Captain Aero Comics
Entry updated 22 September 2025. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1941-1946). Temerson / Helnit / Continental. 14 issues (numbered #1, #11-#17, #21-#26). Artists include Nina Albright, L B Cole, Carmine Infantino, Rudy Palais, Charles Quinlan Sr and (for a non-genre cover and story) Alex Schomburg. Scriptwriters include Allen Ulmer and Bill Woolfolk. Initially 68 pages, declining to 52; usually with 7-8 long strips and a short text story each issue, plus occasional short pieces as filler.
Some characters had previously appeared in Captain Fearless Comics (1941, two issues): of those genre-related, Alias X and Miss Victory would became regulars, but Grit Grady, "Cap" Stone (previously as Captain Stone) and Solar only make a single appearance in #1 and might have been intended for an unpublished Captain Fearless #3. Genre strips not carried over were Mr Miracle, a would-be Suicide whom a scientist treated with a "mind Ray", giving him the ability to perform miracles; whilst Captain Fearless concerned the ghost (see Supernatural Creatures) of a patriot from the US War of Independence helping a modern-day descendant to battle saboteurs.
Captain Aero Comics' strips were a mixed bag of genres, but focused on World War Two after #1, with the resulting narrow storylines, unending patriotism and bigotry towards the Germans and Japanese (see Race in SF) often makes it a repetitive and uncomfortable read, though occasionally the Japanese are given a little more depth than was typical. The plots are not strong, though a few are memorably eccentric: Flag Man gets off to a reasonable start but quickly becomes mundane; Miss Victory was a dynamic female lead (see Feminism) and is fairly lively; Alias X has a couple of moments and Captain Aero's last two adventures are promising, but the series then ended. Aside from Miss Victory, other strong women characters would occasionally appear; there was some good artwork later on.
Captain Aero himself was a World War Two pilot of "a new plane, the secret P-60" which reached speeds of 700mph, making it advanced Technology for 1941. In #1 the Germans have an artificial Island in the mid-Atlantic generating a "magnetic impulse" that forces down allied planes, but subsequent tales have no genre elements until #24 when the Japanese use a "strato-zep" bomber that flies at an altitude too high to be detected from the ground. In #25 Martian Airships (sic) seemingly attack the Earth: Captain Aero is captured, and a fellow prisoner is the scantily clad daughter of a Scientist who had invented a Rocket ship that flew them to Mars three years previously, only to be captured by the hostile inhabitants. The Invasion is defeated, but at the end it is revealed to be a film to promote continued unity now World War Two has ended (see Scientific Hoax). In #26 the Moon suddenly becomes "motionless", causing Earth's acceleration and stagnating flood waters that spread disease (see Disaster), so – accompanied by "brilliant young woman Scientist" Eve Starr – the captain travels by Spaceship to investigate. 15 years previously a German expedition to the Moon had disappeared: but the Nazi scientist leading it survived, ruling its inhabitants and building the device that halted its rotation.
Miss Victory, usually drawn by Nina Albright, first appears in #11 (that is, the second issue) and is a costumed superhero without powers, though athletic and good with her fists (there is also some Fan Service); initially fighting political corruption in Washington, she gradually gets more involved in the war, becoming a pilot. The stories are initially non-genre, but #17 reveals Leonardo da Vinci invented nitroglycerin; in #21 (that is, the ninth issue) the Japanese have an advanced aeroplane; in #23 they use an enormous remote-controlled spiked sphere, the "globe of death", to crush and impale allied forces; in #24 there is a giant "submarine fortress" and we learn that Miss Victory's plane can be radio-controlled.
Crime fighter Alias X (despite the name he wears no costume or mask) also first appears in #11; here a German agent has technology which can display people's Memories, used for blackmail and to gather military secrets. #12 has Germans experimenting on children with a newly invented synthetic Biotin to make them big and muscular; #13 has arms being severed and grafted onto criminals, the logic being that with one pair of arms permanently in view they cannot be suspected of (for example) stealing jewels. Last appearance #14.
Flag Man, is a Captain America-like Superhero: in #1 two "gigantic Nazi Robots" (strictly speaking, Mecha) filled with soldiers attack New York; they prove no match for the fists of our hero and his side-kick Rusty. In #11 he fights a gorilla with a swastika branded on its chest which has been trained to hate him (last appearance #14). Red Kross, "modern master of medical arts" (this medical aspect is largely irrelevant), is also costumed and without superpowers; he fights the Axis powers. His stories are rarely genre, but in #12 he deals with a Japanese "electronic death Ray"; the US army destroys it, refusing to use such a thing. Also appearing in several issues are The Mighty Mite, a humorous strip about a child superhero, and Hammerhead Hawley, who has a submarine that holds smaller submarines.
Of the one-offs who only appeared in the first issue, adventurer Grit Grady foils the Germans and Japanese, who spent four years excavating a large cave underneath Easter Island, then built an undersea tractor to drag explosives to the Panama canal and blow it up. Solar is a "master of Magic" – a diamond from King Soloman's mines is the source of his powers, whilst a "cape of mystery" renders him Invisible. He protects a scientist who has invented a "new super-bomb" from German spies. "Cap" Stone was a stricken "marine investigator" who, in Captain Fearless Comics #2 was rescued by members of the undersea kingdom of Aquari, a self-declared Utopia with advanced Technology situated over a submerged volcano, whose chemical gases unite to form a breathable atmosphere. That adventure, in which he protects them from invasion, concludes in #1. [SP]
links
- Comic Book Plus
- Grand Comics Database
- Comic Book Plus – Captain Fearless Comics
- Grand Comics Database – Captain Fearless Comics
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