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| Captain Triumph | |
|---|---|
 Crack Comics # 27, the first appearance of Captain Triumph. Art by Alfred Andriola. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Quality Comics |
| First appearance | Crack Comics # 27 (January 1943) |
| Created by | Alfred Andriola |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Lance Gallant |
| Team affiliations | All-Star Squadron |
| Abilities | Flight, invulnerability, invisibility, super-strength, appearance altering. |
Captain Triumph is a superhero from the Golden Age of Comics who first appeared in Crack Comics #27, published in January 1943 by Quality Comics. The character was later obtained by DC Comics, though by that time he had already lapsed into the public domain. Some of his Golden Age adventures were reprinted by AC Comics in the Men of Mystery anthology. He is not to be confused with another DC Comics property, Triumph.
Origin[edit]
In 1919 twin brothers Michael and Lance Gallant are born in New York City. They are so alike, even down to a T-shaped birthmark on their left wrists, that their own mother cannot distinguish between them. The two remain close, even for twins, as they grow up.
When America is drawn into the Second World War, Michael enlists in the U.S. Army Air Corps, becoming a pilot, while Lance “crusaded with his own weapons – the word and pen” by becoming a journalist. However, on Michael’s 23rd birthday, as he brings his plane in to land, the hangar he is entering explodes. His fiancée, Kim Meredith, and brother Lance witness this act of sabotage, and the latter races into the burning structure, managing to find his badly injured sibling, only for Michael to die in his arms.
Lance swears vengeance on the murderers and those like them. “Michael Gallant was my brother! I swear there’s no risk I wouldn’t take – nothing I’d hesitate to do! I’d sacrifice anyone’s life – my own included – to wipe from the face of the Earth the evil that brought about this disaster!” Unknown to him, the Fates, creatures of myth, are watching all this and, impressed, decide to create a champion. Soon afterwards Lance receives a shocking visitation from Michael's ghost, who reveals that they remain linked together, and if Lance touches his birthmark they will merge, gaining superpowers as a result. Touching the mark a second time will separate them again. Calling himself Captain Triumph, Lance becomes a crimefighter.[1]
Creative Teams[edit]
Cap's writer is unknown, but as the series opens, the artist is Alfred Andriola, former assistant to Milton Caniff on Terry and the Pirates. (Andriola had also drawn a newspaper comic based on author Earl Derr Biggers's famous character, Charlie Chan.) He stays with Captain Triumph a mere six months[2], leaving to create the character he's best remembered for, Kerry Drake. The artists in the middle issues of Captain Triumph’s Crack Comics run are mostly a matter of conjecture, as Golden Age artists frequently did not sign their work. However, beginning in Crack Comics #47 and ending only with the book’s cancellation, Captain Triumph’s adventures are penciled and inked for an unbroken 14-issue run by Golden Age great Reed Crandall.
Costume[edit]
Captain Triumph has a minimal costume consisting of a plain, red, short-sleeved, crew neck t-shirt, ordinary white jodhpurs[3], brown riding boots, and no mask. Comic book historian Don Markstein has commented, “By the time Cap appeared in 1943, the tide of superhero comic book characters was receding somewhat. Captain Triumph's costume was just enough to get across the idea he was a superhero, but since the genre was fading did not emphasize the fact.”[4]
Captain Triumph belongs to that select class of superheroes who, like Superman/Clark Kent, is never recognized in his superhero identity, even when being seen by the same person as Captain Triumph immediately after being seen as Lance Gallant and vice versa – despite the fact that he wears no mask and does not even have Clark Kent’s glasses to disguise his face.
