5. Captain Comet
Pros: He was born a hundred thousand years before his time.
Cons: Never lets you forget it. I KNOW! You are sooooo much more advanced then me! Your stereo system is so much better than mine. No. I do not want to listen to Aja at your place.
4. Captain Marvel
Pros: Had a meaningful and emotional death.
Cons: Rick Jones. Rick. Jones.
3. Captain Britain
Pros: Accent makes him an awesome wing man.
Cons: His constant and loud demands for brown sauce.
2. Captain America
Pros: Stands for everything that is good about America.
Cons: Long, boring stories about how awesome trolleys were back in the day.
1. Captain Marvel
Pros: The embodiment of the ultimate childhood fantasy. He has fantastic supporting characters.
Cons: None. Is actually better than Superman so he will never get a fair shake at DC.
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What, no Captain Canuck love?
🙁
Good times. I agree with the list.
This list.
Pros: Two amazingly racist covers.
Cons: Rick Jones.
Captain Cold will always be my favorite.
I just imagine all 5 pushing a surly The Captain from Nextwave down and kicking him for being an ass.
@Phillies64
Only one should be considered racist, the Captain Marvel cover. The Capitan America cover is clearly anti-racist. I assume you mean the way the Japanese people were drawn. I’d also like to point out that White people don’t look like Captain Marvel does, but you don’t hear anyone calling racism over that. It was a different time with a different outlook on the world.
I fail to see how these covers are racist in the sense that they purposely seek to offend based on one’s race, although an argument could be made to prove the opposite.
My solution? Stop caring about the little things that annoy you about the past. You’ll never be able to enjoy these books if all you can think of is how they drew all the Asian guys with large teeth.
#4 Captain Marvel-Pros: Created by a team of Lawyers.
Yes, there are some unfortunate racist elements on some of the covers. That may be the subject of another article, but for today let’s move on from the issue, please.
I’ve always loved how they used to draw Captain Marvel (DC). I desperately want a high profile OGN or something from Doc Shaner, who captures that style amazingly well.
I agree tom captain marvel is better then superman…i thnk the only writer who thnks that is winick haha
@fuzzytypewriter Doc would draw a GREAT Captain Marvel. I really wish we’d see more of him and the whole family. They need a Geoff Johnsian resurgence.
Great list although I might swap out Comet for Captain **** from Nextwave.
@Phillies64 I see what you mean. That Captain Britain cover portraying British people as animals is pretty racist, especially the shark. Haven’t we had enough of the bad-British-teeth humor yet?
Also, I love those old-school WWII Captain America covers. There’s always so much going on in them. They’re as busy as “Where’s Waldo?” page. It makes modern covers feel somewhat sparse by comparison.
In doing research for a Superman article i am working on for my own blog (PLUG), i found that in the early 40’s Captain Marvel out sold Superman, probably for the vary reason that mr Katers gives for his Pro and Con reason.
and it is interesting that two of these captain’s secret identities are in fact other people entirely.
Please note, I just picked these covers cause I was able to find good scans of them. The content actually didn’t really enter my mind. It is certainly not a comment on any of the racist elements of WWII era books.
How about Captain Crunch?
How about those Free Fall Warriors? Who are those guys?
Good captains. Damn good captains.
I actually own that captain britain book. It’s a large format book, and while the captain britain part is pretty tame, the rest of the stories are f’ing crazy. I bought it because I was hoping the Moore on the cover was Alan. It’s not.
good stuff. Lookin forward to the bad captains. Definitely a more challenging list.
Off the top of my head I could only think of Boomerang, Cold, and Nazi.
@WeaklyRoll –i was going to mention that. Have you seen the new Captain Marvel book thats out? It chronicles his history and shows how HUGE of a character he was back in the golden age. Its a shame the character has fallen away.
I second the motion that Geoff Johns should give this character the “rebirth” treatment.
HAHA! Captain Crunch! I love it.
@Wally I looked into a lot of stuff on Captain Marvel once i found out how big he really was, and he was instantly a far more interestng character that Superman ever seemed to be.
captain planet??
Captain Carrot > Captain comet
trying to imagine Tom reading captain britain in an accent, does he sound like Ozzy??? or did you get one of those audible comics somehow? should we call you a doctor. . . ;P
Captain Morgan FTW!!!
cannot for the life of me understand how anyone can like shazam. oh well to each their own.
You don’t see much of Captain Comet anymore do you? All I ever saw him in was Kingdom Come, and he died pretty quickly after his appearance.
@TheNextChampion He is in REBELS, which is awesome.
@ThomasKaters: Oh he is? Is it more recent or is he involved with the third trade? I’m behind on REBELS and I’m hoping to read the third volume of it shortly.
I knew you guys where Commies you, how can’t Captian America be #1.
@clintaa –it depends how he’s depicted—i’ve been reading the original JLI run in trade and he’s such an aw shux, golly gee whiz, simpleton that he’s almost impossible to tolerate.
Captain Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaavvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeemmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaan
@Shallam I actually agree.
There should be a law making brown sauce always available, then we wouldn’t have to demand.
Shazam! Captain Marvel is awesome, but since he’s so much better than Superman and his name is Marvel, he’ll never have a snowball’s chance in hell to be the star he deserves in the DCU
Paul- Josh would be proud.
I too want an awesome Shazam Cap’n Marvel book. Considering Billy is out of commission and Black Adam is a statute could that mean a CAPTAIN MARVEL: REBIRTH book is in the cards? I could only hope.
Also he totally should have been an inspiration path in DCU Online.
BEST LIST EVER.
Ye gods, I love Captain Marvel.
Great list. I too would love a Captain Marvel series.
@Kodaiji Exactly my point! Also the Captain Marvel cover is clearly anti-Kree. Totally offensive.