Wheeler

Wheeler is one of the five young Planeteers in DC's comic adaptation of the Captain Planet animated series, chosen by Gaia to wield a power ring — his controls the element of Fire — in the fight against environmental destruction.

Wheeler turns up at the intersection of superhero comics and environmental adventure, debuting in 1990 during the Copper Age boom when DC was pushing bold new concepts onto the stands. With only a handful of catalog appearances spread across Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, and Captain Planet and the Planeteers, this is a rare, niche find — the kind of character that rewards the dedicated completist. Sharing pages with the likes of Captain Planet, Gi, Kwame, Linka, and Ma-Ti, Wheeler clearly moves in the colorful, cause-driven world that defined a particular moment in early-'90s comics culture. A small footprint, but for fans tracing the full map of that era, Wheeler is a genuinely interesting dot on it.