new ambassadors of global peace bearing the European message with them wherever they go." They also apparently represent Europe at sporting events, "competing in a number of championships and triumphing in the name of Europe." The major foe of the organisation is Dr. D. Vider. D. Vider's full name was originally David Viderius, but after the relaunch it became Dexter Viderius. He was originally a "ruthless speculator" and "former financier" who hopes to divide the European Union so that he can more easily conquer it. After the 2014 relaunch, he became the head of Dividex, an evil multinational corporation. In 2016, he was changed again to become the head of VIPERA, a crime syndicate. Reception There is no indication that the target audience, this is, youth, or comic book readers, noticed the existence of this advertisement. Robert Frank, in a 1998 article in The Wall Street Journal that appeared on the cover of the newspaper's global edition, wrote "Captain Euro is the ultimate youth-marketer. He was born out of the bureaucracy of Brussels: Mr. De Santis spent more than a year studying the European "identity" for the European Parliament only to determine "there is none." So, he proposed creating a "European character" or mascot. Parliament debated the issue for months but couldn't make a decision. Eventually, Mr. De Santis gave up and decided to create it himself." Dan Glaister of The Guardian mocked the character upon its release in 1999, writing that Captain Euro has "the sort of history only a marketing company besieged by focus groups could devise." Quoting from the character's description that "participation in an experimental language programme enabled Adam to become a polyglot", Glaister dryly remarked, "Ah – so that's how to become a good European." Eurosceptic politician and commentator Daniel Hannan, writing in 2011, criticised the Captain Euro literature as possibly "sinister". He described the Dr. D. Vider character as having "a hooked nose and a goatee beard, like some anti-Semitic caricature from the Völkischer Beobachter", and stated that D. Vider's real first name, David, and his occupation in finance could also be considered indicators that the villain is meant to be Jewish. Hannan also criticised the general concept of using comic-book characters to promote the EU, writing, "The notion that the government should get at parents through their children is a characteristic of authoritarian states, not liberal democracies." András Simonyi and Amanda Norris, in