Captain Action - The Classic Collection
Just finished reading "Captain Action - The Classic Collection" published by IDW Publishing back in 2022.
Captain Action was an action figure created in 1966, equipped with a wardrobe of costumes and facial masks allowing him to become Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet. Captain Action was the Ideal Toy Company's answer to Hasbro's G.I. Joe, although the protagonist dolls of both toy lines were created and designed by the same toy-and-idea man, Stan Weston.
Now while I do have a Captain Action statue from Electric Tiki, I have yet to own a Captain Action figure. Back in the late 1960s Dad equated Action Figures for boys as Barbie Dolls for girls and no son of his was going to play with a doll. I had to wait to get a G.I. Joe until Selma, my sister, was born until Dad relented and he and Mom got me a G.I. Joe. Years later, I started collecting G.I. Joes and I have part of a wall in my house dedicated to displaying various G.I. Joes in my home office.
DC Comics) icensed the character from Ideal and published five issues of Captain Action in 1968. The comic book storyline had little to do with the toy concept, as some of the heroes licensed for use as costumes for the Captain Action doll were not owned and published by DC (Spider-Man and Captain America for example, were Marvel Comics characters), therefore the ability to change into different characters was entirely dropped. Instead, Captain Action came to possess magical coins, each of which provided him with a spectacular power from a Greek, Roman, or Norse mythological god in a similar way to the original Captain Marvel. Captain Action was given a real name of his own, Clive Arno, and was identified as a widowed archaeologist and museum curator, and was described as having located "the coins of power" in a buried city. Action Boy's comic-book alter-ego was Carl Arno, son of Clive. Dr. Evil was given a back-story too, having been Captain Action's father-in-law, then going mad in a mishap. The series lasted five issues, until July 1969, with a rather disturbing ending that resulted in the mental breakdown of the villain.
The five issues of the Captain Action comics were published in the in-between eras of the Silver and Bronze ages of comics, and this collection also includes the letters section of each comic. Long before the Internet, people actually wrote letters and mailed them to the editors of comic books to discuss occurrences in previous issues and express their concerns and ideas. Of course Social Media has now taken over the Letters to the Editor page in comic books for better or worse - though with Cancel Culture, definitely for the worse.
These five Captain Action comics are essentially origin stories for heroes and villains in the Captain Action comic book universe and are basically good versus evil under the Comics Authority Code of the time.
Highly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Captain-Action...
Captain Action was an action figure created in 1966, equipped with a wardrobe of costumes and facial masks allowing him to become Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet. Captain Action was the Ideal Toy Company's answer to Hasbro's G.I. Joe, although the protagonist dolls of both toy lines were created and designed by the same toy-and-idea man, Stan Weston.
Now while I do have a Captain Action statue from Electric Tiki, I have yet to own a Captain Action figure. Back in the late 1960s Dad equated Action Figures for boys as Barbie Dolls for girls and no son of his was going to play with a doll. I had to wait to get a G.I. Joe until Selma, my sister, was born until Dad relented and he and Mom got me a G.I. Joe. Years later, I started collecting G.I. Joes and I have part of a wall in my house dedicated to displaying various G.I. Joes in my home office.
DC Comics) icensed the character from Ideal and published five issues of Captain Action in 1968. The comic book storyline had little to do with the toy concept, as some of the heroes licensed for use as costumes for the Captain Action doll were not owned and published by DC (Spider-Man and Captain America for example, were Marvel Comics characters), therefore the ability to change into different characters was entirely dropped. Instead, Captain Action came to possess magical coins, each of which provided him with a spectacular power from a Greek, Roman, or Norse mythological god in a similar way to the original Captain Marvel. Captain Action was given a real name of his own, Clive Arno, and was identified as a widowed archaeologist and museum curator, and was described as having located "the coins of power" in a buried city. Action Boy's comic-book alter-ego was Carl Arno, son of Clive. Dr. Evil was given a back-story too, having been Captain Action's father-in-law, then going mad in a mishap. The series lasted five issues, until July 1969, with a rather disturbing ending that resulted in the mental breakdown of the villain.
The five issues of the Captain Action comics were published in the in-between eras of the Silver and Bronze ages of comics, and this collection also includes the letters section of each comic. Long before the Internet, people actually wrote letters and mailed them to the editors of comic books to discuss occurrences in previous issues and express their concerns and ideas. Of course Social Media has now taken over the Letters to the Editor page in comic books for better or worse - though with Cancel Culture, definitely for the worse.
These five Captain Action comics are essentially origin stories for heroes and villains in the Captain Action comic book universe and are basically good versus evil under the Comics Authority Code of the time.
Highly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Captain-Action...
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