When it comes to comics, I only review ones that either include pulp characters or have characters that are clearly inspired by pulp heroes. One I had kind of overlooked is Codename: Action, which came from Dynamite Entertainment for a five-issue mini-series in 2013 and then was collected in trade paperback.
It was mainly a new origin for the character Captain Action, ignoring the series that had been done at Moonstone. And it made use of some pulp characters that Dynamite had use of as well.
For those not aware, Captain Action was a boys’ action figure introduced in 1966 by Ideal Toy, and created by Stan Weston, who also created G.I. Joe for Hasbro. What made Captain Action unique were various outfits for other characters (Superman, Batman, Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, etc) that were available for him.
DC Comics did a short-lived comicbook series that gave an origin for him, but the toy wasn’t around for too long, lasting only a couple of years. Captain Action got a sidekick, Action Boy, and a villain, Dr. Evil.
Moonstone did a comicbook series giving a new origin and storyline for the characters, and explained how Captain Action could take on the appearance of other characters.
I guess around the same time that Dynamite got ahold of the rights to several pulp heroes that Moonstone was doing, like The Spider, they also got Captain Action. And in this mini-series, Chris Roberson, who had done the Doc Savage and The Shadow comics, wrote this one, working in some other characters from pulps and comics.
The only pulp hero that had a main role was Operator #5, whom I posted on recently. For some reason, he never gave his name, which I thought was strange and standoffish. The only thing identifying him was his skull ring. And considering when his stories were set and the time of this one, I would expect him to be retired.
The story is set during the Cold War. A new intelligence officer is being tested, Operative #1001. It’s pretty much implied that Operator #5 was the fifth, and he is the 1,001st, but why “Operative” and not “Operator”? There seem to be the rumblings of war. Several leaders are pushing things closer to war, and some leaders may be replaced with dopplegangers somehow. The two agents look into it, and are ambushed.
In their investigations, Operator #5 is grabbed by the bad guys and is tortured. We also see other heroes being attacked and grabbed, including Green Lama, American Crusader, Green Hornet and Kato, The Spider, and others. But most of these don’t play a big part. A new character called Black Venus, who is a French secret agent, does help out 1001 and knows Operator #5 from the past.
1001 is able to expose the real mastermind, who is really Dr. Evil, and is apparently an alien. But we don’t know why he is trying to cause war. With the others, they are able to stop the war, though “Dr. Evil” (whatever his real name is) escapes. I guess the dopplegangers are exposed, though this is not clearly stated. At the end, Operative 1001 is instead given a new codename, “Action” and appeares in his classic “Captain Action” outfit, which I always thought was weird for a secret agent.
As noted, Operator #5 has the biggest role. The Spider appeared in a few pages and didn’t really do much. The same for the Green Hornet. Most of the rest had even smaller roles. So this is pretty much one of the larger roles for Operator #5 in the comics.
I have no idea if there will be more Captain Action comics, nor if we will see more of the pulp heroes in such a comic. This came out several years ago and nothing since. Clearly there was a lot of setup for further stories, such as who/what Dr. Evil really was and what his goal was. Would we have gotten Action Boy again? Or Lady Action who was created at Moonstone? Would we have seen Captain Action taking on the identity of others like the toy (or the Moonstone title)? And would we have seen Captain Action team up with or go up against other characters. Moonstone did this with a few like The Phantom.
