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Catain Flag
 Created by:
Joe Blair &
Lin Streeter
Real Name:
Tom Townsend
Joined Mighty Crusaders:
In an untold story prior
to Archie's Weird Mysteries #3
First Appearance:
Blue Ribbon
Comics #16, September 1941
Origin:
A
master criminal who wants the plans for the father’s latest invention
kidnaps Tom Townsend and his inventor father. Tom watches helplessly as
his father is strangled to death. An eagle crashes through a window and
saves Tom. The eagle nurses Tom back to health. One day the eagle
returns with an American Flag in it's beak and Tom takes this as an
omen. He makes a costume from the flag and returns to America to fight
crime as Captain Flag.
History:
The hero who would become
known has Captain Flag had a most ignoble beginning. Though many
heroes have posed in their civilian identities as playboys or as
uncaring weaklings, Thomas Townsend was such. He was a
playboy and a lush, who had no qualms about idly spending his
father’s money.
One night the robed and
hooded, white-faced Black Hand abducts John Townsend, wealthy
inventor of the Army’s new bombsight. Taking Townsend to his
hideout, Black Hand tortures him, using hungry rats that gnaw at
Townsend’s chest, to get him to reveal the plans for the bombsight.
But Townsend is made of stern stuff and will not break. So, Black
Hood decides to abduct Thomas, his son, to coerce his father into
talking. His henchmen snatch the inebriated Thomas Townsend as he
leaves the Crane Club at dawn. He is so out of it that once he
revives from the clout on the head by Black Hand’s hirelings he
thinks his headache is from the drink. But realization sobers him
up quickly when he sees his father hanging by chains on a wall, his
chest bloodied from where the rats had gnawed. Black Hand ties
Thomas to a post and prepares to torture him. He removes the glove
from his right hand to reveal a clawed, diseased black hand. But
John Townsend still has fight left in him and when Black Hand’s back
is toward him he lifts his legs and kicks the villain preventing him
from murdering his son. Black Hand, in a rage turns on Townsend and
strangles him, piercing his throat with a claw of his deadly black
hand. As John Townsend dies “ his face and neck become hideously
black”. Seeing no further use for Thomas Townsend, Black Hand
delivers to him the same deadly grip. Providence intervenes,
however, in the shape of an eagle, which suddenly appears, grabs
Thomas, and, amidst a hail of bullets, crashes through a window
carrying him to safety. No matter, as far as Black Hand is
concerned: “… that molly-coddle will never survive”.
During the weeks that
follow the Black Hand and his band of cutthroats become a scourge
committing an “unprecedented series” of sabotage and murder,
culminating in the theft of the Army’s bombsight. Apparently, no
one can stop them. Not even the FBI.
All this while Thomas
Townsend slowly regains his health with the “amazing cooperation” of
the eagle that saved his life. Having taken the man to its aerie,
the eagle proceeds to bring him food. Meanwhile, through the use of
his natural surroundings, Thomas develops the muscles that he has
allowed to degenerate during his soft playboy years. Then, one day
the eagle arrives bearing an American flag. Townsend takes this as
a symbol of his destiny, fashions a costume out of the flag and
vows: “The eagle brought me a flag…a flag which I’ll protect with
my very life.” And thus Captain Flag is born.
Giving his eagle friend
the name Yank, Captain Flag rushes to Black Hand’s hideout just in
time to break up a meeting where Black Hand is informing his men
that he is planning to sell the bombsight plans to the Nazis. Flag,
like a whirlwind, bowls over Black Hand then storms into his men.
Regaining his footing, Black Hand retrieves a kerosene lamp, which
he hurls at Captain Flag while the hero is preoccupied with the
villain’s cronies. Yank saves the day by grabbing the kerosene lamp
in the air and dropping it down onto Black Hand. Within minutes,
the rundown mansion is a raging inferno, which Captain Flag and Yank
just barely escape. So, it seemed, Black Hand’s terrorism had come
to an end.
Captain Flag’s next outing
takes him to Canada where he meets ex-film star and U.S. Secret
Service agent Veronica Darnell. They are both there to capture
Black Hand, who somehow survived the inferno of his hideout, and is
now helping German prisoners to escape from Canadian prisons. Black
Hand proves to be a master of disguise and an adept fighter. He
easily overpowers Miss Darnell who has a gun pointed at him. Captain
Flag comes to Veronica’s rescue, but during his scuffle with Black
Hand, Miss Darnell, trying to knock out Black Hand, conks Captain
Flag over the head with the butt of her revolver. Black Hand and
his freed prisoner flee. When Captain Flag recovers the repartee
between him and Veronica speaks of instant mutual attraction. They
give chase to Black Hand who fixes a bridge to collapse as the pair
cross it. Captain Flag manages to save himself, and trusty Yank
saves Veronica Darnell. Captain Flag closes ranks on Black Hand,
who, during the fight, dives into the river and escapes. A little
later Black Hand’s benefactors, who were hiding nearby, are found
and arrested by Miss Darnell. More of the attraction between
Captain Flag and Veronica becomes evident as they stare into each
other’s eyes before parting. Miss Darnell gives an emotional: “Good
luck, Captain Flag…and until we meet again.,” as Captain Flag flies
off into the night towed by Yank.
