Captain Comet

Superherobox|

caption=Comet's new uniform on the cover of
"Mystery in Space" #1
Art by Shane Davis
character_name=Captain Comet
real_name=Adam Blake
publisher=DC Comics
debut="Strange Adventures" # 9
(June 1951)
creators=John Broome
Carmine Infantino
alliances=L.E.G.I.O.N. Secret Society of Super-Villains
aliases=Comet
powers=Telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, superhuman strength and endurance, durability, teleportation, genius intelligence|

Captain Comet (Adam Blake) is a fictional character, a DC Comics superhero created by writer John Broome and artist Carmine Infantino.Citation | last = Jimenez | first = Phil | author-link = Captain Comet | contribution = Captain Boomerang | editor-last = Dougall | editor-first = Alastair | title = The DC Comics Encyclopedia | pages = 68 | publisher = Dorling Kindersley | place = New York | year = 2008 | ISBN = 0-7566-4119-5 | oclc = 213309017]

Publication history

The character of Captain Comet first appeared in "Strange Adventures" #9 (June, 1951), and his 1950s appearances ended with "Strange Adventures" #49 (October, 1954), making him one of the last of the DC Comics Golden Age characters to cease appearing during the great superhero drought of the 1950's. There are no Captain Comet stories in issues 45,47, 48.

Captain Comet next appeared in 1976 when comic writer Gerry Conway and co-writer David Kraft brought him back as a supporting character in "Secret Society of Super Villains" #2 ('No man shall call me master', July/August 1976). In this series, it was revealed that Captain Comet has been exploring space since his final "Strange Adventures" appearance. He also appeared as lead character for the first time since 1954 in an extended story 'Danger: Dinosaurs at large' (DC Special 27, April/May 1977).

After the cancellation of "Secret Society of Super Villains" with #15 ('The wizard's war of the worlds', June/July 1978), Captain Comet made various guest appearances in other DC titles until becoming a lead character in the "L.E.G.I.O.N." series with #16 of 'L.E.G.I.O.N. 90' ('Monster, monster', June 1990). In one L.E.G.I.O.N. scene he returned to the team after exile on a primitive planet where he took the native species from their Stone Age to interstellar travel in the space of a single year, explaining that "They were a bit slow."

Captain Comet was again revived in 2006 in the "Rann-Thanagar War" mini-series in the lead up to the "Infinite Crisis" event, and again in the new "Mystery in Space" mini-series written by Jim Starlin and penciled by Shane Davis.

Fictional character biography

Captain Comet is a metahuman "born a hundred thousand years before his time". His "metagene" was triggered by a comet shining its light upon him at birth. His powers included telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, electrical manipulation, a genius-level intellect, superhuman strength and endurance, photographic memory, and invulnerability.Blake discovered his unique abilities while he was growing up, but he first used his skills to fight crime as an adult. He intervened when criminals attempted to steal an advanced scientific device invented by his friend, physics Professor Emery Zackro. After this adventure, Blake decided to become a superhero on a full-time basis, creating his own costume and fighting various threats.

Captain Comet is unusual in that, unlike most comic book superheroes, he remains a product of the time he was created. In the 2006 "Mystery in Space" miniseries, his dog Tyrone talked about Adam Blake discovering his abilities "during what he called the 1950s."

"Infinite Crisis" and "One Year Later"

Captain Comet reappeared during the Rann-Thanagar War, helping Kyle Rayner and Adam Strange against the invasion of Rann by Onimarr Synn. Captain Comet was then featured in the "Mystery In Space" miniseries written by Jim Starlin.

During the year after the events of "Infinite Crisis" Captain Comet was tortured and killed by Lady Styx, which forced him to eject his consciousness from his body. Several months afterwards, Comet's psyche came into contact with The Weird's soul, which caused the two of them to create new bodies, each possessing some of the other's memories.

Captain Comet created a new younger body for himself with all the memories and mental abilities of his previous body. Captain Comet then teleported home and set off to locate his former body. He created a modified costume for himself and went by the name "Comet", dropping the "Captain" title from his moniker.

Investigating, he discovered that the Church of Eternal Light had enslaved a group of Aurakles, using their abilities to grow brainwashed cloned telepaths from the charred remains of his former body. Although the clones had his former strength, they were psychically weaker, so Comet was able to destroy his corpse, sabotage the factory and flee. This branded him as a fugitive, and he was only able to continue his battles and avoid arrest due to his friendship with the police chief.

He explained his new, younger appearance to the superhero community by claiming to be Captain Comet's nephew.

Powers and Abilities

Captain Comet is the pinnacle of human evolution. His evolved mental functions not only give him genius level I.Q. but endows him with telepathy, a gift that enables him to read people's minds, communicate with his thoughts, and control minds. He also has the mental power of telekinesis, an ability that enables him to use his thoughts to move, lift, and alter matter (usually in the form of creating and dispelling clothing) without having any physical contact with it, mentally lift himself upwards to fly at high-speed, create barriers of psychic force to deflect most physical attacks, and fire bursts of psionic energy that strike a target with concussive impact or energy of various forms, such as electricity or fire. His telekinetic shields can be used to simultaneously protect himself from the vacuum of space, while surrounding himself with an aura of oxygen to breathe. Captain Comet's brain also contains evolved sensory centers enabling him to clairvoyantly "see" events outside of his range of sight, or even, in a limited way, see the future. If he focuses on clairvoyance he can see up to 100,000 years into the future. He also possesses two extra senses: the "sense of strength" allows him to evaluate an opponent's strength and a "vibro-sense" which allows him to read the emotions of others. His evolved physiology makes him superhumanly strong and durable almost on par with Superman. After his resurrection, however, his physical prowess is vastly diminished, and Comet is not as powerful, strong and durable as he was. Due to his physically younger body, is still unknown if he'll be able to recover his strengh with age, but his mind was enhanced as well. Now Comet has stronger psionic powers, and limited innate teleporting abilities, requiring a range of time between minutes to one hour to recharge himself after every "jump".

Captain Comet is a prodigy with the ability to master any skill upon his first attempt. He has a photographic memory, and possesses a comprehensive intellect well in advance of that of the average human. He is also a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant.

Other appearances

In the 1994 Elseworlds mini-series "Kingdom Come", Captain Comet was a member of Superman's reformed Justice League. He was chosen by Superman to be warden of the Gulag, the holding facility/prison for meta-humans who chose to defy the Justice League. He was killed in a prison riot.

Captain Comet also made an appearance in the final issue of the out-of-continuity Elseworlds miniseries "The Golden Age", which took place in 1951 during the early years of his crime fighting career.

In the Tangent "Earth-9" universe in the newly created 52 multiverse, Captain Comet was an African-American superhero from that reality's Chicago. He was killed trying to prevent a war in Europe.

External links

* [http://www.toonopedia.com/capcomet.htm Toonopedia entry on Captain Comet]
* [http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/legion/l-e-g-i-o-n/captain_comet.htm Cosmic Teams entry on Captain Comet]
* [http://home.aol.com/MG4273/strngadv.htm Strange Adventures] , Includes a study of the Captain Comet tales.

References