Fan-of-Bronze: Captain Comet and the JLA

CAPTAIN COMET is an anomaly among super-heroes, being neither a Golden Age character nor a Silver Age character. He debuted in Strange Adventures #9 (Ju'51) and ended his run in #49 (O'54). While he had some reprints in the late 60s/early 70s, the Shooting Star Sensation wasn't revived until Secret Society of Super Villains #2 (Au'76), after returning to Earth after twenty years in space (while not ageing, time did pass normally for him). Thus he was a super-hero on Earth-One prior to or around the same time as Superboy!

The Good Captain was in fact a mutant, born with an advanced brain that gave him powers and abilities far beyond other Earthmen. He possessed telepathic and telekinetic powers which allowed him to scan people's minds, create mental shields, fly at great speeds and project psychic energy in the form of mini-comets. He also possessed one-tenth of Superman's strength, making him stronger than 95% of the heroes on Earth, more or less.

After his return, he used his telepathic powers to find, gather and train other mutants to survive in a world that fears and hates them while battling Doctor Polaris and his band of Evil Mutants.

No, wait, that's not right! Believe it or not, Captain Comet was one of only a few DC mutant heroes. The best known was Ferro Lad and he lived and died 1000 years into the future. In the era where the X-Men were beginning to take over Marvel, DC never capitalized on their own mutant.

Captain Comet's reintroduction to the world wasn't smooth as shown above. He attacked Green Lantern while protecting the Secret Society who thought that they could use him in their war against Darkseid (long story!). However it's hard to fool a man who could read your mind and it didn't take long for him to vow to capture and break up the SSSV.

More to the point, the Man of the Day After Tomorrow met most of the members of the Justice League and was even given a JLA communicator. He encountered Green Lantern in SSSV #2, Hawkman in #5, Black Canary in #6, Hawkgirl in #7 and ran with Kid Flash in #9-10. He also teamed with Aquaman and the Atom in Super Team Family #13 which got him an invite to the Tiny Titan's wedding to Jean Loring in Justice League of America #157 (Au'78), his only JLA appearance and a mere cameo at that!

So why wasn't Captain Comet a Justice Leaguer? The team knew of his powers and his effectiveness and his mission and experience. He would seem to fit right in. In fact, in a 1978 membership poll in Justice League #158, he finished second to the winner, Zatanna. It would the closest he ever got to joining the JLA, with appearances coming few and far between after the cancellation of Secret Society of Super Villains. To add insult to injury, when the last SSSV storyline was concluded in Justice League of America #166-168 (My-Jl'79), they didn't bring in the Captain to help finish it and believe me, they could have used him in that one! Worse, they had a cameo of Hi-Jack, of all people! And even worse, they later revealed that Cap's SSSV-period girl-friend was actually Star Sapphire II in disguise! More importantly, his growing rivalry with Gorilla Grodd was never settled!

Until the Post-Crisis era, Captain Comet's only other appearance were two mediocre DC Comics Presents team-ups with Superman who had to save him both times!

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Honesty Time: I started a similar discussion on Facebook on the Back Issue page. A nice enough place but it can get quite heated (and a tad uncomfortable) there. Makes me appreciate you fellows here a lot more!

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So should Captain Comet been a JLAer or not? Especially instead of either Zatanna or Firestorm?

Merry Christmas All!

I've always liked Captain Comet. I like old-style DC SF, and I got to read reprints of three of his 50s stories early. But I think he was a dated character in the 70s. Captain names were apparently natural for heroes mid-century, but they were old-fashioned by the 70s.(1) His costume design was also dated, particularly the shoulder pieces, which reflect mid-century ideas of futuristic fashion. DC could have changed his name and costume, but perversely his 50s quality is what is unique about him:(2) if it were discarded, one might as well just create a new character.

(1) Early Silver Age DC introduced the villains Captain Cold (1957) and Captain Boomerang (1960). Their names might reflect the use of "Captain" in the sobriquets of highwaymen such as Captain Lightfoot. (The same tradition manifested itself here in Australia in the sobriquets of a couple of bushrangers, real and fictional.) Charlton introduced Captain Atom in 1960. Marvel introduced Captain Britain, in his own series in the UK, in 1976: presumably his name was modelled after Captain America's, and the "Captain" name seemed appropriate because of the character's patriotic aspect. Jack Kirby did Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers in the early 80s but I think that title had a retro flavour, and was likely a mistake.

Other late Captains include Captain Ultra, introduced in Fantastic Four #177, who was intended as a joke, and Captain Wings from The Invaders #14-15, who was named after an aviator hero from Wings Comics. In The Avengers #148 American Eagle of the Squadron Supreme was remodelled into the more Hawkman-like Cap'n Hawk. He was a parody figure, so I would suppose that was intended as a retro name.

(2) The other obviously 50s hero is J'onn J'onzz, who reflects the era in other ways. The Flash (Barry Allen) first appeared in 1956, but isn't so obviously of the era.

