Characters with accents (that aren’t General American)

[MichaelC]

Gambit has a French-Cajun accent.

Well, he has a New Yorkers idea of our accent, anyway. Speaking as an actual Cajun, he just sounds like a tourette syndrome sufferer.

[Force de Phenix]

I remember the first time Wolverine and Rocket appeared in a cartoon they had Australian accent. Since in the US most accents are stigmatized and connected to a false stereotype, the movies and shows will drop most of them. Like, when Captain America and Spider-Man said they were from Brooklyn and Queens everyone in the theater laughed. I think it was because they didn't have at least a slight NY accent. And I always assumed the Inhumans would sound more like the Amazonians from Wonder Woman, but in the show they sounded very California.

[kevlon]

The only character I could never work out what kind of accent to do, was Legion.
Is he British, Israeli, American?

In my head he's always been American, but I guess each different personality has a different accent.

[H-E-D]

I generally dislike it when the dialogue is written in an exaggerated way to demonstrate they have an accent. I find it clunky, and I'd rather the writer just trust the reader to understand that somebody born and raised in the South would have a Southern accent.

[mikeb]

Does anyone remember watching the Marvel Action Hour in the mid-1990s? The Scarlett Witch was given a really cheesy Slovic accent!

[KurtW95]

Does anyone remember watching the Marvel Action Hour in the mid-1990s? The Scarlett Witch was given a really cheesy Slovic accent!

In both Iron Man and Avengers: United They Stand but every other animated appearance gave her a standard American English accent.

[Electricmastro]

Murmur (aka Arlette Truffaut) from Alpha Flight.

[Sutekh]

I always wonder what sorts of accents some of the foreign or alien characters have. Wakandan sounds 'vaguely African' to American ears, and Latverian (and therefore von Doom) probably equally as 'vaguely Eastern European', but what does Atlantean sound like? I'd expect Namor, from his many years wandering New York as an amnesiac bum, might have less of one than most Atlanteans (most probably not speaking English anyway...), and Namorita has spent a lot of time on the surface world, but Namora, Water Snake, Andromeda, etc. would be super-fun if one or more of them had almost incomprehensibly thick 'Atlantean' accents, as hard for an American-English speaking person to muddle through as a thick Scottish brogue.

Similarly, I'd expect some characters, like Mar-Vell, to have spoken English with an accent, in his case, an equally alien Kree accent, and Lilandra or Deathbird to have had some sort of lilting Shair accent. Skrull might be somewhat unique in the galaxy, for not having any discernable 'accent' of their own, because they ruthlessly suppress any such thing from developing, as it hinders their infiltration abilities (and would just be one more thing they have to 'unlearn' to become good at their roles in life).

In my mind, something like *half* of the foreign students at Xaviers at any given time speak English in a posh vaguely upper-class British accent, because they learned English from telepaths, and of those who 'teach' English, they tend to pass on this accent, having it themselves, or having learned this 'telepathic language training' from someone like Xavier or Emma, who tended to pass it on. The few foreign mutant students at the school who don't have this fake British accent only do so because they don't want it, and have learned English on their own, instead of getting the telepathic 'fast-training.' Theoretically, the teachers who handle language instruction in this manner (primarily Jean, Xavier, Emma and the Cuckoos, could deliberately chop out the fake-British-accent part, but Jean's the only one who would even bother to (and she learned the trick from Xavier, and would have to suppress it herself if she didn't already speak English!)). While Xavier isn't British himself, he grew up with British instructors, and sort of picked it up as a upper-class sort of accent to have, and unconsciously adapted it (which conveniently makes him sound like the British actors that seem to end up playing him in the movies...).

[Shreene]

Murmur (aka Arlette Truffaut) from Alpha Flight.

Isn't Murmur genetically a dude?

[H-E-D]

Well, he has a New Yorkers idea of our accent, anyway. Speaking as an actual Cajun, he just sounds like a tourette syndrome sufferer.

machere.jpg

Reminded me of Sinister.

[GenericUsername]

I don’t see Magneto or the Maximoff twins having accents.

Some books have made note of Wanda having an accent and not having an accent. It's completely weird and inconsistent. She and Pietro were born in Serbia (as confirmed by Wanda's solo), so that's where Wundagore Mountain is considered to be located. They also were born and raised Roma. And Romani who are even in America for a lot of years, even generations have accents. So I'd say they should have accents. I'm not sure what happens at Marvel. What their position on it. But it's a weird Americanization of the twins.

