 | Captain FlashOriginal Medium: Comic books Published by: Sterling Comics First Appeared: 1954 Creators: Martin Smith (editor) and Mike Sekowsky (artist) image: © Superior Comics. |
Some people consider this character, who came out in 1954, nearly two years before DC Comics' Flash, to have sparked the superhero renaissance that flowered in the 1960s. But if it wasn't DC's highly successful character that did it, why this one? He was only one of a steady stream of short-lived '50s super guys, including Fighting American, The Black Cobra and a revived Blue Beetle, all of which came out earlier that same year. For that matter, Marvel Comics had briefly revived its Big Three, Captain America, The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner, the year before.
Comics historian Don Rosa (better known as the second-most
famous cartoonist, after
Carl Barks, to make Walt Disney's Uncle
Scrooge a major part of his career) notes that Captain Flash
looked like a '60s character, and was the first in
the '50s to have honest-to-gosh super powers. But while those
claiming great influence for Cap may have gotten the idea from
Rosa, his only real claim was that this one was ahead of its time.
For that matter, the statement isn't entirely accurate, as Marvel Boy (1950) and Captain Comet (1951) both had the powers, and
the latter, with artwork by Murphy Anderson (Hawkman, Atomic
Knights), even had a '60s-style appearance.
It's a mystery. But even if Captain Flash didn't really have anything to do with what followed, he did debut with a November, 1954 cover date. Captain Flash #1 was published by Sterling Comics, which also did three mystery/horror series along the lines of EC's Tales from the Crypt only not as good, and apparently nothing else. With four issues published (the last dated July, 1955), Captain Flash was Sterling's longest-lasting title. The editor was Martin Smith, who has a few scattered credits as a writer and may, tho records seem not to have survived, have written this. The artist was Mike Sekowsky, a much better known comic book creator, whose later work on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, The Mighty Crusaders and especially The Justice League of America is what prompted Rosa to compare Captain Flash's look to that of the '60s superheroes.
Captain Flash was Professor Keith Spencer, who, by clapping his hands, could set off a "miniature atomic explosion" inside his body. You'd think this would spatter a very large surrounding area with goo, but instead, it made him super strong, super speedy, and invulnerable — "America's Ace Defender", as noted on the cover of each issue. His young friend, Ricky Davis, didn't have any super powers, but put on a costume and tagged along anyway. Like The Black Terror's sidekick, Tim, and Magno's sidekick, Davey, Ricky was kind of cavalier about the secret identity business, and used his own first name as a superhero monicker.
Once his four issues were done, Captain Flash faded into virtual oblivion, remembered only by superhero buffs eager to top one another by citing more and more obscure characters as the supposed impetus for the upcoming flood.
In the 1980s and '90s, AC Comics (Sentinels of Justice, Femforce) made a specialty of buying up old properties from defunct publishers, such as Fighting Yank and The Avenger. Captain Flash was one of them, and is now part of AC's large universe of characters. Even so, he remains a very minor superhero.
