Captain Comet!

Captain Comet was actually Adam Blake, a mutant born with the physical and mental development of a human being 100,000 years in the future.
(Although later the Sub-Mariner has retroactively been declared one, Comet was the first heroic character to have the word "mutant" applied to him.) Since he was superior to normal humans, he felt lonely and outcast until he got to college, where he befriended the brilliant scientist Prof. Zackro. When Earth was menaced by invading aliens, Blake assumed the name Captain Comet and went into action, taking his name from the fact that on the night of his birth a comet had shot through the sky, an event which in light of his superior development his parents later regarded as having been an omen.

In his origin story, he had a wide range of powers and abilities; but this quickly settled down to just a few being emphasized: Captain Comet was a tremendous athlete and possessed super-strength and limited invulnerability -- not equal to that of Superman or Wonder Woman, but far superior to a normal human's. In addition, he was telepathic (and his telepathy worked even via television -- in one story, while watching a news broadcast he's able to read the anchorman's mind!) and telekinetic. Finally, he possessed an "encyclopedic memory", i.e. he had memorized encyclopedias and knew just about everything. He was of course also a brilliant scientist and engineer; he built his own space-suit and rocket-plane from scratch.

After his regular feature in STRANGE ADVENTURES ended (with #49, October 1954) the character fell into limbo. He was revived in the mid-'70's as the token hero in SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLIANS . Writer Bob Rozakis explained away the character’s long absence by saying that Comet had tired of feeling superior to everyone else, and had set off alone to explore the stars, after building himself a space ship. Due to his mutant powers, he hadn't aged. On his return to Earth, the Secret Society tricked him into thinking that Earth's superheroes were villians and vice versa. Once he learned the truth, Comet set out to bring down the Secret Society...but that series was cancelled before he did so. Rozakis had plans to revamp the character and altered his powers slightly, taking away the telepathy and telekinesis and replacing them with a "comet-blast" that shot out of Comet's head and various undefined heightened senses...though these changes by and large
did not make it past the proposal stage. (For more on Rozakis'proposed changes, see the link below.)

After SSoSV was cancelled, Comet had a few appearances elsewhere (DC COMICS PRESENTS, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA), but nothing much was ever done with him. He was seen in the background in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS (but then, who wasn't), and that was about it.

Apparently, post-Crisis he played some part in the L.E.G.I.O.N. series and showed up in JLI, but I'm not familiar with post-Crisis DC, so I cant' say for sure.

Incidentally, CC dies in KINGDOM COME (he's killed during the supervillian prison break-out). The novelization of KINGDOM COME by Elliot S! Maggin devotes a nice couple pages to Comet's origin and childhood, giving the reader a good sense of what a child with superhuman intelligence would really be like. (In a typical Maggin touch, young Adam Blake meets Albert Einstein, and poses a question about relativity that Einstein isn't able to answer.)


I've always liked Captain Comet. He has that same wonderful optimistic sci-fi, feel-good future vibe to him that the '50's Marvel Boy did. He had the athletic ability (but not a lot of real super-strength), the enhanced intellect and psychic powers, the nifty rocket-plane/space ship...even the retro-'50's costume, with the bubble helmet and big hoops on his shoulders.

I've always been of the opinion that it should have been Captain Comet, rather than the Martian Manhunter, as the fifth founding member of the Justice League of America. It would have been a nice nod to the Silver Age origins of that group; he certainly would have fit in with Julie Schwartz's "scientific policeman" ethic; and for so many years, the JLofA was deprived of a telepathic member. Also, of course, DC could have had the *first* major "mutant" character in comics, and could have played that up. And even though they didn't do this originally, as Scott has said in the post-Crisis retcon they could've slipped Comet in there. It would have made as much sense as replacing Wonder Woman with Black Canary, so why not?