Blue
Ribbon #18 opens with Black Hand stealthily making his way toward a
factory, and Captain Flag diving down at him. Captain Flag has not
escaped Black Hand’s notice, however, as the villain whirls and
clouts the hero with a lead pipe. In a hurry to complete his
mission, Black Hand does not kill Captain Flag, but hurries on,
entering the factory by a rear door. A watchman inside making his
rounds discovers Black Hand, who quickly gives the guard a taste of
his fatal appendage. Next, Black Hand opens a section of the
factory’s air conditioning and pours a vial of germs into it. He
quickly races out, past a ringing telephone, which he assumes if an
attempt by the watchman’s superior to get his watchman’s report.
Meanwhile, Captain Flag recovers from Black Hand’s blow and,
himself, gains entrance to the warehouse, just in time to see Black
Hand fleeing past. He gives chase, but is distracted by the feeble
moan of the watchman, whom he stops to help. He realizes, the man’s
face already black, that it is too late to help. The police,
notified by the watch superintendent, barge in and find Captain Flag
leaning over the dead watchman. They arrest Captain Flag for the
man’s murder.
Next morning, when the air
conditioning is turned on, the deadly germs that Black Hand released
into the system, spread through the air infecting the workmen, who
begin collapsing. One man, before he succumbs, manages to get a
phone call off to the police.
Veronica Darnell (who in
this issue says she is from the FBI) visits Captain Flag in prison
and tells him of the situation at the factory. She informs him that
only radium can save the workers and that a half million dollars
worth is being sent from Chicago. She is going to meet the shipment
at the airport and escort it to the hospital. Captain Flag realizes
getting the radium is what Black Flag is really up to. After Miss
Darnell leaves, Captain Flag tricks a guard and escapes from jail
amidst a hail of bullets, and races to the airport. While this is
going on Black Hand accosts the doctor at the hospital, and kills
him. Arriving at the airport Flag finds out from the FBI agents
there that Miss Darnell has accompanied the radium shipment to the
hospital. Captain Flag commandeers a motorcycle. As he is speeding
off one of the FBI agents draws his gun, but his stopped from
shooting by the other agent, who reminds him that Veronica told them
to tip Flag off.
At the hospital, Veronica
delivers the radium to the doctor, but realizes almost immediately
that he is really Black Hand. Black Hand works quickly, and as
Captain Flag barges in the villain has a deadly grip on Miss
Darnell’s throat. Captain Flag attacks Black Hand, and is doing well
until Black Hand throws a chair at him which forces the hero back
against the door just as the police are charging in. Flag is conked
on the head with the swung open door, and Black Hand leaps out the
window. Veronica Darnell helps revive Captain Flag who says, “Well,
well. Every time I meet up with you, I get my head cracked.” He
inquires of the police about Black Hand who tell him that he escaped
by a rope that he had had attached to the window. The radium was
saved, and thus the lives of the workmen will also be saved the
police explain, as the sergeant apologizes to Captain Flag for
arresting him falsely. He tells them to forget it and races off in
search of Black Hand.
Captain Flag had a knack
for showing up at the scene of a crime, and being arrested by the
police as his next adventure testifies to. It starts with Captain
Flag crashing through a window to help an inventor who is being
strangled by the vines of a plant that popped out of a package that
had been delivered to him. The good Captain fails as he struggles
with the vines that feel “like they’re living animals.” Just as the
inventor expires the police rush in, guns out, and arrest Captain
Flag for the inventor’s murder.
The inventor, who had been
working on a secret government project, was the target of a
malformed botanist who uses plants to kill his victim. He plans to
kill his next victim McCoy, the first inventor’s partner, with the
scent of the Mediterranean Poison Cornflower, and disguises himself
as an old woman peddling flowers to pull it off.
