Captain Courageous Comics #6
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCaptain Courageous Comics #6 occupies a precise structural pivot in Ace Magazines' Golden Age line: it is simultaneously the last issue of the Banner Comics run (renumbered and renamed for a single issue) and the debut vehicle for The Sword, one of the more conceptually distinctive superheroes of 1942 — a teenager who pulls Excalibur from King Arthur's tomb and physically transforms into a powered adult champion. Packaging an origin story, a villain introduction, and multiple anthology features into one issue, it represents the anthology-to-character-showcase transition that defined how second-tier Golden Age publishers tried to build solo stars out of ensemble titles. Because all of its characters ultimately entered the public domain, the issue also became a seedbed for 21st-century revivals, most visibly through Dynamite Entertainment's Project Superpowers umbrella.
Captain Courageous Comics #6 is an anthology issue featuring multiple stories. "The Sword" introduces a new sensational character who battles grotesque villains and their minions aboard futuristic vessels, involving death traps and aerial combat. Another story depicts Nazi and Japanese forces attempting to deploy a devastating weapon, with Captain Courageous and his allies fighting to stop them and rescue captives from their clutches. The issue also includes "Range," a prose Western tale by Ralph in which Sheriff Charley Rizdal confronts the outlaw Snake Culver, a dangerous criminal who has escaped custody and threatens the town.
When columnist Jay Collins narrowly escapes a chloroform attack, Captain Courageous arrives on the scene just in time—only to uncover a sinister extortion ring preying on German-Americans under the fear-mongering rule of the mysterious Black Mayor. As bodies pile up and Senator High vanishes, Captain Courageous must navigate a web of terror and blackmail to expose the villain's true identity before more innocent lives are claimed. Written and illustrated by the creative team behind Captain Courageous, this hard-hitting 1942 tale pits America's symbol of fearlessness against a ruthless criminal who'll stop at nothing to silence anyone who knows his secret.
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Ace Magazines — operating under publisher and editor A. A. Wyn through his Periodical House Inc. imprint — had been running Captain Courageous as a back-up feature in Banner Comics from issue #3 (September 1941) onward, and when the decision was made to give the character a solo title, the existing numbering was retained rather than starting fresh, yielding the anomalous '#6' designation with no preceding issues under that name. Interior art was handled by Harry Sahle and George Wilson, while the cover was produced by Dave Berg — then freelancing widely across multiple publishers in 1941–42 before later building his career at Timely/Marvel under Stan Lee and achieving his greatest fame at Mad Magazine.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First (and only) issue published under the Captain Courageous Comics title; numbering continued directly from Banner Comics #3–5, making this effectively Banner Comics #6 under a new masthead.
- Published by Periodical House Inc. (Ace Magazines) with a March 1942 cover date and an on-sale date of January 9, 1942, per the Catalog of Copyright Entries.
- First appearance and origin of The Sword (secret identity: Arthur Lake), a teenager who discovers King Arthur's tomb in England, pulls Excalibur from a stone, and transforms into a superhuman adult hero — one of the earliest Arthurian-mythology-rooted superhero origin stories of the Golden Age.
- Introduces The Sword's debut villain, the Black Master, who next appeared in Lightning Comics #14.
- Introduces the Black Mayor (Max Gort) as a villain for Captain Courageous; that character's next appearance was in Four Favorites #5.
- Marks the final Golden Age appearance of The Lone Warrior (Stan Carter and Dicky Carter).
- Cover by Dave Berg; interior art by Harry Sahle and George Wilson. Editor and publisher: A. A. Wyn.
- Captain Courageous subsequently moved to the Ace anthology Four Favorites (issues #5–21), and the character later entered the public domain, appearing in Dynamite Entertainment's Project Superpowers #0 (2008) and related titles.
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