Captain Triumph

Captain Triumph
Crack Comics #27, the first appearance of Captain Triumph. Art by Alfred Andriola.
Publication information
Publisher	Quality Comics
First appearance	Crack Comics #27 (January 1943)
Created by	Alfred Andriola
In-story information
Alter ego	Lance and Michael Gallant
Abilities	Flight Near invulnerability Invisibility Limited superhuman strength Ability to alter his physical appearance, shape and size, and voice

Captain Triumph is a superhero from the Golden Age of Comics who first appeared in Crack Comics #27, published in January 1943 by Quality Comics. The character was later obtained by DC Comics, though by that time he had already lapsed into the public domain. Some of his Golden Age adventures were reprinted by AC Comics in the Men of Mystery anthology. He is not to be confused with another DC Comics property, Triumph.

In 1919 twin brothers Michael and Lance Gallant are born in New York City. They are so alike, even down to a T-shaped birthmark on their left wrists, that their own mother cannot tell them apart. The two remain close, even for twins, as they grow up.

When America is drawn into the Second World War, Michael enlists in the U.S. Army Air Corps, becoming a pilot, while Lance “crusaded with his own weapons – the word and pen” by becoming a journalist. However, on Michael’s 23rd birthday, as he brings his plane in to land, the hangar he is entering explodes. His fiancée, Kim Meredith, and brother Lance witness this act of sabotage, and the latter races into the burning structure, managing to find his badly injured sibling, only for Michael to die in his arms.

Lance swears vengeance on the murderers and those like them. Unknown to him, the Fates, creatures of myth, are watching all this and, impressed, decide to create a champion. Soon afterwards Lance receives a shocking visitation from Michael's ghost, who reveals that they remain linked together, and if Lance touches his birthmark they will merge, gaining superpowers as a result. Touching the mark a second time will separate them again. Calling himself Captain Triumph, Lance becomes a crimefighter.

Cap's writer is unknown, but as the series opens, the artist is Alfred Andriola, former assistant to Milton Caniff on Terry and the Pirates. (Andriola had also drawn a newspaper comic based on author Earl Derr Biggers's famous character, Charlie Chan.) He stays with Captain Triumph a mere six months, leaving to create the character he's best remembered for, Kerry Drake. The artists in the middle issues of Captain Triumph’s Crack Comics run are mostly a matter of conjecture, as Golden Age artists frequently did not sign their work. However, beginning in Crack Comics #46 and ending only with the book’s cancellation, Captain Triumph’s adventures are penciled and inked for an unbroken 17-issue run by Golden Age great Reed Crandall.