FOR the rugby league connoisseur there are plenty of worthwhile aspects which Super League can, and indeed on occasion has, taken from the Australian NRL.

Seven-tackle sets, quicker play-the-balls, monster wingers, better all-round marketing all spring to mind.

Acrobatic touchline tries may have been birthed in Queensland and New South Wales but Kev Penny and Tom Lineham are no slouches in that regard.

And the Burgess brothers, Eliott Whitehead, Gareth Widdop and James Graham, have been showing the Antipodeans that the cream of our crop can survive and thrive Down Under.

What the English game can easily do without though is the opportunity to see the likes of Chris Hill and Mike Cooper done up like the Fantastic Four for Magic Weekend.

Just when the Marvel Weekend concept appeared to be dying a slow death in the NRL, with some frankly lazy efforts, not even meshing with the Australian sides’ traditional colours, being trotted out, it’s being given a run-out in Newcastle. Warrington’s offering has little or no connection with our usual look.

This isn’t on a par with the suicidal decision to limit coverage of the England vs Samoa game, our only pre-World Cup jaunt, to a subscription-only audience, but it has the same cartoonish level of insight from the RFL.

For all of the novel tilts at spreading the RL gospel around the globe – and I will be booked on that cheapo airline to Toronto the day Wire pulls the Wolfpack away in the Challenge Cup – this is just a gimmick too far.

If you’re a Marvel or DC fanatic, Warrington Comic-Con is just around the corner – May 27 at the town’s indoor market.