Northguard

Northguard
New Triumph Featuring Northguard #1
Publication information
Publisher	Matrix Graphics Series Artworx Caliber Comics Dundurn Press Moonstone Books Chapterhouse Comics
First appearance	New Triumph Featuring Northguard #1 (September 1984)
Created by	Mark Shainblum Gabriel Morrissette.
In-story information
Alter ego	Phillip Wise
Species	Human
Place of origin	Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Team affiliations	PACT[1] Corporation
Partnerships	Dr. Leila Alexander Dr. Ron M. Cape Manon Deschamps, aka Fleur de Lys Dr. Eli Gilberson Dr. Marilyn Hébert Ed Holman, aka Steel Chameleon
Notable aliases	Le Protecteur
Abilities	Energy bolt projection Force field generation Teleportation

Northguard is a fictional

Northguard is the costumed identity of Phillip "Phil" Wise, a video-store manager and comic-book enthusiast who was enlisted by Progressive Allied Canadian Technologies (PACT) Corporation to help them combat an extreme right-wing terrorist organization known as ManDes (an abbreviation for manifest destiny). that was bent on overthrowing the Canadian government. Working in secret, PACT had developed a revolutionary cybernetic personal-weapons system called the "Uniband". Wise was contacted when Karl Manning, the original wielder of the Uniband, was killed in a terrorist attack. Wise's brain patterns were similar enough to allow him to operate the device. Wise eventually agreed to be an agent of PACT only if he could do so as a costumed superhero. PACT accepted Wise's condition; and Northguard was born.

Publication history

The first stories of Northguard appeared in

A standalone Northguard story was featured in Canadian Comics Cavalcade (Artworx, 1986). Northguard made a cameo appearance in The Northern Guard #1 (Moonstone Books, 2010).

In 2015, Canadian publisher Chapterhouse Comics launched a new comic book universe featuring rebooted versions of both Captain Canuck and Northguard.^[2] In 2016, Northguard made a number of guest appearances in Captain Canuck. Later that year, Chapterhouse published its first Northguard story arc. A second arc was published in 2017. The story arcs were collected in 2018 into the trade paperbacks Northguard, Volume One: Aurora Dawn and Northguard, Volume Two: Enemy of the States.

Fictional character biography

Original series

Manifest Destiny

Begun in the anthology series New Triumph, the Northguard series centred on the misadventures of Philip Wise, a young

Wise was recruited as the corporation's field agent as a result of the murder of another operative, who was the only one neurologically equipped to use a unique energy weapon, called the "Uniband", built as an offshoot of applied physics experimentation. Wise's single condition for agreeing to do so was the creation of a "superhero" identity: Northguard. Wise later improvised the name Le Protecteur as a more suitable

Successfully defeating an assassination attempt on the Premier of Quebec in his first mission, Wise subsequently found himself and his newfound colleagues stumbling through several misadventures, accidentally inspiring a martial arts/dance instructor whom Wise became acquainted with to create the identity of Fleur de Lys. These misadventures led ultimately to the defeat of the ManDes conspiracy and the destruction of the Uniband, effectively leaving Wise without any technological advantages. The whole ManDes affair was covered up at the insistence of the Canadian and American governments, allegedly for reasons of preserving cross-border trade.

Chapterverse

Aurora Dawn

Enemy of the States

Powers, abilities, and equipment

Northguard is athletic and in good physical shape. He is a capable hand-to-hand combatant but has no formal training. Northguard is bilingual in French and English.

The Uniband

Northguard wields the Uniband, the first weapon ever created by the PACT Corporation. It operates on a principle that was discovered by accident and appears to be a loophole in the

In its dormant state, the Uniband is a metal hexagonal prism. A retractable power cable plugs into a cybernetic port in the bicep of Phillip Wise's right arm. Once plugged in, the ends of the device iris open allowing Wise to slip the Uniband onto his upper arm.^[33]

Although the device is plugged into Northguard's

When the Uniband's built-in safeties were disabled, Northguard's body transformed into luminous plasma. In this form, he possessed superhuman strength and was capable of teleportation.^[12]

Costume

Northguard's costume is summoned into existence when Phillip Wise combines with the Uniband. The costume warps in and displaces Wise's clothes and the contents of his pockets (e.g. keys, change, wallet, etc.). The warp effect is accompanied by a light flare, bright enough to cause flash blindness.

Northguard's costume consists of a skin-tight

The right sleeve of the costume has added shielding to protect Northguard's arm from the forces generated by the Uniband. The sleeve is equipped with a high-tensile cable that can be launched from the inner wrist. The cable's endpoint can be modified to serve as either a grappling hook or a taser.

Mini-com

PACT outfitted Phillip Wise with a wireless two-way communications device resembling a hearing aid and worn behind his ear. The device was powerful enough to establish a clear link between the PACT headquarters in Vaudreuil and Wise's home in Montreal, 44 kilometers away.

Post-publication history

In 1995,

External links

• Chapterhouse / Northguard
• Guardians of the North: a virtual museum tour through the history of Canadian superheroes, hosted by the Digital Library of Canada.