Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "captain-midnight"

Captain Midnight Archives Volume 1: Captain Midnight Battles the Nazis by Various

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Golden Age of Comics is best remembered for characters whose career and fame continued past the golden age: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, and Captain America come to mind. Few talk about Captain Midnight. I was vaguely aware of the character because I'd heard of his radio program. I knew he was a pilot of some sort and aviation radio programs and comics have never been my thing. So I picked this book up from the library on a lark and was surprised by what I found.

The comics contained in this book are in the same league as nearly any other comic hero of the time. Whether this was always the case would require some research. The stories included here are cherry picked from the various books that the good Captain appeared in while many other heroes have had every appearance republished. Still, what we have is pretty good. While Captain Midnight is a pilot, he's also a costumed crime and Nazi fighter whose real identity is the inventor Captain Albright. In this story he faces off against not only Nazis but "gremlins," giant vampire bats, and man-made tornadoes. Captain Midnight has a good supporting cast that rotates including a kid sidekick, a dopey sidekick who disguises himself as Sergeant Twilight, and a super strong robot named Samson.

The execution on all of these elements is actually marvelous. The stories are great and the action sequences are really well-drawn. The book doesn't contain an origin story, so you'll leave with no idea why a famous inventor is disguising himself with an obvious pseudonym. Also, while the book references battling Nazis, there are many foes in this book, and Nazis are only one of them. That's just a minor quibble.

For fans of the Golden Age of Comics, this volume offers some great examples of the era at its best and a chance to explore a hero they may have never heard of but should have.



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