Number 1728: You want to sacrifice, leave me out of it

Captain Video was an early TV show from the now-defunct Dumont Network. YouTube videos show it was low budget. That must have extended to photos provided by the network to Fawcett Publications, who did five issues of a tie-in Captain Video comic book in 1951. The heavily doctored photos of the actors on both front and back covers of issue #3 are the same.

The best thing about comic books is there is no need for for props or locations. The artist can furnish it all, and the scriptwriter is not impeded by budgets. So it was for the Captain Video comic, which had some fairly grandiose plots. In this story, “The X Project,” drawn by George Evans and inked by Martin Thall, there is a plot of building bridges from America over both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (literal, not figurative, bridges). There is a villain with the fabulous name of Bundello Britt. There is also a moment between Captain Video and the Ranger that got my special attention. Faced with the destruction of the bridge, Captain Video asks his young pal, “Would you be willing to sacrifice your life to make the dream of the bridge a reality? Tell me quickly!”

The Ranger, bravely...stupidly...says, “I would, Captain! What is one life compared to the benefits of all mankind?”

Okay, CUT! Stop rolling film. Were I the young Ranger, I would say to Captain Video: “Are you out of your freakin' mind!? You want to crash the Whirlojet, you drop me off first, and then you can crash away!“ If I was in the Ranger’s place I would mention to Captain Video about my plan to retire someday on a government pension, have a nice, placid life with my wife, kids and grandkids. Nowhere in the plan is deliberate sacrifice.

Luckily, plot twists intervene and the sacrifice is unnecessary. Whew.

From Captain Video #3 (1951).

Here is another Captain Video story. No self-sacrifice is necessary. Just click on the thumbnail.

Posted in: Pappy Comics