Malus

by | Mar 16, 2018 | Malus

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Captain Nazi (Baron Albrecht Krieger) is a Fawcett Comics and DC Comics supervillain, and rival of Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr.

Captain Nazi made his first live-action appearance in a 2016 second season episode of The CW TV series DC's Legends of Tomorrow, played by André Eriksen.

Publication history

Captain Nazi first appeared in Master Comics #21 (December 1941) and was created by William Woolfolk and Mac Raboy.[1]

Fictional character biography

Fawcett Comics

The super-strong Captain Nazi was genetically altered by his scientist father, and developed into the "perfect specimen" to fight for Adolf Hitler and the Axis Powers during World War II. He is given superhuman strength and stamina, and a special flying gas that allows him to fly.[2] He is sent to battle American superheroes by the Nazis after his power is demonstrated to them by Hitler, and some of the heroes are shown. Nazi first appeared in Master Comics #21 (December 1941), in opposition to both Captain Marvel and Bulletman.[3] During the second half of his battle with Marvel in Whiz Comics #25 (published the same month), Nazi attacks two innocent bystanders who happened to be fishing near the scene of the battle, after they pull him out of the lake, and he escapes in their boat. One of them, an old man named Jacob Freeman, is killed, but the old man's teenage grandson Freddy Freeman is saved by Captain Marvel, although he is crippled and his back broken with a hit from an oar while Nazi escapes in the boat. Due to Captain Marvel bestowing part of his power to him, Freddy becomes Captain Marvel Jr. He is then sent to defeat Captain Nazi by Captain Marvel.[4]

Junior, crippled in his Freddy Freeman form by the attack, continues to hold a vendetta against Nazi, and the two frequently battle one another. Nazi also serves as a member of Mister Mind's Monster Society of Evil, one of the most powerful organisations of villains in the world which included Adolf Hitler, and assists their first plan to steal magic fortune-telling pearls from a princess, leading Captain Marvel to their hideout, and revealing their existence, during the World War II years, before making his final Fawcett Comics appearance in the story "General Nippon's Elusive Earthplane", published in Captain Marvel, Jr. #19 in 1944.

DC Comics

Captain Marvel, Jr. and Captain Nazi on the cover of The Power of Shazam! #19 (1996). Art by Jerry Ordway.

Captain Nazi appeared only sporadically in DC Comics' 1970s/1980s revival of the Marvel Family characters under the title Shazam!, save for reprints of the original Fawcett stories. Nazi's first appearance in a new DC Comics story was in Shazam! #34 (March- April 1978).

Following writer Roy Thomas and artist Tom Mandrake's new interpretation of the Captain Marvel mythos in the 1987 four-issue miniseries Shazam!: The New Beginning, Captain Nazi was re-introduced in a 1988 four-part story in Action Comics Weekly issues #623-626. Captain Nazi himself, however, only appeared in #624-626. The story was written by Thomas and his wife Dann Thomas, with art by Rick Stasi and Rick Magyar. The new Captain Nazi is a young Neo-Nazi named Lester Abernathy. Abernathy is given his "Captain Nazi" powers, costume and codename by a Neo-Nazi organization called the Sons of Valhalla and battles Captain Marvel.[5][6][7][8] This version of the character made no further appearances and was subsequently retconned out of existence by the 1994 The Power of Shazam! graphic novel, which again altered Captain Marvel's background and continuity.

Captain Nazi was introduced into the modern DC Universe in Jerry Ordway's The Power of Shazam! series in 1995. In the modern series, Nazi had been active during the 1940s, battling World War II-era heroes such as Bulletman, Minute-Man, and Spy Smasher, but placed himself in suspended animation in a chamber so that he could emerge in modern society and revive the Third Reich. He believed Hitler's body to be held in a similar chamber. Nazi's brother, scientist Wolf Krieger, and his granddaughter, a super-powered villainess named Madame Libertine who possesses mind-controlling powers, carry on Nazi's legacy in the 1990s and resurrect their hero from his suspended animation chamber in The Power of Shazam! #5.[1]

Issues #6–8 of The Power of Shazam series retell the story of Captain Nazi murdering Freddy Freeman's grandfather by throwing him a great distance with his superhuman strength, his crippling of Freddy, and Freddy's emergence as Marvel, Jr. and attempted revenge on Nazi. He ultimately takes Nazi to Europe to be tried for war crimes.[9]

Captain Nazi later joins Lex Luthor's Secret Society of Super Villains in Villains United before being apparently killed by the Red Hood in Batman #647.[10] In Villains United Special #1 he is revealed to have survived and battles former Society member Black Adam.[11]

He has since appeared as leader of a Nazi-themed team in Justice Society of America named "The Fourth Reich" after the "One Year Later" jump, and is an opponent of Wonder Woman in "The Circle".

In September 2011, DC Comics engaged in a line-wide revision of its superhero comics, including their stories and characters' fictional histories, known as The New 52. In the new stories, Captain Nazi first appears in the "Superman" storyline "Savage Dawn" in Superman (vol. 3) Annual #3. In 1941, Captain Nazi is genetically engineered to serve in Hitler's Aerospace program. Vandal Savage successfully convinces the Third Reich to build a rocket that Captain Nazi will use to pilot himself and Vandal Savage into outer space to collect a larger sample of the meteor that gave Savage his powers. When the ship faces turbulence, Captain Nazi opts to land instead of going forward with the mission. After a crash landing, an enraged Vandal Savage beats him until he stops moving.[12]

Other versions

An alternate universe variant of Captain Nazi who became a member of H.I.V.E. appears in Flashpoint.[13]

In other media

  • Albrecht Krieger makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in a flashback depicted in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Patriot Act". He volunteers to be injected with an unstable super-soldier serum as part of "Project Captain Nazi", but the operation is thwarted by Spy Smasher.[14]
  • Baron Krieger appears in the Legends of Tomorrow episode "The Justice Society of America", portrayed by André Eriksen.[15] This version is an ally of Eobard Thawne who uses a bio-molecular enhancer that the latter created to transform into a monstrous, self-proclaimed "Übermensch".

References

  1. ^ a b Greenberger, Robert (2008), "Captain Nazi", in Dougall, Alastair (ed.), The DC Comics Encyclopedia, New York: Dorling Kindersley, p. 72, ISBN 978-0-7566-4119-1, OCLC 213309017
  2. ^ Rovin, Jeff (1987). The Encyclopedia of Supervillains. New York: Facts on File. pp. 50–51. ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
  3. ^ Master Comics #21. Fawcett Comics.
  4. ^ Whiz Comics #25. DC Comics.
  5. ^ "Action Comics Weekly #623". comics.org. Grand Comics Database.
  6. ^ "Action Comics Weekly #624". comics.org. Grand Comics Database.
  7. ^ "Action Comics Weekly #625". comics.org. Grand Comics Database.
  8. ^ "Action Comics Weekly #626". comics.org. Grand Comics Database.
  9. ^ The Power of Shazam #6–8. DC Comics.
  10. ^ Batman #647. DC Comics.
  11. ^ Villains United Special #1. DC Comics.
  12. ^ Superman (vol. 3) Annual #3. DC Comics.
  13. ^ Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint #1 (June 2011). DC Comics.
  14. ^ Matt Wayne (writer); Joaquim Dos Santos (director) (2006-02-25). "Patriot Act". Justice League Unlimited. Season 3. Episode 7. Cartoon Network.
  15. ^ Ellwood-Hughes, Pip (November 11, 2016). "DC's Legends of Tomorrow 2x03 Shogun preview". Entertainment Focus. Retrieved July 31, 2024.
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