Replies

Henry R. Kujawa December 25, 2013 at 8:34pm

Restoration
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HZDhZHxwb2Y/UK7lrP_2WDI/AAAAAAAAGrE/20omE...

Fantasy version

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BJIUHp3biUg/ULpoEQOuIqI/AAAAAAAAG10/I6H6m...
Henry R. Kujawa December 25, 2013 at 8:36pm

DC SPECIAL 27 /
art by Rich Buckler & Joe Rubinstein (May 1977)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vausGnQ9Evc/UMDr7kVm7MI/AAAAAAAAHB4/PUOcs...
Henry R. Kujawa December 25, 2013 at 8:38pm

SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS 5 /
art by ERNIE CHAN (February 1977)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RVy_puj_Zbg/UMFq8YmUKBI/AAAAAAAAHEY/eYADx...
Henry R. Kujawa December 25, 2013 at 8:38pm

SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS 6 /
art by Rich Buckler & Vince Colletta (April 1977)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z3dexoUO8RE/UMReXliVHMI/AAAAAAAAHJg/gfPui...
Henry R. Kujawa December 25, 2013 at 8:39pm

SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS 7 /
art by Rich Buckler & Joe Rubinstein (June 1977)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k6-q9YwS-eI/UMfpBCm9IYI/AAAAAAAAHOo/ZoVsU...

That's as far as I got with the restorations...
Philip Portelli December 25, 2013 at 9:37pm

Very nice, Henry, but how do you feel about Captain Comet?

And the Star Sapphire of SSSV is not Carol Ferris, if you didn't know.
John Dunbar December 25, 2013 at 10:41pm

It's hard for me to say if Captain Comet should have been a JLAer or not. Here's a character plucked from complete obscurity in 1976 after not appearing in 22 years (I wonder what the story behind that would be). Think about that for a minute. Not only did he not headline a feature in the Silver Age, he didn't even get a tryout in Showcase or anywhere else. Even though CC came first and actually had some superpowers, I think readers would have viewed him as a 2nd rate Adam Strange wannabe, and Adam already had longstanding ties to the JLA in any event.

It didn't help that he was the foil of the SSoSV in their own title and apparently was not too successful against them (otherwise, it would have been renamed Captain Comet, right?), and then, as you said, wasn't around for the wrap up of that storyline. A bit odd, since Gerry Conway wrote the JLA story in question, as well as the SSoSV story that brings back Comet in issue 2, and SSoSv # 8-14 to boot. Perhaps Conway just lost interest in him.

Visually, he was kind of generic, as was his powerset, and he was one of a score of spaced-themed heroes at DC. There would have to have been some changes, I think, to make him more appealing. Zatanna at least had lots of ties to the JLA going back to the Silver Age. Firestorm had the benefit of being a Conway pet character and probably wouldn't have been added to the team by any other writer.
Luke Blanchard December 25, 2013 at 10:44pm

Bob Rozakis wrote columns about a Captain Comet proposal he did that can be read here and here.
Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man December 25, 2013 at 11:00pm

I do own the two volumes of The Secret Society of Super-Villains. I haven't yet read them, but I do know there is a whole lot of Captain Comet within.

Beyond that, I think I know him only from LEGION '89 (or however many years it lasted...). Kind of a boring character from what I remember, but plenty of potential.
Luke Blanchard December 26, 2013 at 12:47am

I've always liked Captain Comet. I like old-style DC SF, and I got to read reprints of three of his 50s stories early. But I think he was a dated character in the 70s. Captain names were apparently natural for heroes mid-century, but they were old-fashioned by the 70s.(1) His costume design was also dated, particularly the shoulder pieces, which reflect mid-century ideas of futuristic fashion. DC could have changed his name and costume, but perversely his 50s quality is what is unique about him:(2) if it were discarded, one might as well just create a new character.

(1) Early Silver Age DC introduced the villains Captain Cold (1957) and Captain Boomerang (1960). Their names might reflect the use of "Captain" in the sobriquets of highwaymen such as Captain Lightfoot. (The same tradition manifested itself here in Australia in the sobriquets of a couple of bushrangers, real and fictional.) Charlton introduced Captain Atom in 1960. Marvel introduced Captain Britain, in his own series in the UK, in 1976: presumably his name was modelled after Captain America's, and the "Captain" name seemed appropriate because of the character's patriotic aspect. Jack Kirby did Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers in the early 80s but I think that title had a retro flavour, and was likely a mistake.

Other late Captains include Captain Ultra, introduced in Fantastic Four #177, who was intended as a joke, and Captain Wings from The Invaders #14-15, who was named after an aviator hero from Wings Comics. In The Avengers #148 American Eagle of the Squadron Supreme was remodelled into the more Hawkman-like Cap'n Hawk. He was a parody figure, so I would suppose that was intended as a retro name.

(2) The other obviously 50s hero is J'onn J'onzz, who reflects the era in other ways. The Flash (Barry Allen) first appeared in 1956, but isn't so obviously of the era.

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