Captain Strong is a fictional character appearing in

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of ''Action Comics'' ...

s published by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

. He was created as a parody of

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/Comic anthology, magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as National Allied Publications, and later as National Comics ...

'' #421 (February 1973), Captain Horatio Strong was created by writer

Cary Bates Cary Bates (born 1948) is an American comic book, animation, television and film writer. He is best known for his work on ''The Flash'', '' Superman'', ''Superboy, the Legion of Superheroes'' and ''Captain Atom''. Biography Early career Bates ...

, who had wanted to see what would happen if

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

and Popeye (or a reasonable proxy of him) were to meet. In the first story, Bates presented a darker side of the famous sailor; the green vegetable that gave him his strength was a drug, making him dangerously irrational as well as superhumanly powerful. The character was designed to be more realistic-looking than Popeye, but still similar to him in appearance and speech. Other characters who appeared in his stories included Carnox (the DC Comics version of

Bluto Bluto, at times known as Brutus, is a cartoon and comics character created in 1932 by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar as a one-time character, named "Bluto the Terrible", in his ''Thimble Theatre'' comic strip (later renamed ''Popeye''). Blut ...

), his girlfriend Olivia Tallow (a takeoff of

Olive Oyl Olive Oyl is a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar in 1919 for his comic strip ''Thimble Theatre''. The strip was later renamed ''Popeye'' after the sailor character that became the most popular member of the cast; however, Olive Oyl was a ...

), whom he later married, and his idle rich friend J. Wellington Jones (a knockoff of

J. Wellington Wimpy J. Wellington Wimpy, generally referred to as Wimpy, is one of the characters in the comic strip '' Popeye'', created by E. C. Segar and originally called ''Thimble Theatre'', and in the ''Popeye'' cartoons based upon the strip. Wimpy debuted ...

). In one story Strong was reunited with his long-lost father, Pappy Strong (a takeoff of

Poopdeck Pappy Poopdeck Pappy is a fictional character featured in the ''Popeye'' (''Thimble Theatre'') comic strip and animated cartoon spinoffs. Created by E. C. Segar in 1936, the character is Popeye's father, who is between the ages of 85 and 99. History P ...

). Captain Strong appeared in five stories from 1973 to 1985, and reappeared in

The New 52 The New 52 is the 2011 revamp and relaunch by DC Comics of its entire line of ongoing monthly superhero comic books. Following the conclusion of the " Flashpoint" crossover storyline, DC canceled all its existing titles and debuted 52 new serie ...

volume of

Harley Quinn Harley Quinn is a character (arts), character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Quinn was created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm as a comic relief henchwoman for the supervillain Joker (character), Joker in ''Batman: The An ...

's solo title.

Fictional biography

Horatio Strong, captain of ''The Fantasia'', is naturally stronger than most men, but one day he discovered a strange seaweed he called "sauncha", the consumption of which made him superhumanly strong. At first he used his newfound power to do good for others, but the sauncha (which turned out to be of extraterrestrial origin) had unexpected side effects; it acted like a drug, making its user dangerously irrational and causing severe withdrawal pains. After being stopped by Superman and taken to a hospital, Strong swore off ever using sauncha again, saying that he would only rely on normal vegetables to keep up his strength. Strong became a friend of both Clark Kent and Superman (never realizing that they were the same man, of course).

''The New 52''

In ''

'', Captain Strong is reintroduced as trying to untangle his boat from some strangely glowing seaweed. He eats some of the seaweed, which has some strange effect on him, making him glow like the seaweed. Later on, his wife reports him missing and hires

's newly formed Gang of Harleys to find him. Two members of the gang go out to investigate. They find him in the toilets of a bar, but the seaweed gave him super-strength and drove him mad, so he knocks them down. Harley and the other members of her gang go after him. Harley eats his seaweed and begins to hallucinate. While she is taken to a hospital, Strong takes the rest of the gang to his boat. There, his mind clears for a moment, but the seaweed caused addiction and he eats more of it, becoming irrational again. Harley rushes to save her gang, but Strong defeats her. Captain Strong is only stopped by the arrival of Mrs. DiAngelis, mother of five of the Harley Gang members. She shoots him with machine gun fire, knocking him down. She and the Harleys pitch the alien seaweed.''Harley Quinn'' (vol. 2) #18-19 Later, while on an island of doom created by a rich and crazed stalker of Harley's calling herself Harley Sinn, Captain Strong gives Harley's gang a ride to rescue her. During a battle with mercenaries, it is revealed that he was a former sniper and still has a gun, providing assistance to Harley and her friends by taking out their adversaries, a collection of mercenaries hired by Sinn, from his boat.

References

External links

Action Comics #421
at OddballComics.com{{dead link, date=March 2013
Captain Strong
at the Superman Homepage

at the Quarter Bin
Captain Strong
at The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
Review: Harley Quinn #17
at The Batman Universe site
Review: Harley Quinn #18
at The Batman Universe site
Review: Harley Quinn #19
at The Batman Universe site DC Comics characters with superhuman strength DC Comics male characters Fictional military captains Fictional sailors Popeye Comics characters introduced in 1973