones with rape, gore, and child murder. One issue featured graphic close ups of a realistic childbirth. At this point, Marvel Comics took notice and said they wanted nothing to do with this, so they forced Moore's publisher to change the comic's name from Marvelman to Miracleman.

Ironically (as you may have deduced from the little words under the pictures above), Marvel now owns Miracleman after a long and confusing legal battle involving Spawn and Neil Gaiman. Considering Hollywood's hard-on for Moore adaptations, it's only a matter of time before the MCU introduces the character, which is great news for everyone who thought DC's Shazam! film needed more genocide and shots of the human birth canal.

Follow Maxwell Yezpitelok's heroic effort to read and comment every '90s Superman comic at Superman86to99.tumblr.com.