In the shadow of the City of the Future- Windsor's heroes

[Hermit]

Across from Millennium City is the “relatively peaceful” Canadian city of Windsor. It’s that relative term that has me thinking. Given that MC has more super action than many cities twice its size, Windsor must get at least a little fall out.

Besides, while other cities in Canada have super heroes and super hero teams (Comet, Starforce), the official Canadian super team keeps breaking up so maybe it’s just not working for Canada on a national level. It must be awfully annoying to Windsor to have their city overshadowed, in part because it misses out on the super hero action (Remember, this is a comic book universe….if you don’t have super heroes, you might as well be in Iowa ;) ).

So, let us begin the construction of a new Superteam, for Canadians, by Canadians, and of Canadians (Okay, maybe ONE American, and an alien or something… that’s it, tops ;) ). Now, before we get going, a few ground rules.

1) Please, No “gag” characters. Overall, the Canadians have been great neighbors (to those of us in the US), let’s not saddle them with “Maple Man and the Crimson Canuk!” or any such thing.
2) A lot of characters in “Champions of the North” were great, but don’t simply say “bring back _____” if you want that. Say why, and what changes you’d make. Remember, this is Windsor, so some might not fit as well as they would Vancouver etc.
3) A “token” American might be okay, (see above, and after all, many American teams in comics have members from other nations) but let’s have the team be mostly of Canadians.

In addition to members, perhaps a decision on how formal or official this team would theoretically be. Would it be government sponsored? If so, on what level? Would it be a collection of local heroes with a lot of pride? What?

[Zed-F]

I don't have a hero to contribute ATM, but here's some thoughts...

A hero team based in Windsor would probably be a local team. Southern Ontario is the most densely populated region in Canada, and certainly has enough population to come up with at least a couple teams. Probably the main Ontario team would be based out of (or near to) Toronto, but there could easily be local teams in other larger population centers such as Windsor or Ottawa.

As an aside, if you're looking for hero teams in other parts of the country, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal all make strong candidates. You could probably expect local teams in other good-sized urban centers as well; for instance, Edmonton is roughly the same size as Calgary or Ottawa, the only reason it would make a less ideal base for a regional (as opposed to local) hero team is that it's a bit too far out of the way (cross-border raids being a potential major source of villain activity.) Edmonton would make a very good base for supers that regularly have to deal with matters in the far north, however.

As far as a national team goes, if there were any connections to or oversight by the government they would probably be based out of Ottawa and considered part of the RCMP. Otherwise it depends on whether their focus is more to protect the whole country evenly, or to protect the areas of greatest population first (Ontario/Quebec) and other regions on a catch-as-catch-can basis, relying on the regional teams to pick up the slack. Regardless, I doubt that a national team would be based out of Windsor.

If it were up to me, I'd just concentrate on a local team for southern Ontario in general and Windsor in particular. There seems to me to be more potential for a friendly rivalry to develop with their American counterparts in Millenium City. They might also cover the slack for Toronto when the Ontario team was busy elsewhere, and gloat every time they did it. Probably a lot of attention would be spent on how to deal with stuff like extradition law, international jurisdiction disputes, etc.

There's a couple possibilities here for government affiliation. If the team were government-affiliated, it could be at the provincial level, and treated as an auxiliary of the OPP. Alternatively, Windsor itself does have its own police force, so there could be a municipally-sponsored hero team, with some funding provided by the provincial and federal governments but primarily budgeted by the city. In the former case, the team would likely concentrate more on the area around Windsor, in the latter case more on the city itself.

[mattingly]

Okay, he might be a bit of a gag character, but I normally have a centaur Mountie somewhere in Canada.

[Lord Liaden]

It's worth remembering that Southern Ontario, in addition to being the most densely populated part of Canada, is also the most ethnically diverse. Canada has experienced massive immigration from all over the world over the past thirty years, and this region has gotten the bulk of them. Most cities of S.O. would rival major eastern American population centers in that regard, and Toronto is widely accepted as the most diverse city in the world. Canada is also home to many Native American cultures, some very similar to their cousins to the south (such as the Plains and Woodlands peoples), others quite distinctive like the Inuit to the north.

So you can legitimately give any Canadian hero whatever ethnic/cultural background you'd like. And anyone from anywhere can acquire citizenship and be considered a "true" Canadian.