Supporting cast[edit]
Kim Meredith is introduced in Captain Triumph’s first appearance as Michael Gallant’s fiancée. In his second appearance, both Michael’s ghost and Lance jointly tell her the secret of Captain Triumph.[5] An extremely strong-willed young woman, thereafter she is Cap’s devoted and trustworthy helper and confidante. In one adventure, after being kidnapped, she refuses to give her captor any information on Captain Triumph even though she is beaten “Until [her] face is covered with blood and welts and open wounds.”[6]
In his fourth appearance, Captain Triumph encounters a down-on-his-luck professional clown named Biff who is on the verge of being fired from his job. Sympathizing, Cap uses his powers of flight and invisibility to ensure that Biff’s next show is spectacular. However, even though in the aftermath his job as a clown is at least temporarily assured, after being drawn into one of Cap’s adventures, and thoroughly enjoying it, Biff readily accepts Lance Gallant’s offer to become his personal assistant.[7] (Though Lance Gallant is presented as being born into “a middle class family”[8] and supposedly has as income only his journalist’s pay, he has no problem affording a personal, live-in assistant.) Thereafter the burly former clown serves as Lance, Michael and Captain Triumph’s steadfast friend and backup muscle.
Personality[edit]
Before Michael’s death, and his merging with Lance to become Captain Triumph, the two are extraordinarily close, and alike, even for twins. “As they grew, the bonds of love and companionship that existed between them became stronger than any bond of steel or cable of strength that man could manufacture. So close were they, that in their work, their play, and the exciting adventures that filled their lives, their bodies responded but to one mind.”[9]
Both twins are intelligent, daring, and athletic. Though they are presented as being very similar, throughout the series it becomes obvious that Lance is the more thoughtful, and intellectually inclined of the two, while Michael is more the daredevil, witness their differing vocations of military pilot and journalist, respectively. Both brothers are extremely loyal and devoted to those for whom they care, though in Michael’s case his affection is expressed by cheerful insults and, by modern standards, sexism. He affectionately and habitually refers to his brother Lance as “Lug”; Kim’s nickname is “Cupcake.”
When the twins merge into Captain Triumph, they form a composite personality, though Lance’s persona is dominant. Captain Triumph never refers to Kim as Cupcake, though Michael’s ghost continues to do so. Nor does Cap ever express any attraction for Kim, or she for him, since she views him as Lance, not Michael.
However Michael is obviously aware of what happens when he and Lance are merged as Captain Triumph, since when he and Lance split apart in the midst of an adventure, Michael is capable of instantly and seamlessly executing whatever plan Cap has conceived.
Powers[edit]
When Lance Gallant merges with the ghost of his brother Michael, the two form Captain Triumph who is basically a super-powered Lance Gallant.
Within the context of this series, the Fates are presented as three hag-like crones, sisters named Chance, Destiny and Fortune. They gift Captain Triumph with three “ghostly” powers: flight, invisibility and invulnerability. As Michael Gallant says when his spirit first appears to his brother, “I can make you invisible! You shall fly through space within seconds! Nothing physical will harm you!”[10]
When the brothers are separated into two individuals, Michael, as a ghost, can move through walls, spy invisibly, and then return to report back to Lance.
Captain Triumph also possesses the ability to alter his physical appearance, shape and size, and at the same time change his voice, a power that comes in very handy when his adventures require impersonation.[11][12]
He possesses superhuman strength, routinely holding his own against and even beating multiple attackers much larger than he is.
Captain Triumph is apparently completely invulnerable. On numerous occasions he is shot repeatedly, and the bullets have no effect [13] An attempt to stab him with a knife results in it bending on his chest[14], and being shot with “an atomic beam that can cut through anything” – and does in fact easily cut through an oceangoing freighter - only causes him to laugh and say, “I’m ticklish!”[15]
Publication history[edit]
Crack Comics[edit]
Crack Comics started out as a monthly title, like most 1940s anthology titles, but dropped down to bi-monthly shortly after World War II began, due to wartime paper shortages. It switched to quarterly about a year after Captain Triumph joined the lineup. When the war was over, most surviving anthologies ramped back up to monthly, but Crack Comics only ever got back to bi-monthly (coming out in odd-numbered months). But it did outlast most of the others, succumbing with its 62nd issue, dated September 1949.[16]
The End of Quality Comics[edit]
By the mid-1950s, with television and paperback books drawing readers away from comic books in general and superheroes in particular, interest in Quality's characters had declined considerably. After a foray into other genres such as war, humor, romance and horror, the company ceased operations with comics cover dated December 1956. Many of its properties were sold to National Periodical Publications (now DC Comics) which chose to keep only a few titles running, such as Blackhawk and G.I. Combat. Though it owned the rights to Captain Triumph, DC would not use the character for several more decades.
