Captain Action #5

Captain Action #5 (On Sale: April 29, 1969) has another wonderful Gil Kane cover.

The full-length Captain Action story "A Mind Divided" is written and drawn by Gil Kane and inked by Wally Wood. After a steel mill is sabotaged, Captain Action aids the relief efforts  He blames charismatic leader Matthew Blackwell for the sabotage because Blackwell has openly incited his followers to violence. Captain Action's son Carl, AKA Action Boy, attends a peaceful demonstration against Blackwell with Johnny the son of magazine publisher Eugene Johnson. No one knows that Eugene Johnson actually is Matthew Blackwell.

When Blackwell next speaks, his followers attack the protestors. Action Boy stops the attack on the protesters. Meanwhile, Captain Action arrives at a factory being targeted by Blackwell.  CA saves a young girl caught in an explosion at the factory.

The riot over, Johnny Johnson heads to his dad's place to talk. He can't find him at first, but accidently discovers a secret door in his father's office. The door leads to the laboratory of Blackwell. Johnny realizes that his father is Matthew Blackwell. Enraged he set out to destroy his dad's lab, but in doing so causes an explosion, which kills him. Blackwell returns to his laboratory, discovering his dead son's body.

Maddened by his own part in his son's death, he goes completely insane. After Captain Action stops Blackwell's followers, he sees the broken man committed to a mental institution. This tale of charismatic leaders and rebellion in the streets was the swan song for Captain Action and Action Boy. I don't know if the issue was sales or the end of the toy line or what, but I enjoyed every issue of this book and was saddened to see it go. Of course I owned the toys so this book was just made for me.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.