The FBI chief (J. Edgar
Hoover?) tasks Miss Darnell with protecting McCoy. She accepts the
assignment then rushes off to the prison to pay a visit to Captain
Flag. She tells Flag that she knows that he is not guilty and
promises to “have him out in no time.” During their conversation
Captain Flag manages to filch a nail file from her purse, which she
had allowed to become suspiciously close to him. And, of course,
shortly after she leaves he manages to escape. Later at the McCoy
mansion Captain Flag finds out that McCoy had received two tickets
to a theatre premiere, and had just left for the theatre with Miss
Darnell.
Outside the theatre, Miss
Darnell and McCoy are approached by the disguised mad botanist who
convinces McCoy to purchase a boutonniere. Shortly thereafter McCoy
succumbs to the flower’s deadly perfume. Captain Flag arrives just
as McCoy collapses. He surmises about the poison flower, and Miss
Darnell points out the escaping flower woman. Captain Flag follows
the mad botanist to his greenhouse headquarters, where during a
struggle the villain falls into the jaws of a man-eating clam plant.
Going through the man’s papers as the police and Miss Darnell
arrive, Captain Flag finds that the mad botanist was being paid by a
foreign power. Note #1: Next day, when Tom Townsend visits McCoy
in the hospital, Veronica gives him the credit, in front of McCoy,
for saving the inventor’s life. Note#2: Though he appears nowhere
in this story, Black Hand is prominently displayed on the cover of
this issue of Blue Ribbon Comics (#19).
“Deep in the dank, dismal
jungle of Devil’s Island, where men’s souls and bodies are crushed
under the heel of hate, Jeffrey Flynn, American newspaperman,
suffers lingering torture at the hands of his Nazi captors, cruel,
inhuman jailers who have imprisoned him in the infamous penal colony
once controlled by France.” So begins Captain Flag’s most dangerous
adventure.
Flynn was imprisoned by
the Nazis in order to get him to sign a confession retracting
everything he wrote in his book, “I Accuse Germany,” an expose of
the Nazi regime.
Months later a fishing
boat crew plucks a bottle with a note in it from the gulf stream.
Determining the note is legitimate, the ship’s captain forwards it
to the FBI. It is a note from Flynn seeking rescue from Devil’s
Island.
The FBI chief calls in
Linda Reed, who knows Captain Flag, who is a friend of Flynn’s.
Linda visit’s Captain Flag in his civilian identity at his home.
There he authenticates Flynn’s handwriting and explains to Linda
that it was he who encouraged Flynn to write the book. Shortly
thereafter, Captain Flag heads for Devils Island in his plane The
American Eagle, with Yank tagging along just above. He decides
to alight in the water near Devil’s Island and swim to shore. Along
the way he encounters some sharks. One charges him and Captain Flag
dispatches it with his knife, leaving it as bait for the others
while he swims to shore. Nearing the prison, Flag sees a line of
prisoners returning from their days work. He waylays a straggler,
and dons the man’s prison uniform to gain entrance. Once inside, he
locates Flynn, and the two flee. They are seen, however, and, as a
guard takes a bead on them with his machine gun as they negotiate a
wall, Yank dives to the attack deflecting the guards aim. As they
race through the jungle chased by hounds, the ground suddenly
crumbles beneath them. They are trapped in a pit.
Seemingly at the mercy of
the prison’s Commandant, Captain Flag acquiesces to the Commandant’s
demands that Flag convince Flynn to sign the confession. But once
the commandant throws down to them the paper and pen, Captain Flag
reveals to Flynn that he had no intention of having him sign the
confession. Grabbing a hollow bamboo stick that had formed the
covering of their trap Captain Flag uses it as a blowgun to hurl the
pen at the Commandant, killing him. The two climb out of the pit on
a rope the Commandant had lowered down to bring them up once Flynn
had signed the confession. As Yank runs interference with the other
guards, the two escape into the jungle. Finding a dugout in a
native village, Flynn and Captain Flag head out to sea amidst a hail
of bullets. They are soon picked up by an American battleship.
Captain Flag’s final
adventure begins in the Sixteenth Century as a mate on a battleship
spies a man afloat in the water. The man is picked up, and by the
book of verses he has with him the ship’s captain deduces he is “the
murderous dog known as the Poet Pirate.” The Captain orders the
Poet Pirate thrown into the brig to await his hanging the next day.
All night long the Poet Pirate writes in his book what will be his
last verses. As he is being accompanied to the yardarm to be hanged
he gives his book to a mate and explains that in the verse he has
written lies the secret to finding the Sandhurst treasure that went
down with the “Lucy Grey”. The Poet Pirate is subsequently
hanged. The mate, curious, attempts to read the book, but is killed
by the boatswain mate. He in turn is killed by the Captain, who is
killed by mutineers, all in an attempt to gain the book of verse and
decipher the secret to the Sandhusrt treasure. And so it goes, down
through the centuries, death after death to each owner of the Poet
Pirate’s book of verses as the legend grows. Then, an article in
the January 5, 1942 edition of the Daily Clarion attracts the
attention of the Black Hand and Captain Flag. A millionaire is
bequeathing the book to the public library.
