O Captain N, My Captain N

Back in the early nineties, Valiant released a series of comic books based on Nintendo games. While the Mario ones were the most interesting to me, there were also Captain N comics. Unfortunately, Valiant only had the rights to use characters from games made directly by Nintendo, which meant no Mega Man, Simon Belmont, or Dr. Wily. They also tended to use plots that related to games only tangentially, if at all. On the positive side, they brought in Samus Aran as a character, and the Metroid-related parts of the comics are closer to the actual game than they are in the cartoon. At least as of this writing, you can view scans of the comic at this page. Here are my thoughts on the ten-page Captain N stories that appeared in these books:

The Fruit and Vegetable War – We start out with a story that isn’t that good, and has nothing to do with video games. Well, there WAS a game about anthropomorphic vegetables called Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, but I don’t think it had come out in the States when this comic was written. It takes place on the world of Kid Icarus, here called Mount Olympus, where Captain N and the Kid are trying to form an alliance with the land of Cornucopia. It turns out that the two countries within Cornucopia, Fruitopia and Vegetania, are at war over whether tomatoes are vegetables or fruits. Well, technically speaking, they’re both. So are pumpkins and eggplants, for that matter. It all turns out to be a plot by Eggplant Wizard to steal the Royal Raspberry and gain power over fruits as well as vegetables.

Even ignoring that the eggplant IS a fruit, doesn’t he already have power over both? He even uses a mushroom-copter in one episode of the cartoon, and a mushroom isn’t even a plant. Still, I like puns, even terrible ones, and there are plenty here.

Money Changes Everything – One thing the comics did right when compared to the cartoon is bringing in Samus Aran as a character. Not only is she competent, but she considers Captain N to be a good match for her, bringing in some tension between her and Princess Lana.

She’s also tricky and greedy, as seen when she puts one over on Mother Brain. Speaking of which, the comic specifies that the planet Zebes, setting of the first Metroid game, is separate from Metroid, Mother Brain’s command center. The show was never totally clear about that.

The Happy Zone – Mother Brain imprisons Lana in the presumably ironically named Happy Zone (sure are a lot of these nasty zones in Videoland), and Kevin has to decide whether to join her or to carry on the fight. He decides to stay, and then beats the crap of Mother Brain’s jar until she agrees to release the Princess. Decent setup, but not a very satisfying ending. Besides, if he has Mother Brain at his mercy, why let her go again?

Just a Dog – One oddity of the comics that never came into the cartoons is that Kid Icarus is jealous of Duke. I don’t think it makes much sense, but it plays a pretty significant role in this story, in which Duke shows his worth. The twist in this one is pretty amusing, but once again the actual video game content is low.

Nervous Meltdown – Mother Brain’s stooges plant a virus in the Palace of Power’s computers, but they accidentally give it to their boss as well. They form a temporary truce with the N Team, who use a shrinking ship to go inside Mother Brain’s mind. Exactly how being small enables them to access her subconscious isn’t really explained, but I guess we should cut a little slack when dealing with a biological supercomputer. The team decides they can’t let Mother Brain die because she still has some good inside her. Is that why they always let her get away at the end?

A Dog’s Life – Kevin and Duke inadvertently switch minds, and the Captain has to figure out how to stop Mother Brain from using a ray to make everybody stupid while in a dog’s body. Pretty weak story, but I like the pictures of Videotown’s diverse population. Too bad they didn’t use, you know, ACTUAL VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS. And what’s with Kevin having a Reset button on his Power Belt? Can’t say I’ve ever seen him use THAT before.

The Real Game Master – Mother Brain’s holographic projector makes a new Game Master, whom the N Team accepts as an ally despite his lacking any personality whatsoever. Kevin saves the day by recognizing that the projector wasn’t in the Metroid game. Oh, come on! Neither were King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard, but he didn’t have a problem with their presence.

Breakout – This one is pretty good. Mother Brain frames Lana, and has her and Samus arrested and taken to a maximum security prison. Interesting to know that, despite presumably being an absolute monarch, the Princess isn’t considered above the law. Anyway, Lana manages to organize the prison population, finally getting to show her skills as a leader.

Oh, the entire race looks alike? They probably think the same about talking brains!

A King of Shreds and Patches – Yet another story taking place on a world not based on a game, but at least this one was mentioned a few times in the cartoon. Kevin falls into the Garbage World and Samus tries to use a time warp to save him, only to go too far into the future and find an older Kevin as ruler of Garbage World and the last line of defense against Mother Brain. He wants to make Samus his consort, and she has to decide whether to remain there with him or go back and change things. Obviously, she makes the right choice in the end, but I do appreciate that Samus has to fight her selfish instincts. It helps to make her a more interesting character than…well, pretty much everybody else involved.

When Friends Fall Out – Kid Icarus has been turned to stone by Medusa, and while I’m sure many fans would prefer that he stay that way so we don’t have to hear him say “icus” again, Samus has found a ray that might cure him. While in Samus’ storage locker, Lana finds what she thinks is evidence that the bounty hunter helped Mother Brain to capture the King. Hey, we’re actually getting some development for the ongoing plot here! At the end, Duke learns the truth through some magical deus ex machina, but no one else does. Instead, Lana has to learn to forgive Samus’ possible indiscretion without really knowing what happened.

All’s Well That Ends Swell – The N Team (minus Samus this time) journeys down a well in Kongoland to find the secret that can defeat Mother Brain. Along the way, they meet with several enemies that weren’t in any games, at least as far as I know.

The Master Machine – Mother Brain reprograms the main computer in the Palace of Power so that she can get in with no trouble. Kevin saves the day by realizing that the machine is part of a video game world, and hence will respond to a challenge from a human. Okay, but what I really want to know about this one is how Mother Brain is moving around with no apparent means of propulsion.

And that’s it for the Captain’s career in comics. There were apparently more stories planned, and an answer to reader mail suggests that they were hoping to get the rights to Mega Man for one of them, but I don’t think the sales were ever that great. I’m sure I’ll have reviews of some of the Mario comics in the future.