[Hermit]

Cool, I actually was thinking of a American Indian character who was NOT mystical in nature as being on this hypothetical team :)

[Tom McCarthy]

Trying to GM a campaign in Ottawa, I see the following issues:

Ottawa is a natural centre for a federally funded team. It's the national capital and within quick commute range of Montreal, Quebec City, and most of southern Ontario. For drawbacks, the city's only about 1 million people and light on the potential story hooks from homeless people, drug wars, street crime, etc. The feel of the city is that a hero team would congregate there because it is the capital, but I don't think you can cram a team full of super-origins into Ottawa.

Toronto is a natural centre for a provincially affiliated team in Ontario. Toronto is the provincial capital, the largest and most diverse city, and sprawls into adjacent cities. It sometimes seems like half of southern Ontario is one contiguous urban mass connected to Toronto. Sizewise, it's large enough and busy enough to feel like it not only should support a team, but a couple of independents, too. It even feels large enough for all the heroes to be homegrown.

Unfortunately, that means small cities like Kingston, Windsor, London, Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, etc., all fall back into the demographic of having no more than one to three heroes and no formal team per se.

Over the broder in Quebec, I see a similar problem with no more than about 7 heroes between Montreal and Quebec City. I imagine maybe 4 or 5 for all the Atlantic provinces, maybe 1 or none for Saskatchewan and Manitoba, maybe 2 to 3 in Calgary and one rival hero in Edmonton, and a smallish team of 5 or 6 based in Vancouver.

Anyway, that's some of the logic behind the super-populations in my campaign.

[GestaltBennie]

IIRC. Rod Currie was working on a Canada/Windsor .Hero Plus sourcebook.

Mind you, as far as Canadian supers go, they're much like American ones, but nicer (and more creative, and better looking and much more humble...)

###

I ran into the following while looking up references for a thread on RPG.NET. I once played a character who was the son of Johnny Canuck based on faulty childhood memories of the books; it was interesting to go back and look at the originals in all their Golden Age charm (which, given that they include a lost civilization in the "jungles of Libya" makes fors a rather surreal experience) .

http://mackenziemurdock.tripod.com/dimecomicsvol1no1february1942/

If one doesn't mind using characters who aren't in the public domain as part of their PCs' backstory, there's something to be used here. (Heck. Byrne used theGolden Age character Nelvanna as Snowbird's mother in Alpha Flight, though he didn't explicitly infringe on the copyright.)

Scott Bennie

[Hermit]

Originally posted by GestaltBennie
IIRC. Rod Currie was working on a Canada/Windsor .Hero Plus sourcebook.

Is he still? Curious here. :)


Originally posted by GestaltBennie

Mind you, as far as Canadian supers go, they're much like American ones, but nicer (and more creative, and better looking and much more humble...)


*G* Canadian Super VPP, 10 pts, Only to excell over American Counterparts ? :)

[Lord Liaden]

The Gestalted One makes a good point: One of the things that I really appreciated about the old Champions of the North sourcebook was that it contained no cliches remotely like Hermit mentioned at the start of this thread. You could take virtually every one of those characters, change one or two background details, and drop them into a campaign set in the States with no problem.

My suggestion for designing a Canadian superteam would be to create characters pretty much as you would for Americans, with a couple of provisos:

1) Gun-toting vigilantes will not be well received by the general public here. Canada has no "right to bear arms" - guns have traditionally been used primarily by the authorities, and then rather sparingly. Even the most conservative parts of the country would take a dim view of "heroes" firing off potentially lethal weaponry indisciminately around innocent civilians.

2) Canada also has no cult of the loner to the degree that American society has. The country was developed more through collective authority than independent pioneers, and the desire for peace and order is probably stronger than for freedom and independence. Solitary "dark avenger" types may be tolerated depending on how far they work beyond the law, but they're not likely to gain a lot of respect.

I would add one point of dispute with Tom McCarthy's analysis: since Millennium City is a hub of superhuman activity, I would expect that Canadian supers would tend to gravitate to Windsor to deal with the "spillover" as Hermit put it. So a hero team based there would be more likely than Windsor's population might otherwise make it. In fact I could see heroes coming there from elsewhere in Canada just to get in on the action. :cool:

[Zed-F]

I'd further add that IMHO, Tom is short-changing the prairie provinces to some degree. Calgary is a major and quickly-growing commercial center which is also close to several significant tourist attractions and would attract more heroes than its natural population would necessarily account for. Additionally, any hero from the Arctic who wanted more than a solo hero experience would naturally gravitate to Edmonton for association, and it's quite likely that even if there were only a few heroes based there permanently, they would have a significant number of solo hero contacts that live out in the more remote northern regions of the country.

