There was a wonderful bit of dialog between Uma Thurman and John
Travolta in PULP FICTION that was unfortunately cut from the final film.
It was about being an Elvis or Beatles fan. You can actually like both.
But in the end you are going to like one more than the other. The same
can be said about G.I.Joe and Captain Action as well. I'm sure there
were many G.I.Joe guys who thought Captain Action was pretty neat. I say
this in full confidence because I was one of them.
Captain Action was an "action figure" introduced in 1966 as the
Ideal Toy Company's answer to Hasbro's popular G.I. Joe. Strangely
enough both were created and designed by Stan Weston. Originally the
good captain was to be called "Captain Magic" a hero who I suppose
could magically transform into other heroes.For whatever reason I'm glad
they decided to go with the name Captain Action. Captain Action came
with a pretty neat black & blue costume,skipper's hat,ray-gun and
extremely cool lightning bolt sword. Separate Aquaman ,Batman , Captain
America , Flash Gordon , Lone Ranger , the Phantom , Steve Canyon ,Sgt.
Fury and Superman costumes and accessories were available. In 1967 Buck
Rogers , the Green Hornet , Spider-Man and Tonto were added to the
line-up. And Captain Action was given a teen sidekick Action Boy who
could be changed into Aqualad , Robin the Boy Wonder and Superboy. There
was even a blue-skinned , bug-eyed alien scientist known as Dr.Evil
that served as Captain Action's arch-enemy. The Captain Action figure
was as much a part of the Silver Age of Comics as re-runs of The
Adventures of Superman or the Batman television series starring Adam
West. At least in my opinion.So it was appropriate that Captain Action
received his own comic book series. If only for a brief run.
Captain Action No.1 (Nov.1968) published by DC Comics dropped the
multi-hero idea from the toy-line largely because DC didn't own the
rights to such heroes as Captain America or the Phantom. So an entire
new origin was created for the comic book Captain Action written by the
teenaged Jim Shooter , illustrated by the great Wally Wood and with a
cover credited to Carmine Infantino and Irv Novick. On an archaeological
dig Clive Arno and his associate Krellik discover a lost city that was
once home to alien visitors who were the "gods" of mythology. These
space-gods called the "Elders of Arsu" left their powers in coins
before they departed from Earth. Arno decides to the use the powers
granted by the coins to fight evil. Krellik decides to use the power
granted to him for evil. Arno's son would join his father as Action Boy
to thwart Krellik's plans. Shooter would also write the second issue.
But Gil Kane would replace Wood as the penciller on the feature. Though
Wood would ink Kane's pencils in issue two. Thereafter Kane was credited
as both writer and illustrator of the feature. Though Wood would return
to ink Kane's pencils again in Captain Action No.5. In issues 2 ,3 and 4
from the series Captain Action and Action Boy would face off against
their arch-foe from the toy-line Dr.Evil.
In a twist Dr.Evil was Arno's
father-in-law who was turned into the bug-eyed evil scientist by a lab
experiment gone wrong. Just how many times has this happened in a comic
book? In the 5th and final issue Captain Action and Action Boy went up
against a demagogue. Not an "evil" that comic book heroes were usually
seen struggling against.
There was another Captain Action comic that was published in the
Silver Age. It was produced by Ideal and came with the Captain Action
figure and was illustrated by comic book artist Chic Stone. It told the
story of a young boy who receives the Captain Action and Action Boy
figures and their accessories for his birthday. He then dreams of an
alien invasion of Earth that is halted by the two heroes using their
ability to turn into other heroes. Of course even though I enjoyed the
story I couldn't help but wonder why they couldn't stop the invasion by
simply turning into Superman and Superboy.
editor note- both Moonstone and Dynamite have made Captain Action comics. And you can grab your OWN Captain Action figure...not the original, but a modern made figure: http://www.freshmonkeyfiction.com/shop/Captain-Action-Amazing-Heroes-Action-Figure-p58570428
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