Justin Trudeau’s avatar is a boxer.
By Dileep Thekkethil
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his father Pierre Trudeau – the former prime minister, have one more thing in common: both leaders have marvel comic avatars to their name.
According to Marvel, the cartoon avatar of the Canadian leader will feature in its next comic book; issue No.5 of Marvel’s “Civil War II: Choosing Sides”, which will hit stands onAugust 31.
In the cover of the comic book, the face of Trudeau or his cartoon avatar can be seen sitting relaxing in a boxing ring sporting a Maple Leaf-emblazoned tank, black shorts, and red boxing gloves.
Also in the cover image, one can see Puck, Sasquatch, and Aurora, who are the top members of Alpha Flight, the Canadian superhero squad. American superhero Iron Man can be seen with his arms crossed.
“I didn’t want to do a stuffy cover — just like a suit and tie — put his likeness on the cover and call it a day,” said award-winning Toronto-based cartoonist Ramon Perez to CBC.ca.
He also added: “I wanted to kind of evoke a little bit of what’s different about him than other people in power right now. You don’t see (U.S. President Barack) Obama strutting around in boxing gear, doing push-ups in commercials or whatnot. Just throwing him in his gear and making him almost like an everyday person was kind of fun.”
Marvel hopes that the cover with Trudeau in his cartoon avatar will grab the attention of people and will perform on par or even better than the other covers that feature Aurora, Puck, Sasquatch and Nick Fury.
Former Prime Minister and father of Justin Trudeau, Pierre Trudeau, also had a cartoon avatar which appeared in 1979 Marvel comic book “Uncanny X-Men”.
The cartoon character of Justin Trudeau is the handy work of Chip Zdarsky, an Edmonton-born artist, and writer, who was approached by Marvel to create a new superhero for the Alpha Flight squad.
The cartoonist also contacted the Prime Minister’s office to avoid any future troubles. The office of the Prime Minister gave Zdarsky to continue his creative work but stayed away from endorsing the comic character.
Marvel has already started taking pre-orders for the Issue No. 5 of “Civil War II: Choosing Sides”.