Q: Who are the top five super-heroes from the American South? --@AaronABCP

A: As readers and listeners of War Rocket Ajax could probably tell from my constant talk of barbecue and my obsession with pro wrestling -- not to mention the accent that leads me to tell people I'll do something right quick -- I'm a Southerner myself. And oddly enough, with all the fictional team-ups I thought up to kill time over the years, it never occurred to me to try my hand at creating a team out of folks from down here.

But a Southern gentleman such as myself cannot let a challenge to my honor stand, suh! So today, it looks like I'm putting together a Southern Super-Group!

But it's actually a pretty tricky task, especially if you subscribe to a philosophy that prevents you from putting Rogue and Gambit -- probably the South's most prominent representatives in the world of comics -- on any list that has the word "top" involved, which I do.

[...]



Now, hold on, I know what you're saying: "Jack Knight? Starman? That guy's not from the South!" But here's the thing: While Opal City's actual location is never mentioned in the comic - just like Gotham, Metropolis, Keystone and so on -- a book published for the DC Universe roleplaying game, released as an official source, had a map that dropped the Opal right here in South Carolina, down around Charleston.

Presumably, this was done to reconcile the fact that Opal is surrounded by farmland but has a strong history of pirates, as Charleston and Savannah, Georgia are both steeped in all kinds of piracy that dates back to the 1600s. That said, it is slightly problematic. For one thing, I'm pretty sure that the Palmetto State doesn't feature a single sprawling Art Deco metropolis, and for another, as someone who's lived here for a mere 23 years, it's hard to believe that the Shade would pick this place as the spot to live out the rest of his immortal days, no matter how good the barbecue is.