Captain Comment

In Strange Adventures 40 (Jan. 1954), Captain Comet confronts yet another a beautiful mental marvel, this one a thief whose energy beams can paralyze bonded messengers. I say “yet another” because this menace, The Mind Monster, was the third psi-powered superwoman the Man of Destiny had run into since his debut in 1951. First came the 18-year-old mutant Radea, The Girl from the Diamond Planet, in Strange Adventures 12 (Sept. 1951). She was followed in Strange Adventures 26 (Nov. 1952) by Miss Universe, who turned out to a super-evolved plant being from a world that would someday occupy Earth’s position in space. That would probably have disqualified her from the first Miss Universe Pageant, actually held in Long Beach, California, earlier that same year. When the police backtrack The Mind Monster to Prof. Zackro’s lab, Comet discovers that she is in fact a spider who has been hyper-evolved by exposure to the concentrated radiation from a supernova the professor had been ob...

The convention of the female counterpart who mirrors the male hero is a long-running one in superhero stories, and includes Pat Savage, Catwoman, Mary Marvel, Hawkgirl, Doll Girl, Fly-Girl, Batwoman, Batgirl, Power Girl, Supergirl and others. Captain Comet had two of them — first the alien mutant Radea and then, in Strange Adventures 26 (Nov. 1952), the futuristic Miss Universe. With Captain Comet off in space and a giant meteor threatening Earth, Zackro uses his new “time hook” to fetch a beautiful superwoman from 100,000 A.D., an era in which fashion apparently runs to green swimsuits. Dubbed “Miss Universe” by the newspapers, her exploits make Captain Comet seem old hat. “She acts like a true champion of humanity — and yet somehow I don’t trust her!” the Man of Destiny thinks. “Or am I giving vent to jealousy? I wonder…” It’s the same reaction the overshadowed Scarlet Speedster would have in another Broome story, The Mystery of the Elongated Man , in The Flash ...

This Captain Comet adventure influenced the Silver Age revival of one of DC’s most popular superheroes. In Guardians of the Clockwork Universe ( Strange Adventures 22, July 1952), the Man of Destiny is telepathically summoned by the wizened, golden-skinned Guardians of the Universe, an ancient, advanced race working to keep planets and suns in their proper orbits. The story is framed as a flashback. When a young patron asks Midwest City public librarian Adam Blake what keeps the planets where they are, Blake replies, “Er, gravitational force,” but thinks: “That’s only part of the answer, but he’d never believe the actual truth.” He recalls that he’d been tinkering with his “private jetship” the Cometeer in its shed behind Prof. Zackro’s lab when he received a telepathic message. “The thought-beam, steady as a radio signal, led me far out into space … where, beyond the reaches of our solar system, I saw that tiny world … shining by some unearthly, sunless light.” Called to...

Superman encountered several super-females during his long career, including his own cousin and various amped-up versions of Lois Lane and Lana Lang. But Susan Semple was a variation on the theme. Unlike the others, this “Girl of Tomorrow” didn’t have powers that directly paralleled Superman’s. Introduced in Action Comics 163 (Dec. 1951), she appeared instead to be a female counterpart to Captain Comet, a DC character who’d been introduced in Strange Adventures seven months before. Captain Comet was, after all, himself a Superman updated from the 1930s to the 1950s, the era of the flying saucer and the atom bomb. His extraordinary abilities were more mental than physical. This new Man of Tomorrow’s powers included telepathy, telekinesis and ESP, and the Girl of Tomorrow shared them. Bespectacled Daily Planet receptionist Susan Semple mooned over Superman, and when she heard eccentric scientist Prof. Weirton’s claims that he could transform ordinary people into super beings, she was fi...

DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz clearly had real respect and affection for knowledge-based professionals — so much so that he even gave us the world’s first superhero librarian, Captain Comet. His fellow librarian, Lily Torrence, kept a close eye on the mysterious Adam Blake. In Strange Adventures  12 (Sept. 1951), Torrence tries to get Blake’s attention, asking him if he’s read this new book on astronomy. “Not yet, Miss Torrence,” he replies, thinking, “But I have now.” His ‘futuristic brain” has permitted him to absorb the book’s contents as he leafs through it. Lily turns away tearfully, thinking, “I-I hate him. He hardly seemed to listen when I spoke about the book.” Sensing he’s made her unhappy, Blake remains stoic, observing that he can’t help the fact that he’s a super-advanced mutant being. “Of course, it’s not Miss Torrence’s fault either,” he thinks. “It’s just that no girl can ever hold my interest.” That’s a twist I found intriguing. Just consider — what i...