Hi there, I was wondering what your opinions are of DC’s resident Captain America-expy, Guardian? In theory, I’ve always liked the character and I think the clone aspect is really fun - why do you think Jim Harper has always remained a very minor, periphery character in the DCU?
As a character…I think the shield’s design is a bit goofy, but otherwise Guardian is perfectly cromulent. Jim Harper’s origin story follows themes familiar to fans of Steve Rogers: a working-class origin in the Great Depression, the transformation from a starving youth to peak human fitness, how that allows the protagonist to take on the forces that threaten working-class urban communities (in this case, organized crime rather than fascism), and the connection to Jack Kirby’s Lower East Side youth via the Newsboy Legion (the Yancy Street gang) and Suicide Slum (Yancy Street itself). The whole Cadmus/clone thing is an interesting wrinkle which gives Harper a bit more of a unique angle.
As to why Guardian is marginal within the D.C, I think it’s a mix of niche protection issues and a lack of connection to bigger characters and the wider D.C world. With the former, the problem is that Guardian doesn’t have superpowers and is doing the whole “peak human fitness” thing - except that Batman and the Batfamily do that too, and they do it in more interesting ways. With the latter, Cadmus doesn’t quite have the cachet of S.T.A.R Labs (which is why Guardian II got shifted over to there) and the All-Star Squadron doesn’t have the cachet of the Justice Society of America, let alone the Justice League.
