It’s time for action: Captain Action! IDW’s new hardcover collection takes us back to the short-lived DC Silver Age title of the 1960s.
This painstakingly restored volume collects all five issues of Captain Action, and includes house ads and scans of some of the original art pages too!
Captain Action, a hero ‘concocted’ in the late 60s to sell action figures to boys, was able to transform himself into various heroes, with the help of special coins. Of course, there were evil doers who wanted to battle Captain Action. Plus, Captain Action had a young sidekick who admired Batman and Superman. All the necessary ingredients for toy sales and comic success! Alas, time was running out for superheroes and toy figures… the times were a-changin’.
The five issues of Captain Action are written by a VERY young Jim Shooter (aged 16!!), with art by Wally Wood, then Gil Kane.
It’s great fun, and not to be taken completely seriously. Everyone is running around, pronouncing themselves ‘all-powerful and almighty’, and landing haymakers on each other. Wally Wood’s figures fly gracefully through the air in order to land in a pile of rubble, while Kane’s people gyrate wildly, knuckles spread, hips splayed, necks craning.
At long last, though, we can enjoy this adventurous mini-series at its very best, totally restored, with foreword by Mark Waid.
IDW, Captain Action Classic Collection, $29.99 for 146 pages.
Newsdesk 
Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher