London - His master plan for rescuing the world from financial Armageddon has led some to suggest Gordon Brown is the hero of the hour, but Britain's prime minister insisted Tuesday he was not Flash Gordon.
One of Brown's campaign slogans, as he took the premiership last year was "Not flash, just Gordon" - intended to play up his spin-free credentials and lack of stardust compared to his predecessor Tony Blair.
It was also a reference to science-fiction hero Flash Gordon, famous for saving the Earth from destruction at the hands of the evil Ming the Merciless.
But when reporters suggested he was being considered the swashbuckling hero rescuing the planet from the credit crunch, Brown insisted he was not Flash Gordon, saviour of the universe.
"Just Gordon. Just Gordon, I can assure you," he told reporters.
And asked how he saw the stock markets shaping up, he replied: "If I could see the markets in a year I would genuinely be a hero."
US economist Paul Krugman, who won the Nobel Economics Prize on Monday, said Brown had gone to the heart of the problem with stunning speed, and luckily for the world economy was making sense and showing the way through the crisis.
Asked about such favourable reviews after weeks of gloomy headlines, he said: "I think you should look at what they were saying about me four weeks ago."
"Politics, I have found, is about ups and downs, and you have got to treat adversity and periods of popularity with equal equanimity," he added. - AFP