Captain Universe | |
---|---|
Real Name |
James Logan |
Aliases |
Jim |
Gender |
Male |
Citizenship |
British |
Affiliation |
Seven Stars |
Appearances |
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century |
Status |
Alive |
Captain Universe was a British superhero. During the early 1960's, he was a member of the British super-team known as the Seven Stars.
History[]
Background[]
In 1954, astrophysicist James Logan was inspired to become like his brother, the famous space-pilot Jet-Ace Logan, in which he followed his example by joining the United Nations Interplanetary Division. However, Jim ended up working as a laboratory researcher for the organization. While investigating electronic impulses from space, a message was electronically transmitted into his brain and he received a vision of another world. There he met the Science-Elders of the universe, a quintet of science-mystics (Galileo, Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Aristotle, and Pythagoras) who have transcended space and time, and they chose Jim as their champion. Whenever he shouted the word "Galap", electronic impulses from outer space vibrate through his body, endowing him with these amazing powers. Thus he became Captain Universe, super-marvel King of the Spaceways.
Adventures[]
In 1959, Captain Universe battled American superhuman Stardust the Space Wizard, who was attempting to forcing his way into the realm of the Science-Elders. He succeeded in killing his freakish rival by freezing him in Ice-9 and commandeering Stardust's headquarters - a hollow artificial sun in the Oort cloud - as his own and re-christened it the Universarium.
In 1964, Captain Universe became a member of the Seven Stars, a British group of superheroes assembled by Vull the Invisible (in fact, a disguised Mina Murray). Due to his affiliation with the U.N., the Seven Stars was sponsored by the intergovernmental organization.
In the same year, after the disbanding of the Seven Stars, he took Vull to Stardust's space station. After talking about their short-lived group, he took her back to Earth in less than 3 days.
Retirement[]
Sometime after leaving the Seven Stars, Captain Universe lost his enthusiasm in heroics in response to the huge number of supermen appearing in the following years, thus making his actions "nothing special." He was also repulsed by how the new superheroes and their adventures were being devalued and capitalized by big business. He retired his superhero identity and resumed his public persona of Jim Logan.
By 2010, Logan resides in New York City, where he retained his U.N. office and volunteers in the city's local superhuman retirement home. He is later reunited with Satin Astro and Marsman, who came looking for the whereabouts of Vull the Invisible. Logan was unable to provide any help for Vull's location but shown them an old reel of film footage which revealed that the United States had faked its early superhumans—which is among of his many reasons Logan chose to retire. After Marsman and Satin left, Logan met one of the retirement home's residents, the telepathic Mind Man, and learned from him that he met Vull the Invisible in 1955 and Mina Murray's identity. Realizing the importance of this information, Logan has Mind Man use his telepathic abilities to contact Marsman and passes on the information about Vull.
Powers[]
Empowered by the Science-Elders, when Jim Logan speaks the word GALAP he becomes the superpowered Captain Universe. Each elder gifted Jim a special scientific ability: Galileo bestowed the gift of cosmic consciousness, Archimedes bestowed mastery over the four forces of physics, Leonardo bestowed the genius of invention, Aristotle bestowed access to occult philosophical dimensions, and Pythagoras bestowed mathematics and bio-location.
Source material[]
Captain Universe appeared in the British Captain Universe comics (1954), and was created by Mick Anglo. He is one of few copyrighted characters in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen used with the permission of their copyright owner, and therefore there was no need to veil the identity of the character.
His relationship with Jet-Ace Logan was invented by Alan Moore.
Guntag Borghelm is one of the names of the "astrophysicist" who granted powers to Mick Anglo's Marvelman. Alan Moore wrote the adventures of Marvelman (whose name was changed to Miracleman under pressure from Marvel Comics) in Warrior in 1982.