Back in the mid Ots…? 2000′s…? 00′s? I was living in L.A. seriously pursuing a career as a writer along with approximatly half a million other people with laptops and a Coffee Bean discount card. Now, I’ve always been a fan of comics so I thought one way to get my foot in the door would be to respond to open calls for comic book pitches. I sent out several, and all were summarily rejected.

I stumbled across some of these failed pitches in my Google Docs and in this first installment of a series I’ll be sharing them with the world for the first time. After all, what else am I going to do with them?

First up – CAPTAIN ACTION! If you aren’t familiar with the character here’s the basics straight from that paragon of disinformation Wikipedia:

Captain Action was an action figure, from 1966, equipped with a wardrobe of costumes allowing him to become Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger (and Tonto), Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet. Captain Action was the Ideal Toy Company’s answer to Hasbro’s G.I. Joe — although the protagonist dolls of both toy lines were created and designed by the same toy- and idea-man, Stan Weston.

In 2005, Moonstone Books got the license for the Captain and put out an open requests for pitches. My pitch was rejected, but the book eventually came out in 2008 written by Fabian Nicieza, whose other comic book work I love. Never picked up his take on it though.

I thought that since Captain Action was basically every superhero that his origin should share elements with basically every hero, although I took quite a bit of inspiration Captain America.

So here, for the first time, my pitch for Captain Action!

“CAPTAIN ACTION” proposal
by Willaim Meeks

In the year 1950 there were no superheroes… No Gods walking among us, protecting us.

Captain Gerald Adams aimed to change that.

At the dawn of the cold war, Captain Adams initiated a top-secret government program. Codenamed “PROJECT ACTION,” it aimed to create an analog to the comic book heroes of the day… A truly super man.  Captain Adams gathered some of the world’s brightest scientists to study the process of genetic modification. Experts from America, Australia, England, and Germany gathered together at a top secret base in the hills of West Virginia and began work.

Adams volunteered to be the first test subject for the project. He was subjected to a wide array of injections, surgeries, and radiation treatments. While his strength increased in equal proportion to his brainpower he still fell a bit short of being an inspiration.

One night, while Captain Adams slept, the German scientist (a fiendish and troll-like man named Klaus Fruader) crept into his room and injected a glowing cocktail into the Captain’s right arm. The Captain jerked awake. His form changed, clothing included. One second, he was a masked man straight out of the old west. The next, a circus performer dressed in a caped uniform of only primary color.

“What’s…. What’s happening to me,” asked Captain Adams.

Klaus explained that his previous employer had been Herr Wolf himself… ADOLPH HITLER. The fluid he injected the Captain with was Hitler’s most secret weapon. A mixture of hormone enhancers and nanites that had been found on an alien spaceship in Germany during the first World War. Ironically, this mixture was exactly what “PROJECT ACTION” had been created to develop. Klaus used an early version of it to gain his position in the project and– per Hitler’s instructions– used it on an ideal test subject… Captain Adams himself!

Captain Adams moves to capture Klaus, but is stopped cold, unable to move. Klaus informs him that the Forth Reich is rising, and that he will be the key to the eventual victory over the Americans. Klaus takes out a small touchscreen and stylus and demonstrates how he can control the Captain:

The Captain turns into a bird-themed, winged superhero. Klaus sends him to Fort Knox and has him steal several gold bars. He continues using Captain Adams in these daring crimes, as well as small tasks such as delivering messages between operatives and spying on high-ranking government officials.

Meanwhile, at the PROJECT ACTION base, several generals notice a change in Captain Adams’ demeanor. When questioned about it he claims it’s a head cold, nothing more.

Finally, the day Klaus has waited for arrives… A full-frontal assault on the Pentagon itself! He turns the Captain into a hero wearing  World War II-era military dress and sends him in.

A huge battle outside the Pentagon and Captain Adams almost takes it. At the last second, the Australian Scientist from the project shows up with a device he had been working on in secret… a ray that freezes whatever it hits in a single second in time. He hits the Captain with it and shuts him down.

Klaus realizes his plan has failed and retreats but is captured by military men a few miles down the road. To save his life, he confesses everything to them, a coward at the end.

Several of the Captain’s superiors watch as his body is put into storage in the PROJECT ACTION base. They vow to find a way to overcome the mind-controlling properties of the serum and bring him back one day.

2006: The Captain stirs. His eyes crack open. He is presented with a more modern version of the Project Action base. The scientists inform him that they’ve overcome the nanite’s mind-controlling functionality. The technology, he’s told, will be used to create elite Special Forces. He assumes he’ll be the Army’s premier soldier and symbol of hope, but he’s given his walking papers… the Army doesn’t deal in hope anymore.

The Captain catches up on all that has happened in the past fifty years. Hippies, Watergate, Terrorism, Reality TV. He takes a job as a bank security guard, and through several encounters people from all segments of society realizes that everybody is afraid, and there are no more heroes.

One night, a gunman shows up and demands the contents of the vault. Adams doesn’t know how to open it and the gunmen shoot him in the chest. The Captain shape-shifts again like he did that first night fifty years prior, and stands revealed as an armored hero. He easily defeats the gunmen.

From then on Captain Adams fight for justice under a variety of guises. Whether he’s the dark and brooding Nightman or the iconic Mister Powerful he inspires and protects all members of society! Few know that he is, in reality, that same Captain Adams who fathered PROJECT ACTION.

In fact, the only ones who know are the ones who created him… the dreaded Forth Reidreaded them, he is known only as…

CAPTAIN ACTION!

Join us next week for my next failed pitch: THE TICK! Same Meeks time, Same Meeks channel.