Captain Pollution

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Captain Pollution
Captain Pollution
Publication information
Publisher	TBS Productions/DiC; Hanna-Barbera
First appearance	Mission to Save the Earth
Created by	Ted Turner, Barbara Pyle
In-story information
Abilities	Superhuman strength, flight, radioactivity

Captain Pollution is a fictional character and supervillain in the animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers, first featured in the two-part episode, "Mission to Save the Earth" (Season 1 Episodes 22 & 23). Captain Pollution is a twisted clone of the main hero in the same vein as Bizarro, Superman's opposite and enemy, though Bizarro is unaware he is doing anything wrong, while Captain Pollution is fully aware of the maliciousness of his actions.

Captain Pollution is the opposite of Captain Planet, created from Dr. Blight's evil variants of the Planeteers' rings. He is summoned when the powers of Super Radiation, Deforestation, Smog, Toxics, and Hate combine, just like Captain Planet is forged from the powers of nature. Captain Pollution also gains strength when surrounded by pollution, recharging from it when necessary. In the feature episode, he can be seen bathing in a pool of toxic acid as a way of relaxing.

Captain Planet ultimately beats his evil counterpart by barraging him with an array of natural powers; running him through the ground, then through flowing lava before dragging Captain Pollution through water and finally taking him through the air. Afterwards, a powerless Captain Pollution is dumped on Commander Clash's island and uses the last of his strength to return to his rings before they explode.

He later returns in the season 4 premiere "A Mine Is a Terrible Thing to Waste", when Commander Clash's island becomes soaked in nuclear waste. Captain Planet arrives alone to deal with the mess and is immediately attacked by a newly-revived Captain Pollution, who proceeds to lead Captain Planet on a worldwide chase, inducing various ecological disasters in the process. Oddly enough, while the Pollution rings had self-destructed and were thus inactive (this episode explicitly states they were destroyed), Captain Pollution is restored via those very same rings. It is possible that Captain Pollution simply created a new set of rings from his own physical body, so that the components he was created from would have somewhere to rest.

During his confrontation with Captain Planet, Captain Pollution manages to absorb so much toxic waste that he not only grows in power but in size as well. However, the Planeteers manage to escape Looten Plunder's death trap and locate Captain Planet, rescuing him and recharging him with the Geo Cruiser's solar battery. The revitalized Captain Planet then tricks Captain Pollution into driving them both into the ground and straight into an underground lava flow. The natural lava is too much for Captain Pollution to handle, and his body dissolves. Whether or not Captain Pollution is finally destroyed or simply sealed away again is never revealed.

Captain Pollution is a twisted visage of Captain Planet, with a sickly yellow skin (although some believe that his face appears Caucasian-toned in his second appearance), dark-red clothing with a cracked globe emblem and bright orange untamed hair. While Captain Planet is dedicated to preserving life and nature, Captain Pollution revels in the destruction he causes. In his second and final appearance Captain Pollution acts crazier and more unbalanced than his previous quirky personality reminiscent of the one of Captain Planet himself, doing some slapstick humor and cracking twisted jokes. That could be owed to the general change in mood in the last three seasons of the show, done by Hanna-Barbera, or to the ordeal surrounding his first death.

While Captain Planet is formed in a bright flash of light (excluding the occasions where he would rise from the ground), Captain Pollution's roots are much more sinister: The first time he was formed, Captain Pollution rose from the ground in a giant fireball.^[1] In his second appearance, the powers converge and a skeleton forms in the center, while bands of dark energy wrap around it, bringing Captain Pollution into being. The fact he has an internal skeleton contrasts with Captain Planet's crystalline body. The skeleton likely references the death and destruction pollution causes.

He was voiced by David Coburn with a Californian surfer dude accent in both appearances.

Note that, in the Marvel Comics series based on the cartoon, Captain Pollution was created by Zarm.

[edit] Toys

Captain Pollution did receive a toy in the Captain Planet toy line, though it saw no co-selling on other packages or catalogs. Captain Pollution was a heavily retooled Captain Planet, with body sores, cracked globe and wilder hair. "Toxic ooze" play slime could be pumped through tiny holes in the chest through the back. However, the toy diverges from the animation model by giving the villain green sores and dark purple boots, gloves, and hair.

[edit] References