[Zed-F]

Originally posted by Hermit
Cool, I actually was thinking of a American Indian character who was NOT mystical in nature as being on this hypothetical team :)

Definitely a possibility. :) He wouldn't even have to be overly tribal-oriented, though you could always fall back on that.

Like in the US, there's been lots of history of tension between the government and the first peoples over self-governance, past wrongs, and so forth, if you care to look it up. In general the conflict has been less violent than in the US, but there have been exceptions (see the Oka crisis for a modern example.) Could make for some good background bits.

[Broblawsky]

Canada has fairly strict gun control laws, doesn't it? Much more so than the US, I think. If you wanted a more stereotype-busting super, how about...
Arsenal (or Firepower, or nearly anything sort-of associated with guns, really...)
Johnathan Murray is one of Canada's oldest living superhumans: he participated in (and just barely survived) the disastrous raid at Dieppe in World War II, and, though you wouldn't know it to look at him, is a good 80 years old. After being seriously wounded in action, Murray volunteered for one of the first cyborg programs in recorded history, and was not only healed in the process, but was equipped with some very powerful weapons in the process. Over the years, Murray has continued to upgrade his cybernetics, and anything in his body is comparable to the most powerful technology Viper or ARGENT could put out, thankfully. Despite his cyborg status, Murray isn't full of the self-loathing that many cyborgs are - he volunteered for the conversion process and dutifully and gladly pays the price to be able to protect the free world. Murray is also a well-known conservative in Canada - he has vigorously opposed Canada's high taxes, welfare programs and (in particular) gun control programs, and is a good friend of Charles Heston - he is roughly comparable to an American moderate Republican on most areas, and is less conservative on some social issues like gay marriage and abortion. He has openly and strongly denounced recent initiatives to reduce criminal penalties for marijuana-related crimes. His strong and unconventional political views have, however, earned him the ire of many politically motivated liberal supervillains and even a handful of superheroes, and they have also put his status as one of Canada's state-sanction superheroes in jeopardy.

Powers: Arsenal should probably be an artillery-style blaster - he's screaming for a big multipower full of attack powers like gun-hands, Summon-homing-missle legs, and so forth and so on - probably shouldn't be TOO lethal or cause too much property damage, as he IS a superhero. He should also have subdermal armor and similar powers.

Campaign Use: Arsenal's political views make as good a story hook as any - at the very least, he might get into an argument with highly liberal PCs, especially if their views are well-known. Arsenal should still be a team-player, though - he probably has more experience at it than any of the PCs, too.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden
I would add one point of dispute with Tom McCarthy's analysis: since Millennium City is a hub of superhuman activity, I would expect that Canadian supers would tend to gravitate to Windsor to deal with the "spillover" as Hermit put it. So a hero team based there would be more likely than Windsor's population might otherwise make it. In fact I could see heroes coming there from elsewhere in Canada just to get in on the action. :cool:

I forget (And need to dig for my Champions Universe book) but is the CU Canada more or less strict on requiring 'registration' of super heroes? If less, Canada could have some formerly American super heroes who left the US rather than comply with that act.

[Hermit]

And nice concept Broblawsky :)

[assault]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden
My suggestion for designing a Canadian superteam would be to create characters pretty much as you would for Americans, with a couple of provisos:

1) Gun-toting vigilantes will not be well received by the general public here.

...


These suggestions would work for designing Australian supers too, incidentally.


In fact I could see heroes coming there from elsewhere in Canada just to get in on the action.

This seems likely to me. I suspect that many supers would be inclined to seek the company of their peers, and living "just up the road" from one of the main super population centres would be a viable option for Canadian supers.

Hmm. It's fairly likely that at least some Australian supers would gravitate to MC, New York, and all the other major super-cities. Thank goodness Seeker doesn't exist in the current universe!

Alan

[bcholmes]

Originally posted by Hermit
Across from Millennium City is the “relatively peaceful” Canadian city of Windsor. It’s that relative term that has me thinking. Given that MC has more super action than many cities twice its size, Windsor must get at least a little fall out.

