GENRES:
Superheroes

AUDIENCE:
Adults, teens, kids

SYNOPSIS:
A hideous baby is left at an orphanage in London. Though the boy, named Dexter Kyle, grows up sweet-natured, he is never adopted due to his looks. Nor, as an adult, is he able to easily make his way in the world. But one night, at Stonehenge, he helps rescue a tripartite alien from a disciple of Gaea. As a reward, the alien(s) grant(s) him amazing powers and a "perfect corporeal form to match [his] noble spirit" as long as he only uses his powers for good. Captain Defender is born!

The good Captain soon has reason to test his powers against the Omen, a group of four supervillains (Dark, Mindwarp, Nightring, and Werecat) who attempt to steal the Crown Jewels. After a short battle, Captain Defender is knocked out. Three of the baddies want to kill him; Nightring, who has been reluctant all along to be acting as a criminal, prevents them from doing so, causing the others to start attacking him. In the confusion, Captain Defender awakens and rejoins the battle; and when Werecat turns on him, she accidentally strikes her husband (Mindwarp) instead. Badly injured, they flee; so do Dark and Nightring, though Dark places a curse on the other three before leaving himself. Captain Defender is knighted for his heroism.

Mindwarp and Werecat teleport to an abandoned warehouse in New York, where Mindwarp enters a healing trance and Werecat takes care of Randy, their son. Captain Defender shows up to capture them; he and Werecat battle. With his mother losing, Randy manages to get Mindwarp out of his trance, and the psionic villian gets the drop on the hero and performs a mindswitch. Armed with both his psionic powers and Captain Defender's abilities, "Captain Mindwarp" ponders what to do with the helpless hero....

EVALUATION:
This crudely drawn but exuberant comic makes me nostalgic for the good ol' days of the Black-and-White Revolution, when it was a lot easier for people to find an outlet for their personal vision. Indeed, the short episodes that make up this book were first published in 1991-1993 in Gothic Light # 1-7. It's an unpretentious little book whose strengths are its dialogue and its character conceptions. I found the Omen characters interesting, especially the married Mindwarp and Werecat. Unlike many villains in mainstream superhero comics, they had personal lives, and I wanted to know what was going to happen to them. By contrast, Captain Defender is pretty colorless--even his alter ego, ugly little Dexter, is more interesting!

I hope there still is a market for this book; its art might be offputting to readers who prefer style over substance. But I enjoyed it more than slicker offerings from Marvel and DC. Recommended for comprehensive superhero collections and for older readers who remember the 1980s-early 1990s fondly.