What more apt time than Canada Day for a national icon to be reborn? That’s when Captain Canuck is slated to resurface, leaping from the printed page to a new animated web series.

Canada’s own superhero has long been undercover, but with a $25-million, live-action feature film also in the works, he’s poised to make a splashy return.

The Captain first appeared on the cover of a July 1975 comic, standing proudly before an unfurled Maple Leaf. Created by Winnipeg artists Richard Comely and Ron Leishman, Canuck — a.k.a. Tom Evans — was a government agent in the distant future of 1993 who had his strength and speed doubled after being exposed to a spaceship’s rays. Donning a red-and-white costume, he used his new-found powers to keep Canada and the world safe from extraterrestrials and terrorists.

Leishman, who like Comely is Mormon, had devised the idea of a Canadian superhero but departed on missionary business, leaving Comely to see it through. Comely soon handed over illustrating chores to George Freeman and Claude St. Aubin, but after just three issues the series went on hiatus.

“I had no background in publishing and in comic books,” says the modest Comely, currently based out of Toronto. “I had worked as a commercial artist but had to learn how to draw and write in that style. When I look at the first few issues, what can I say?”

The group relocated to Alberta and Comely found investors to get the book back up and running, but after a dozen more issues things came apart again. He feels the character wasn’t exploited correctly or to its potential. “We could have done things a lot better. We really should have worked on things like animation way back then and there were a lot of mistakes made,” he laments.

When 1993 actually arrived, Comely relaunched the character with a new alter ego, Darren Oak, in Captain Canuck: Reborn. But in the rising digital world, demand for comics was in decline and only four issues were produced. Then there were the limited-run series Captain Canuck: Unholy War (2004) and Captain Canuck: Legacy (2006) and, after that, not much.

Comely had been hearing from interested players in the Canadian animation industry as far back as 1980, but nobody had been able to pull off a cartoon adaptation. And then, three years ago, he got a call about a sandwich.

That came from Toronto entrepreneur Fadi Hakim, who, along with Alex Sengupta, had bought and refurbished The Lakeview Restaurant. When updating the menu for the 1930s diner, Hakim thought of naming a classically Canadian concoction of peameal bacon and cheddar on a Kaiser the “Captain Canuck.”

“When I was 6, I was at a flea market and bought my first comic with my own money: Captain Canuck #1. I remember the vivid character and the fact that it was Canadian got me really excited. I got a subscription for my birthday and became a Captain Canuck Club member,” recalls Hakim, who is on a mission to resuscitate cultural institutions. He and Sengupta also own The Great Hall, a historic arts venue on Queen St. W.

Hakim asked Comely what had become of his co-creation. Comely replied that a TV producer owned the rights, but that they were soon coming free. That stuck with Hakim, who called Comely back a month later. “Film and television is something I’ve always wanted to get into, and I ended up signing the rights to the master licence for the character,” Hakim explains. Film rights, however, were held by Saskatchewan producer Minds Eye Entertainment.

Hakim founded Captain Canuck Incorporated and hired local filmmakers Dean Henry and Paul Gardner as creative directors. They, in turn, enlisted local illustrator Kalman Andrasofszky, whose portfolio includes Marvel’s X-Treme X-Men comic, to update the character.

His reimagined Canuck still bears a red-and-white costume but with a more futuristic, harder-edged look. CC Inc. partnered with Toronto animation house Smiley Guy Studios to produce the animated series, which will have an initial run of five three-minute webisodes to be rolled out one per month at www.captaincanuck.com.

A group of hot Canadian sci-fi actors are voicing the characters, including Lost Girl’s Kris Holden-Ried as Canuck and Paul Amos as arch-villain Mr. Gold, Smallville’s Laura Vandervoort as the mercenary Blue Fox (who was male in Comely’s original conception) and Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany in an as-yet unnamed role.

The first story arc will allude to the Equilibrium, a sort of Commonwealth answer to Marvel’s Avengers.

Hakim’s music-biz connections have helped land a Canadian track in each webisode, with ’80s hair band Platinum Blonde already confirmed.

Production costs are covered by an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign that raised more than $50,000, with donor perks including being animated into the series. The producers are eyeing a broadcast deal or perhaps a DVD release, and a spinoff comic is in the works.

Hakim also wants to maximize merchandising. Even if many Canadians have never read a Captain Canuck comic, he is widely recognized, having graced a Canada Post stamp and the cover of the Canadian edition of Time. Hakim has signed deals with Ontario franchise Big B Comics to sell “classic” Captain Canuck merchandise, including mugs and T-shirts, and he’s been in sponsorship talks with technology, car and food companies. And it doesn’t get any more nationalistic than this: Turkey Hill Sugarbush will sell Captain Canuck maple syrup.

Meanwhile, the feature film is moving forward at Minds Eye. Company president Kevin DeWalt, who will produce, has raised $120,000 in development funding from Telefilm Canada, provincial commission Saskfilm and private sources. Veteran Vancouver screenwriter Arne Olsen (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie) is expected to deliver the script by summer’s end, with input from Comely and story consultant David Cormican.

DeWalt will then chase foreign sales at the Toronto and Berlin film festivals and the American Film Market. Ideally, he will land a Canadian star in the lead role and the movie will go to camera next summer or in spring 2015.

The appetite for superhero flicks has not abated, as evidenced by Iron Man 3’s $1.2 billion worldwide gross, and DeWalt thinks it’s time Canada sees some of that action. “We’re selling it as an action picture and not necessarily a Canadian story,” he says. “We want it to be a worldwide success and creatively that’s how we’re developing it. It just happens that instead of it being Captain America, we introduce a superhero to the world called Captain Canuck.”

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The film, which would potentially launch a franchise, would retell the hero’s origin story. “It’s a typical superhero-type film with a great storyline, a little bit of humour and lots of action,” DeWalt continues. “The difference is it’s clearly set in Canada. We’re using the Vancouver landscape, the mountains, the ocean, the harbours, Stanley Park, etc., and we’re blatantly setting it in Canadian society utilizing Canadian-isms that the local audience will get a kick out of.”

With all this on the go, these are heady times for Comely after an often frustrating four decades. But despite the business ups and downs, his character has endured.

“When I go to Fan Expo, it’s almost overwhelming having people come up to me with their kids and tell me about their incredible memories of buying the first Captain Canuck and how it impacted them,” he says. “It means a lot to a lot of people. I never imagined that when I started and the trajectory is definitely upward.”