Friday, June 4, 2010

The Coming of Captain Future (BOTH of them!)

Created and written by legendary sci-fi writer Edmond Hamilton, Captain Future I was a futuristic Doc Savage-style pulp hero with an entourage of aides including robot Grag, shape-changing android Otho, and Simon Wright the Living Brain.
An "ultimate-human" type hero with Olympic-level physical abiilties and genius-level mind, the Moon-based Cap, aka Curt Newton, battled evil all over the universe, first in his own title, and later in the sci-fi anthology pulp Startling Stories.
Strangely, when his publisher transferred him into Exciting Comics, Cap was rechristened "Major Mars", even though he was still Curt Newton, the other characters remained the same, and the comics stories were adapted from his pulp tales!
That publisher then created an entirely NEW comic book hero and assigned HIM the "Captain Future" name!
Captain Future II was present-day (1940s) scientist Andrew Bryant who exposed himself to a combo of gamma and infrared radiation which granted him super-strength, flight, and energy-emitting powers! (instead of frying him like bacon, which is what would happen if it were you or me!)
In a unique twist, if he over-extended his powers, Cap would have to return to his lab and "recharge" himself!
Cap had a long run in Startling Comics and also appeared in several issues of America's Best Comics but never had his own comic.
This version is the one revived by Alex Ross in Project SuperPowers.
Interesting graphic note: in Alex Ross' redesign, Captain Future II now wears a reversed Project SuperPowers logo "S" on his chest instead of the original lightning bolt which looks exactly like the SHAZAM! Captain Marvel's!
As it turned out, it was a "Z", since Cap was, in fact, the mythological god Zeus in human form (as he often did, usually to bed women)!

Check both of them out (including Cap I's FIRST pulp and comic appearances, AND Cap II's FIRST appearance) on shirts, messenger bags, mousepads, mugs, a 12-month calendar & other kool kollectibles by clicking here!


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