Captain Comet

Captain Comet
Captain Comet
	Comet's new uniform on the cover of ; Mystery in Space #1; Art by Shane Davis
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Strange Adventures # 9; (June 1951)
Created by	John Broome; Carmine Infantino
In-story information
Alter ego	Adam Blake
Team affiliations	L.E.G.I.O.N.; Secret Society of Super-Villains
Notable aliases	Comet
Abilities	Telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, superhuman strength and endurance, durability, teleportation, genius intelligence

Captain Comet (Adam Blake) is a fictional character, a DC Comics superhero created by writer John Broome and artist Carmine Infantino.

Publication history

The character of Captain Comet first appeared in Strange Adventures #9 (June, 1951), and his 1950s appearances ended with Strange Adventures #49 (October, 1954).

Captain Comet reappeared in 1976 when comic writer Gerry Conway brought him back as a supporting character in Secret Society of Super Villains. In this series, it was revealed that Captain Comet has been exploring space since his final Strange Adventures appearance. After the cancellation of Secret Society of Super Villains, he makes various guest appearances in other DC titles until becoming a lead character in the 1990s L.E.G.I.O.N. series. In one L.E.G.I.O.N. scene he returned to the team after exile on a primitive planet where he took the native species from their Stone Age to interstellar travel in the space of a single year, explaining that "They were a bit slow."

Captain Comet was revived in 2006 in the Rann-Thanagar War mini-series in the lead up to the Infinite Crisis event, and again in the new Mystery in Space mini-series written by Jim Starlin and penciled by Shane Davis.

Fictional character biography

Captain Comet is a mutant metahuman "born a hundred thousand years before his time". His "metagene" was triggered by a comet shining its light upon him at birth. His powers included telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, electrical manipulation, a genius-level intellect, superhuman strength and endurance, photographic memory, and invulnerability. Blake discovered his unique abilities while he was growing up, but he first used his skills to fight crime as an adult. He intervened when criminals attempted to steal an advanced scientific device invented by his friend, physics Professor Emery Zackro. After this adventure, Blake decided to become a superhero on a full-time basis, creating his own costume and fighting various threats.

Captain Comet is unusual in that, unlike most comic book superheroes, he remains a product of the time he was created. In the 2006 Mystery in Space miniseries, his dog Tyrone talked about Adam Blake discovering his abilities "during what he called the 1950s."

Infinite Crisis and "One Year Later"

Captain Comet reappeared during the Rann-Thanagar War, helping Kyle Rayner and Adam Strange against the invasion of Rann by Onimarr Synn. Captain Comet was then featured in the Mystery In Space miniseries written by Jim Starlin.

During the year after the events of Infinite Crisis Captain Comet was tortured and killed by Lady Styx, which forced him to eject his consciousness from his body. Several months afterwards, Comet's psyche came into contact with the Weird's soul, which caused the two of them to create new bodies, each possessing some of the other's memories.

Captain Comet created a new younger body for himself with all the memories and mental abilities of his previous body. Captain Comet then teleported home and set off to locate his former body. He created a modified costume for himself and went by the name Comet, dropping the "Captain" title from his moniker.

Investigating, he discovered that the Church of Eternal Light had enslaved a group of Aurakles, using their abilities to grow brainwashed cloned telepaths from the charred remainders of his former body. Although the clones had his former strength, they were psychically weaker, so Comet was able to destroy his corpse, sabotage the factory and flee. This branded him as a fugitive, and he was only able to continue his battles and avoid arrest due to his friendship with the police chief.

He explained his new, younger appearence to the superhero community by claiming to be Captain Comet's nephew.

Powers and Abilities

Captain Comet is the pinnacle of human evolution. His evolved mental functions not only give him genius level I.Q. but endows him with telepathy, a gift that enables him to read people's minds, communicate with his thoughts, and control minds. He also has the mental power of telekinesis, an ability that enables him to use his thoughts to move, lift, and alter matter (usually in the form of creating and dispelling clothing) without having any physical contact with it, mentally lift himself upwards to fly at high-speed, create barriers of psychic force to deflect most physical attacks, and fire bursts of psionic energy that strike a target with concussive impact or energy of various forms, such as electricity or fire. His telekinetic shields can be used to simultaneously protect himself from the vacuum of space, while surrounding himself with an aura of oxygen to breathe. Captain Comet's brain also contains evolved sensory centers enabling him to clairvoyantly "see" events outside of his range of sight, or even, in a limited way, see the future. If he focuses on clairvoyance he can see up to a 100,000 years into the future. He also possesses two extra senses: the "sense of strength" allows him to evaluate an opponent's strength and a "vibro-sense" which allows him to read the emotions of others. His evolved physiology makes him superhumanly strong and durable.

At one point, Captain Comet was armed with a weapon known as the Omni-Blaster, which could literally have any effect on his target, but it will also have the same effect on Captain Comet.

Captain Comet is a prodigy with the ability to master any skill upon his first attempt. He has a photographic memory, and possesses a comprehensive intellect well in advance of that of the average human. He is also a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant.

After his rebirth in Mystery in Space #1, Captain Comet became able to teleport instantly to anywhere in the universe. However, Comet must rest for five minutes after teleporting a short distance, and for one hour after teleporting a greater distance. Comet's super-strength was vastly diminished after his rebirth. Due to his physical prowess building with age, and his rebirth as much younger self, it is supposed that eventually his body will regain his lost strength.

Other appearances

In the 1994 Elseworlds mini-series Kingdom Come, Captain Comet was a member of Superman's reformed Justice League. He was chosen by Superman to be warden of the Gulag, the holding facility/prison for meta-humans who chose to defy the Justice League. He was killed in a prison riot.

Captain Comet also made an appearance in the final issue of the out-of-continuity Elseworlds miniseries The Golden Age, which took place in 1951 during the early years of his crime fighting career.

In the Tangent "Earth-9" universe in the newly created 52 multiverse, Captain Comet was an African-American superhero from that reality's Chicago. He was killed trying to prevent a war in Europe.

External links

Toonopedia entry on Captain Comet
Cosmic Teams entry on Captain Comet
Strange Adventures, Includes a study of the Captain Comet tales.