[positronic1]

Artwise, this first issue (by the Jack Binder shop) isn't a great improvement over what had been seen over the previous year in Dell's THE FUNNIES and POPULAR COMICS. The art would gradually get better over the course of the next year, though. Storywise, it's a step backwards, from Dell's treatment which was very faithful to the original radio scripts. Captain Midnight's arch-enemy on radio (and in the Dell comics) Ivan Shark would not be seen again for quite some time. What the good Captain gained in the transition was a distinctive outfit that made him less of an adventure/aviator hero, and more of a super-hero -- although it's not yet the formfitting skintight costume it will later become. That and his "flying squirrel" glider-chute, simultaneously unbelievable and yet somehow impressive-looking in action when well-drawn. Fawcett invented the whole angle of Captain Albright as an inventor of futuristic gadgets, which had no basis in the radio scripts. The costume is understandable, as it was a superhero market for comics for sure in 1942, but why they chose to deviate so markedly from the previously-established radio mythos is a mystery, ignoring for the most part the Secret Squadron angle which was key to the show. That was true of the 1942 Columbia movie serial as well (which may be the real reason Ovaltine took the license away from Dell and gave to Fawcett instead in the first place, contingent on CM being featured in his own title). Maybe Fawcett thought it would be a mistake to feature Ivan Shark because the stories would then conflict with whatever ongoing continuities featuring the character were currently being broadcast on the radio series. Later issues tended to work in even more science fiction gimmicks and angles (particularly the post-War issues), and seem to bear the earmarks of having been scripted mostly by Otto Binder. The Fawcett series had its pluses and minuses, but for better or worse, these are the stories that for the most part survived, while the vast majority of the Ovaltine-sponsored radio transcription discs did not. When Dark Horse Comics revived the character a number of years back, they tried to meld both versions, the radio and the comic book, keeping both the inventing angle and the Captain's history of enmity with Shark's forces.

Link to the book: Captain Midnight 01