Black
Hand wants the book. Captain Flag surmises that he will be after
it. And so the game begins.
Black Hand strikes first.
At the library he obtains the book and an envelope containing the
deciphered verse from the Librarian. Then, promptly kills him. But
then — Captain Flag arrives. A knock-em-down-drag-em-out fight
ensues. As the fight spills out onto the street, Captain Flag is
felled when, in a last ditch effort, Black Hand pushes him into a
lamppost and knocks him out. Black Hand flees with the envelope,
feeling that that is all he needs to find the Sandhurst treasure.
When Captain Flag regains
consciousness, he discovers that the interpreter left notes in the
book that gave the location of the treasure. Hiring a plane, he
flies out over the South Atlantic, where he spots Black Hand’s
motorboat at the scene. Ordering the pilot to fly low, Captain Flag
dives into the ocean. He encounters Black Hand, in diving gear,
below with the treasure chest. Captain Flag rips off Black Hand’s
helmet and a fight begins. During the struggle, Black Hand’s foot
gets caught in the wreckage of the “Lucy Grey.” Captain Flag,
nearly out of breath, rises to the surface, regretting that he had
to leave Black Hand. Once in Black Hand’s motorboat Captain Flag
opens the chest — empty. All those years people had been killing
each other for a treasure that didn’t exist. Captain Flag tosses
the chest back into the ocean, vowing to destroy the book. As
Captain Flag speeds away, a black hand breaks the surface of the
water.
Shortly thereafter, the
half drowned Black Hand is fished out of the Atlantic by a passing
yacht. He’s resuscitated and given a place to sleep. Days later,
when the boat’s captain discovers who he is, Black Hand kills him,
but before he can dispose of the body, a storm hits. When the
hurricane subsides, only Black Hand is left alive on the battered,
drifting shell. Black Hand manages to get the boat running and
limps into a foreign port under the cover of fog. There, he
gathers a crew, repairs the yacht, equipping it with cannon, and
sets sail for a foray of piracy. Spotting a freighter, the Black
Hand sends out an SOS. As the unsuspecting ship draws near the
seemingly deserted yacht cannon fire cripples the freighter. As the
pirates board the freighter, a lone sailor darts into a cabin, and
soon emerges as — Captain Flag. Wading through a number of pirates,
Captain Flag spots Black Hand and gives chase. He is downed,
however, by a billy club wielding hand that strikes out from a
porthole. He is placed in irons and stored below. Once the crew is
subdued, Black Hand orders Captain Flag brought forth. Wrists bound
in chains, Captain Flag is forced to walk the plank. He turns it to
his advantage, however. Diving into the shallow water, he breaks
the chain on a jagged rock on the ocean’s bottom. He climbs back
onto the ship from the other side just as Black Hand announces that
he has planted a bomb, and orders his crew to abandon ship. Captain
Flag is ready to rush into another fray when he hears a call for
help. Investigating, he finds the freighter’s Captain bound in a
cabin, and dynamite with a lighted fuse. Thinking fast. Captain
Flag rushes onto the deck and tosses the dynamite toward the Black
Hand’s boat. The villain leaps into the water as the dynamite hits
the yacht and explodes. Again the Black Hand is fished out of the
water. This time, though, he meets with a different fate — a
pirate’s death. He is hanged from the ship’s yardarm, thus ending
“the scourge known as the Black Hand.”
This
was also the end of Captain Flag as this issue (Blue Ribbon #22) was
the last issue of the magazine. Captain Flag appeared briefly years
later in Mighty Crusaders #4 (1st Series) trying to gain
membership in the Mighty Crusaders. And again, in Mighty Crusaders
#5 where, along with the Fox and the Web, he aided the Mighty
Crusaders in putting an end to the terrorist organization known as
D.E.M.O.N. (Destruction, Extortion, Murder, Oppression and
Nefariousness).
Powers & Weapons:
Captain Flag is an
Olympic level athlete, but has no superpowers.
Checklist:
MLJ
Comics:
Blue
Ribbon Comics 16-22
Mighty
& Radio Comics:
Mighty
Crusaders 4
Red
Circle & Archie Comics:
Mighty
Crusaders (vol. 2) 9
Archie's
Weird Mysteries 3, 14
    
TEXT BY:
John Packer
ART BY: Lin Streeter
MICRO BY: CopperAge, Jarome Galica, Darren Wunder, Darrin Wiltshire
and Rik Offenberger
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