The All-Star Squadron[edit]
Captain Triumph was retconned as a member of the All-Star Squadron, the World War II group of mystery men brought together by Franklin Roosevelt. He appeared on the cover of the first issue, as one of a group of photos spread over a table, along with the tag line "Who Will Be the Heroes of the....All-Star Squadron" although he did not actually appear within the issue.[17] Writer Roy Thomas indicates he always intended to use Captain Triumph in All-Star Squadron but never got around to it before the title was cancelled.[18]
Animal Man[edit]
Captain Triumph appeared in flashback in a small cameo in one issue of Grant Morrison's Animal Man series, fighting the unsuccessful supervillain The Red Mask who described him as possessing "the personality of a deck chair." Given his characterization in this story - admittedly from The Red Mask's not exactly unbiased viewpoint - that was not an entirely inaccurate assessment.[19]
The Titans[edit]
Back in the "real" DC Universe, Captain Triumph retired from action at an unknown time. Lance later appeared in The Titans as a friend of Jesse Quick's mother, the aged heroine Liberty Belle. Michael was still present as a spirit but had apparently gone psychotic in the many years of inactivity. The twins discovered a love affair between Jesse and her mother's young fiancé. Lance tried to confront the fiancé on the matter but was taken over by his brother Michael, who quickly murdered the man for his infidelity to his friend.[20]
Female version[edit]
A new, female Captain Triumph debuted in Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters. This version has only demonstrated super-strength and the ability to fly.[21]
Other version(s)[edit]
The Golden Age[edit]
Captain Triumph's most substantive post-Golden Age appearance was in The Golden Age, a four-issue prestige format miniseries in DC Comics Elseworlds line, written by James Robinson with art by Paul Smith. In it, Lance Gallant has retired as Captain Triumph and is trying to lead a normal life, despite his brother's ghost urging him to become a hero again.[22] When he meets the reformed supervillain, the Tigress, he falls in love with her.[23] In the end he refuses to accede to his brother's requests and dies fighting the original Golden Age Robotman as a normal man, defending the Tigress.[24]
James Robinson intended that The Golden Age be canon, and his subsequent series Starman assumed that many of the events in The Golden Age (for instance Ted Knight, the original Starman, having a nervous breakdown after his research was used to help create the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki) actually happened. However The Golden Age has always been classed as a non-canonical "imaginary story" by DC's powers-that-be.
References[edit]
- ^ Crack Comics #27.
- ^ Crack Comics #s 24 thru 32.
- ^ http://www.toonopedia.com/triumph.htm Don Markstein on his Toonopedia site has stated that as time went by Captain Triumph’s jodhpurs were changed in color from white to light blue, however this is untrue. Cap’s pants were only ever colored so on four covers late in the run (#s 49, 52, 54 and 58), and on every other cover, including those of the late run – and all of the interior pages throughout the entire series – they are always white.
- ^ http://www.toonopedia.com/triumph.htm Don Markstein’s Toonopedia page on Captain Triumph.
- ^ Crack Comics #28.
- ^ Crack Comics #31.
- ^ Crack Comics #30.
- ^ Crack Comics #27.
- ^ Crack Comics #27.
- ^ Crack Comics #27.
- ^ Crack Comics #28.
- ^ Crack Comics #31.
- ^ Crack Comics #s 27, 28, 30.
- ^ Crack Comics #29.
- ^ Crack Comics #28.
- ^ http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Crack_Comics_Vol_1 The DC Comics Database.
- ^ All-Star Squadron #1.
- ^ http://comicsmakenosense.blogspot.com/2010/06/martyrdom-of-captain-triumph-monday.html Comics Make No Sense.
- ^ Animal Man #7.
- ^ The Titans #36.
- ^ Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #3.
- ^ The Golden Age #1.
- ^ The Golden Age #2.
- ^ The Golden Age #3.
External links[edit]
- Captain Triumph at The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
- Captain Triumph at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 9, 2012.
Category:Comics characters introduced in 1943 Category:Quality Comics superheroes Category:DC Comics superheroes Category:Golden Age superheroes Triumph, Captain Category:Aviation comics