[KurtW95]

Some books have made note of Wanda having an accent and not having an accent. It's completely weird and inconsistent. She and Pietro were born in Serbia (as confirmed by Wanda's solo), so that's where Wundagore Mountain is considered to be located. They also were born and raised Roma. And Romani who are even in America for a lot of years, even generations have accents. So I'd say they should have accents. I'm not sure what happens at Marvel. What their position on it. But it's a weird Americanization of the twins.

Some people who move around a lot also have American accents and the Maximoff twins I’d think would have been able to pick stuff up quickly seeing what Pietro’s power is and Wanda’s powers. They could have even started off with accents in their careers and then dropped them like Wanda did in the Disney movies. Dropping accents is not unheard of. Just look at Jonathan Nolan or Rick Springfield or many more.

[Loki]

We know that comics are a visual medium, so we don’t know all the time which characters have accents and which don’t. So, here’s the place to document the characters you know have accent or you think have accents. (By having an accent, I’m referring to something other than the General American accent. Something most Americans would consider to be speaking without an accent.)

Here are the ones that I can think of.

Blade (British)

Blade's probably lost much of his London English accent thanks to having spent so many years (literally decades) elsewhere, as evidenced by the fact that some characters have commented with surprise to learn that he is British.

Captain Britain (British)
Psylocke (British)
Jamie Braddock (British)
Meggan (British)

You say British, but there's a lot of different accents within Britain. Brian and his siblings are from southern England, not far outside London, and given their upbringing probably speak as close to RP (Received Pronunciation, or your stereotypical BBC newsreader accent) as you are likely to get. Think Patrick Stewart (when he's not using his native accent) as Picard. Meggan probably had a different accent to begin with, but given how she instinctively makes herself fit in, her accent probably mirrors Brian's now.

Batroc (French)

Though there's no evidence to back it up, I've always liked the idea that Batroc's over-the-top Inspector Clouseau French accent is largely a facade, part disguise, part to make foes underestimate him, but mostly because he's so much of a ham show-off. I figure he's still got a French accent, but turns it up to eleven when he's on the job, throwing in all the "Zut alors" etc.

The only character I could never work out what kind of accent to do, was Legion.
Is he British, Israeli, American?

That series a couple years ago assumed he had a Scottish accent because he spent so much time on Muir Island. I tend to think Israeli accent is the most logical but, since I can't really do an impression of one in my head, I usually go with American.

Legion having a strong Scottish accent made little sense based on his upbringing - he'd spent the first decade of his life in Israel before having his personality shattered, then years comatose, and only a couple of years tops in Scotland. I guess the explanation would have been that after all the traumatic events in his life, he locked onto Muir Island as the closest thing he had to a real home, hence picking up the local accent.

[GenericUsername]

Some people who move around a lot also have American accents and the Maximoff twins I’d think would have been able to pick stuff up quickly seeing what Pietro’s power is and Wanda’s powers. They could have even started off with accents in their careers and then dropped them like Wanda did in the Disney movies. Dropping accents is not unheard of. Just look at Jonathan Nolan or Rick Springfield or many more.

They'd at least have a Romanes accent. It doesn't wear off. You learn Romanes if you are raised with Romanipen, no matter where you were raised. And it sticks, because it's not abandoned. Tradition and language are held on to, even after hundreds of years. I think it's just difficult for them to get those accents down. There likely aren't a lot of voice actors, writers etc. that can give them that voice or perspective. So they just stick with what they know.

[Sutekh]

Though there's no evidence to back it up, I've always liked the idea that Batroc's over-the-top Inspector Clouseau French accent is largely a facade, part disguise, part to make foes underestimate him, but mostly because he's so much of a ham show-off. I figure he's still got a French accent, but turns it up to eleven when he's on the job, throwing in all the "Zut alors" etc.

That so makes sense, because he's such a deliberate ham.

I kinda love villains who seem to love their jobs (and aren't like cannibals or whatever...). Doom goes home to brood on his throne. Red Skull has some other abominable scheme to scheme. And Batroc is probably blowing whatever money he scored in Vegas...