Plus you've got all those chemical plants just a bit north in Sarnia... it's practically an origin story waiting to happen.

Some thoughts:

- The child of one of the Avro Arrow designers finally perfects the flight armour that dad was working on back in the 50s and 60s.

- Canada has, I believe, the largest population of Chinese outside of China -- I'm thinking a were-Dragon character might an interesting member

- The Red Ensign -- daughter of the WWII flag-suited hero. Sure, our flag has changed since WWII, but people still fondly remember the original Red Ensign.

[bcholmes]

Originally posted by Hermit
Cool, I actually was thinking of a American Indian character who was NOT mystical in nature as being on this hypothetical team :)

"American" Indian?

[Barton]

What about the idea of US goverment teams and Canadian goverment teams doing an exchange program? Say one super spends a year in each others team. Great excuse for US in a Canadian team and vice versa.

[bcholmes]

Originally posted by Tom McCarthy
Ottawa is a natural centre for a federally funded team. It's the national capital and within quick commute range of Montreal, Quebec City, and most of southern Ontario. For drawbacks, the city's only about 1 million people and light on the potential story hooks from homeless people, drug wars, street crime, etc. The feel of the city is that a hero team would congregate there because it is the capital, but I don't think you can cram a team full of super-origins into Ottawa.

In my campaign, the members of COMET (from <cite>Champions Universe</cite>) have a common origin. They've salvaged alien technology from a UFO in the Ottawa river. Before they were a super-team, they worked for Carleton University (COMET = Carleton Office of Metahuman and Extraterrestial Technology). They're much more a "Challengers of the Unknown"-ish team of adventurers than a bunch of costumed heroes.

[bcholmes]

Originally posted by Zed-F
(see the Oka crisis for a modern example.) Could make for some good background bits.

*nod* That'd be an interesting piece of backstory to put into a character's history.

I remember when <cite>Alpha Flight</cite> essentially said that Northstar had belonged to the FLQ. That was an interesting backstory item.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by bcholmes
"American" Indian?

What continent do you think they're on? Very well, "North American Indian" if we're splitting hairs.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by bcholmes
In my campaign, the members of COMET (from <cite>Champions Universe</cite>) have a common origin. They've salvaged alien technology from a UFO in the Ottawa river. Before they were a super-team, they worked for Carleton University (COMET = Carleton Office of Metahuman and Extraterrestial Technology). They're much more a "Challengers of the Unknown"-ish team of adventurers than a bunch of costumed heroes.

That's an interesting take on it. Possible connections could be made with the War Machine in CKC if it's a Hzeel ship.

[Lord Liaden]

If there were American super-criminals crossing over the border from Millennium City, I could see Borealis becoming extremely ticked off over the "importation of American crime" into Canada. If he could trace some of those activities to criminals based in MC, like PSI or Jade Phoenix, he might launch preemptive attacks against them. Since Borealis is very powerful but not very subtle, the MC heroes could find themselves in the ironic position of having to protect their native supervillains from a Canadian invader. ;)

And if Borealis were backed up by members of his own team, "Destiny," stopping him may require a joint American/Canadian hero-team effort. :cool:

[Hermit]

I can see a scenerio like the one Lord Liaden proposes leading to an annual event like the one Barton proposes. :)

Nice input

[Lord Liaden]

FWIW, I've always been pretty satisfied with the way Champions of the North treated the Canadian super scene. When I need Canadian NPC heroes for my campaign I intend to give those character writeups an extra 100 base Character Points to bring them in line with 5E Champs standards. That would put most of them between 365 and 400 points.

BTW, the notion from CU that Canada's "official" super team keeps falling apart struck me as mildly insulting. Not that I think Steve Long and Darren Watts intended that, but I do wonder what the rationale for that decision was.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

BTW, the notion from CU that Canada's "official" super team keeps falling apart struck me as mildly insulting. Not that I think Steve Long and Darren Watts intended that, but I do wonder what the rationale for that decision was.

Well, at least it's not as bad as Mexico's team. :)

Seriously, I do wonder what the story behind that is. Perhaps the team was TOO successful, and put itself out of business when the govt decided it wasn't needed any more. Perhaps it was just a victim of political jockeying.

I've heard some Canadians on this board joke about how a Canadian super team would probably be the best in the world, but never allowed out of the base. Not sure what that means, but if accurate it could explain why the CU5 version disbanded.

