A while ago, when I ran a piece on the first appearance of Captain Comet, certain fans were upset that I’d labeled it as the first Silver Age super hero. And I get what they’re saying–the specific codifications of the different eras of comics are hardly universally agreed-upon, and pieces like that one do make it a bit more slippery to determine where one era ends and another begins. (Made all the more difficult because, typically, these eras don’t operate like light switches, where a day comes and suddenly the entire industry operates differently. It takes time for the innovations of the new to be rolled out across the whole of publishing.)
In any event, Captain Comet was a regular feature introduced in STRANGE ADVENTURES #9 by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and editor Julie Schwartz in 1951. He was intended as a somewhat more scientifically plausible version of the Superman concept. Adam Blake was born a mutant some 100,000 years ahead of his time. As such, he grew up possessing a wide array of abilities both physical and mental, powers that he’d wind up using as a scientific adventurer. Captain Comet was popular enough, but never to the point of being routinely able to hold the cover spot on the title. He’d be there for a bunch of issues, then would skip one or two in favor of the one-off science fiction tales that were the book’s stock-in-trade.
Stylistically, though, Captain Comet had a lot of DNA in common with the later super hero revivals of characters such as the Flash, Green Lantern and the Atom that Schwartz would oversee. As with them, his adventures revolved around (pseudo-)scientific principles much of the time, and stressed the importance of a thinking man’s hero over the benefits of simple brute force or super-powers. But his appearance was perhaps a bit too early. Audiences weren’t ready to wholly embrace a character such as this. Maybe he needed a slicker costume, a more contemporary code-name. Who can say?
In any event, Captain Comet made his final bow of the 1950s in STRANGE ADVENTURES #49 in 1954. He had actually been absent from the preceding two issues. It seems that this was Schwartz burning off the last of his inventory of Captain Comet tales. It was written by John Broome and illustrated by Sy Barry, and it’s a typical outing for the Captain, who does battle with some thinking computers who are actually acting in the Earth’s behalf. It’s well-crafted and bloodless, just like most of the material from this era.
Following this, Captain Comet would disappears from comics, largely forgotten apart from some random reprints of his earlier adventures, until the mid-1970s. Needing a home team super hero for his new series SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS, writer/editor Gerry Conway brought the Captain back from a two-decade sojourn in space in the pages of issue #2 of that title.
For a short while in the 1970s and early 1980s, Captain Comet became an infrequent fixture, turning up in assorted titles but once again never really catching on with audiences. In teh aftermath of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, he was brought into the modern Legion of Super Heroes title L.E.G.I.O.N., where he was redesigned and almost wound up seeming like a different character entirely.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Good coverage of the captain.
Slight correction. You cited STRANGE TALES #49. You probably meant STRANGE ADVENTURES.
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Thanks, fixed.
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I can see the temptation to associate CAPTAIN COMET with the Silver Age, if only because Broome’s scripts for the series read almost identically to his later FLASH and GREEN LANTERN stories. But since the few other companies dealing in superheroes in the early fifties hadn’t notably changed their attitude toward superhero content, COMET strikes me as just an interesting precursor, not an initiator of a new wave. Sort of like how the first anthology horror comic presaged the later horror wave, but didn’t really cause it.
FWIW after the institution of the Code, DC’s books seem to court the outrageous more, and to become more ambitious with grand concepts like the customs of Kryptonians and the existence of parallel earths.
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“the specific codifications of the different eras of comics are hardly universally agreed-upon, and pieces like that one do make it a bit more slippery to determine where one era ends and another begins”
I agree with this assessment one hundred percent. Along those lines, when exactly did the Silver Age end and the Bronze Age begin? Most people would say 1970, with several events occurring within the space of that year: DC publishing Green Lantern #76 by Denny O’Neil & Neal Adams, Jack Kirby leaving Marvel for DC to do the “Fourth World” epic, and Marvel releasing Conan the Barbarian #1. But I’ve also seen a number of people refer to the death of Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man #121 in 1973 as the end of the Silver Age. There’s even a few fans who insist the Bronze Age began with Giant-Size X-Men #1 in 1975.
