Captain Daring

Captain Daring
Daring Mystery Comics #7-8 (April 1941-January 1942)

In the 31st century Captain Daring is a member of the US Army who becomes commander of the American forces against the "Underground Empire" a secret civilization that dwells in the center of the Earth and now seeks to literally rise up and conquer the surface world. Due to Captain Daring's skill and bravery the vast forces of the invading juggernaut are utterly defeated in a mere eight pages (!!) and US Secret Service agent Susan Parker is chosen to be the underground empire's new queen (!!!).

Despite this incredible victory, the Captain was less successful in his next adventure. No sooner has Captain Daring announced that the war is over and that all the victorious troops can go home then Washington DC is destroyed by the attack of a mysterious rocket ship. Captain Daring pursues the ship and shoots it from the sky. On the ground the Captain confronts the survivors of the ship, Adolph Hitler, Josef Goebbels and a Nazi scientist named Von Schalz. Hitler explains that instead of dying at the end of WW II as everyone had believed, they were actually frozen in suspended animation in a deep cave and had only recently returned to surface to resume their conquest of the entire universe. So shocked is Captain Daring by this revelation (and let's face it - who wouldn't be?) that he fails to notice as Herman Goering sneaks up behind him and thumps him over the head with a length of pipe.

When Captain Daring regains consciousness he has been hypnotized by Von Schalz and takes command of the new Nazi forces to destroy America. Due to Daring Mystery's cancellation with that very issue, how this situation would have been resolved remains unknown.

The initial Captain Daring adventure was produced by no less than the creative team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The uncredited second adventure has been attributed to Frank Borth.