For that matter, perhaps it was disbanded for the best reason of all.... it's up to a GM and his players to assemble the next generation of them. ;)

[bcholmes]

Originally posted by Hermit
Perhaps it was just a victim of political jockeying.


Dunno about why they disbanded, but it's interesting that the second and third teams were formed in the same years that we had a change of government. Chretien came to power in '93, and Mulroney came to power in '84.


Originally posted by Hermit
For that matter, perhaps it was disbanded for the best reason of all.... it's up to a GM and his players to assemble the next generation of them. ;)

Heh. That's the premise of my campaign.

[Tom McCarthy]

Canadian federal team disbands

I thought it might be a poke at the Canadian unity question, but quite oblique, since I imagine the issue gets (at best) tertiary coverage outside Canada.

The only real nod I've given to it in my campaign is to make it clear that the PCs (Canada's current federally organized team) may be subject to some political wrangling. The mysterious founder has suddenly been replaced by a more military-oriented government liaison, and the team's being assigned some politically charged missions.

As to that comment about the "best", it's probably a reference to the state of the Canadian Armed Forces (widely regarded as underequipped and overtrained, with a lot of misinformation regarding just how much or little they do; for example, Canada is seen as a wishy washy ally for not aiding the invasion (liberation or conquest depending on your particular flavour of rhetoric) of Iraq, yet the Canadian Navy has sent around 95% of its sea-going sailors for at least one tour in the Persian Gulf since Sept. 2001, and at times as many as 5 of our 12 best warships have been there). Australia (who manage to do a lot more fighting with about the same budget) goes out of its way to recruit Canadians to emigrate and join their forces since the Canadian training is so well recognized.

[Siberian Tiger]

Originally posted by Barton
What about the idea of US goverment teams and Canadian goverment teams doing an exchange program? Say one super spends a year in each others team. Great excuse for US in a Canadian team and vice versa.

Since Canada is part of the Commonwealth, there could be an exchange agreement with a British, Australian or Indian superteam (only Commonwealth nations to have superteams as per Champions Universe if I recollect correctly).

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Siberian Tiger
Since Canada is part of the Commonwealth, there could be an exchange agreement with a British, Australian or Indian superteam (only Commonwealth nations to have superteams as per Champions Universe if I recollect correctly).

MMm, actually the idea of some sort of "Commonwealth Superteam" is pretty darn cool. I like that one Tiger. Sadly, I am too ignorant of actual relations between the commonwealth nations to run it well.

[SirViss]

This is the current Commonwealth membership:

Antigua and Barbuda (1981)
Australia (1931)
The Bahamas (1973)
Bangladesh (1972)
Barbados (1966)
Belize (1981)
Botswana (1966)
Brunei (1984)
Cameroon (1995)
Canada (1931)
Cyprus (1961)
Dominica (1978)
Fiji (1970 and left in 1987 but rejoined 1997)
The Gambia (1965)
Ghana (1957)
Grenada (1974)
Guyana (1966)
India (1947)
Jamaica (1962)
Kenya (1963)
Kiribati (1979)
Lesotho (1966)
Malawi (1964)
Malaysia (1957)
Maldives (1982)
Malta (1964)
Mauritius (1968)
Mozambique (1995)
Namibia (1990)
Nauru (1999)
New Zealand (1931)
Nigeria (1960 and suspended in 1995 but readmitted 1999)
Pakistan (1947 and left in 1972 but rejoined 1989)
Papua New Guinea (1975)
Samoa (1970)
Seychelles (1976)
Sierra Leone (1961)
Singapore (1965)
Solomon Islands (1978)
South Africa (1931 and left in 1961 but rejoined 1994)
Sri Lanka (1948)
St Kitts and Nevis (1983)
St Lucia (1979)
St Vincent and The Grenadines (1979)
Swaziland (1968)
Tanzania (1961)
Tonga (1970)
Trinidad and Tobago (1962)
Tuvalu (1978)
Uganda (1962)
United Kingdom (1931)
Vanuatu (1980)
Zambia (1964)
Zimbabwe (1980)

This site has more info about the Commonwealth:
Commonwealth of Nations (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Commonwealth)

Gotta love Google! :D

[assault]

Originally posted by Hermit
MMm, actually the idea of some sort of "Commonwealth Superteam" is pretty darn cool. I like that one Tiger. Sadly, I am too ignorant of actual relations between the commonwealth nations to run it well.

I can't see it myself. The old British Empire is long gone, and the residual links aren't particularly strong.

I can see British supers being made available to defend some of the former colonies, and I can definitely see Australian and New Zealand supers operating in the Pacific Island states, and I can see some of these cooperating, but I can't really see a "Commonwealth" team. The closest thing might be if supers from India, Fiji or somewhere were to train and operate with supers from richer nations.

Frankly, it would be as likely for supers from many commonwealth nations to operate with American supers than with supers from other commonwealth nations.

Alan

[WhammeWhamme]

Originally posted by assault
I can't see it myself. The old British Empire is long gone, and the residual links aren't particularly strong.

I can see British supers being made available to defend some of the former colonies, and I can definitely see Australian and New Zealand supers operating in the Pacific Island states, and I can see some of these cooperating, but I can't really see a "Commonwealth" team. The closest thing might be if supers from India, Fiji or somewhere were to train and operate with supers from richer nations.

Frankly, it would be as likely for supers from many commonwealth nations to operate with American supers than with supers from other commonwealth nations.

Alan

Yep. A 'Pacific League' would make sense, but really, the commonwealth is a 'barely there' tie for this kind of thing.

I'd say *more* likely to work with Americans actually; at least IRL you get more involved than anyone else.

[Hermit]

Thanks Sir Viss, for the list.

As I said, I'm very ignorant of the Commonwealth (less so, after SirViss' help) so I concede the idea may not be realistic. Then again, UNTIL strikes me as pretty unrealistic in a lot of ways, and we accept that ;)

[Zed-F]

The original proposal was for a commonwealth hero exchange program. That still seems reasonable to me, even if a commonwealth superteam is out of the picture.

[bcholmes]

Originally posted by Siberian Tiger
Since Canada is part of the Commonwealth, there could be an exchange agreement with a British, Australian or Indian superteam (only Commonwealth nations to have superteams as per Champions Universe if I recollect correctly).

In our campaign, one of the PCs (Captain Sorted) is a member of the British super-soldier program on long-term loan to Canada to help them get the latest version of the Northern Guard up and running.

The Canadian government has started to suspect that Captain Sorted is... uh... not the British Army's favourite member of the super-soldier program.

[rjcurrie]

As for Scott Bennie's comments about me working on a Canadian supplement for the new Champions Universe, it is true that I did submit an initial proposal to Steve and he asked for an advanced proposal on the book. Unfortunately, other projects have caused me to not yet submit this proposal. I will try to get it done in the next couple of months and where it goes from there is up to Steve.

As for the national team having had 3 different incarnations, I believe this was more of a reference to the different incarnations of Alpha Flight in the Marvel Universe, but I could be wrong.

Personally I can see several reasons for a national team breaking up:

1) The members or the government officials in charge of the team decide that is impractical for one team to cover all of Canada. Later teams might think they have solved this problem but find out they are wrong.

2) Funding cuts.

3) Any of the standard reasons that cause a team to break up.

As for Windsor, specifically, I'm not sure that it would have any more than a single hero or two -- I suspect that the Champions and other Millennium City heroes handle a lot of the overflow crime. Unless there are specific reasons, I see it as being "in genre" for the Canadian government to allow U.S. superheroes to act in Canada.

Rod Currie

[Siberian Tiger]

Looking at the Commonwealth website (http://www.thecommonwealth.org) , it appears that a lot of its work is spent promoting democracy, health, human rights and social transformation - all things that a superteam could be involved with.

Thirty-two of the Commonwealth’s 54 members can be classed as small states. They have populations of less than 1.5 million and are characterised by their vulnerability in the areas of defence, environmental disaster, limited human resources and economic resources.

The Commonwealth has played an important brokering role in recent events in Fiji, The Gambia, Solomon Islands and Sierra Leone

All of this suggests that the CU Commonwealth would probably be interested in its own superhero team. I imagine it would perform the following functions
1) Defend smaller states from super-powered aggressors and terrorists (ties in with the post entitled Viper Rebellion)
2) Help states that have experienced environmental disaster
3) Promote health and democracy - using superhumans as spokespersons for various causes
4) Train and develop superhumans from smaller states - either a training academy or an exchange programme with hero groups from Australia, Canada, Britain or India