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Cool time capsule. Captain Comet’s suit seems too close to Adam Strange’s, sans jetpack & helmet. The back of Comet’s looks like the front of Strange’s. Though Adam Strange is listed as 1st appearing in “Showcase” #17, Nov 1958. So Strange may have been influenced by Adam Blake (same 1st name), And Julius Schwartz had his hand in both characters’ origins. Strange moved on to “Mystery in Space”, but his stories were later reprinted in the appropriately titled “Strange Adventures”; Captain Comet’s old home.
I do like Sy Barry’s art. I know him best for “The Phantom”. Some similarities here to Gil Kane’s Silver Age stuff. But with more strongly spotted inks on the pages. I’m a sucker for well-placed inks. Sickles, Caniff, Toth, Williamson, Robbins, Wood, Giordano, Janson, Mignola, Salmons, Baker, Beatty, Mazzucchelli, Dell, Cooke, Zonjic, Samnee, etc., etc.
For me, CC’s Bronze Age appearances were undermined by his tighty whitey underwear worn over his tights. It was glaring. I don’t know that blue (might’ve been lesser of the evils?), yellow (ugh), or orange (yuck) would’ve been a lot better. But white was pretty conspicuous, and wasn’t in sync with the rest of the color scheme. The rest of the suit wasn’t great, but digestible, mostly because of the comet emblem. Red tights like his original design, plus the emblem, might’ve helped him to gain more traction.
There was another iteration, in 1997, I think. Part of DC’s “Tangent Comics”. A single appearance (as far as I know) in a very cool story of the mystical reinterpretation of the Green Lantern, as a lady who guided us through different tales, like an anthology host of “House of Mystery”. Or graveyard of mystery. 😉 She reminded me of elements from Madam Xanadu and the Phantom Stranger. One sad story was of another Captain Comet, killed while trying to stops a chemical or radiation weapon of mass destruction called the Red Tornado. “He fell to earth, so that we might soar”, was the epitaph on his striking statue. He’d been wronged, and his soul couldn’t rest until justice was served. He came back one last time to mete it out…
This CC was a Black man. The helmet was a bit bulky, with big buggy lenses. But maybe 2/3’s of his face was exposed, including his nose. He was bearded. The suit was functional looking. Black jacket w/ a cool, downward, diagonal comet icon. Big latches on one side, instead of buttons. Tight black pants, like Han Solo’s. w/ a yellow stripe down the sides, & knee pads. Black boots. “Comet’s Tale”, by the stellar team of writer James Robinson, artist JH Williams the 3rd, inker Mick Gray, and colorist Lee Loughridge.
The name “Captain Comet” still has a good, appealing ring to it. The alliteration’s catchy. . If I were writing it today, I’d have a Black female STAR Labs astronaut disappearing in deep space. Adam Blake eventually meets her, dies saving her, and passes on his powers to her. I’ve seen far more hokey origins… I prefer this to just simply wiping out the existence of the original, as if the current version was the only. She takes on the name, but stays in space a while. Maybe has run-ins with former Omega Men, or Lobo. Eventually she’s persuaded to return to Earth by J’onn J’onnz or Green Lantern John Stewart. I could see her in the Justice League, where diversity is really-needed.
Months ago on Twitter, someone posed the question of coming up with DC facsimiles to Marvel’s Bronze Age “Big 4” Defenders. I used a pic of one of the defunct “Darkstars”, a Black woman, as my Comet Comet to fill the Silver Surfer’s spot.
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Seems like every time I see Captain Comet the poor guy’s getting killed (Kingdom Come and 52). I figure the creators need someone powerful and fairly high profile to set up the Big Bad, but not so popular as to leave a gap. (He does survive The Golden Age, but again loses to the BB.)
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