January 1943: Justice in Jodhpurs

Captain Triumph was one of those t-shirt-and-jodhpurs superheroes of the 1940s, like Doc Strange. 

I suspect their relatively low-key dress was a way of avoiding the attention of Superman’s lawyers, since they all had roughly his powers. 

The Quality Comics character’s origin in Crack Comics 27 combined some of the Spectre’s grimness with a sunnier veneer.

“Captain Triumph was a relative late-comer to the 1940s’ superhero scene,” noted comics historian Don Markstein. “By the time he made his debut in the January 1943 issue of Crack Comics (where previously established regulars included the Black Condor and the Clock), most of the long-underwear guys were already familiar to American comic book readers, and some companies (such as MLJ, where the rising star was Archie), were already starting to withdraw from the genre. But once he did come along, he took over the title and remained its cover feature as long as it continued to be published.”

When Nazis murdered flier Michael Gallant, he managed to reappear as a ghost to his journalist twin brother, Lance. Thereafter, by touching a T-shaped birthmark on his wrist, Lance could combine their forms into Captain Triumph. Together, they possessed the powers of flight, invulnerability and super strength. 

“Touching the birthmark again would separate the two, freeing Michael to flit around, ghost-like, and gather intelligence for Captain Triumph,” Markstein noted.

The good Captain’s enemies included the werewolf Raffrey, the mad biologist Khor and the electrical menace Porcupine.

“Captain Triumph was obviously inspired by Captain Marvel,” observed comics historians Mike Kooiman and Jim Amash. “Both heroes summoned power from beyond, and were transformed by lightning.”

“(A)s the series opened, the artist was Alfred Andriola, former assistant to Milton Caniff on Terry & the Pirates,” Markstein wrote. “Andriola had also drawn a newspaper comic based on author Earl Derr Biggers’s famous character, Charlie Chan. He stayed with Captain Triumph a mere five months, leaving to create the character he’s best remembered for, Kerry Drake.”