Captain Planet

Captain Planet is a superhero summoned by five young Planeteers—Kwame, Wheeler, Linka, Gi, and Ma-Ti—who combine their elemental rings of Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Heart to call him forth as a champion against environmental destruction.

Bursting onto the scene in 1990 courtesy of Barbara Kesel, Karl Kesel, and Greg Guler, Captain Planet made his comics debut in the pages of Hawk and Dove #18 — a distinctive Copper/Modern Age entry into the DC universe. Though his catalog footprint is compact, spanning titles like Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, and Captain Planet and the Planeteers, he shares his adventures with a memorable cast including Kwame, Wheeler, Linka, Gi, and Ma-Ti. A character very much of his early-'90s moment, he's a fascinating piece of that era's cultural energy translated into four-color form — a collector's curiosity worth tracking down.