Who's This? A P.T. boat skipper.
The facts: Created by Robert Kanigher, the king of war comics, and Irv Novick, Capt. Storm debuted in his own series in June of 1964, the hard-luck PT boat captain lasting 18 issues there (March 1967), after which he was shunted to the Losers strip introduced in G.I. Combat and continuing in Our Fighting Forces in late 1969 (where he would act as the team's leader for the next 9 years. He's killed during the Crisis, his last hurrah being The Losers Special #1 in 1985. Of the attempt to reintroduce him in Superman comics between 2016 and 2018, perhaps the less said the better, but it involves Nanda Parbat, Dinosaur Island, a lizard leg then replaced by a cybernetic one... Yeah, ok.
How you could have heard of him: He's actually had a notable appearance in animation, along with the rest of the Losers in a DC Showcase short, but perhaps it's an appearance in New Frontier that will insure his immortality (the comic, not the animated adaptation where the team is only seen in a photograph).
Example story: Capt. Storm #13 (May-June 1966) "Yankee Banzai!" by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert
A completely random issue of P.T. Boat Skipper Capt. Storm and immediately, a surprise. He doesn't wear an eyepatch yet. After verification, he only loses and eye in 1972 issues of Our Fighting Forces. So the "pirate accessories" aren't complete, though he already has a wooden leg. And the issue actually starts with a flashback to William Storm's origin story, the deadly Japanese sub attack that cost him his boat, his crew and that limb!
A P.T. boat, by the way, is a patrol torpedo boat, "mosquitos" in Japanese parlance, because they were small, fast, maneuverable, and got in close to "sting" their ships with torpedoes. But on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Storm's P.T. 47 was ambushed by a Japanese sub. Storm came back from his injury and took command of a new P.T. 47, which was soon back in action. Coming upon an enemy sub charging its batteries, it prepares a torpedo but gets blown out of the water before it's shot. No problem for Capt. Storm.
But it wasn't the sub with the tiger shark paint job, so Storm would reserve his "Yankee Banzai" for the day he could actually get justice for his crew. Skip to the next anniversary of Pearl Harbor (and thus of Storm's big defeat) and the P.T. 47 is under fire from a Japanese Zero. But wait, who's that coming to the rescue? It can't be! Future Loser teammates Gunner, Sarge and Pooch!
I certainly wasn't expecting proto-Losers action when I picked this issue to cover. Gunner and Sarge had a 5 year lead on Storm, first appearing in 1959. Soon, the new friends are fired upon by snipers. They play dead and when at least twice their number of enemy soldiers come to check them out, they pounce. Captain Storm doesn't need a torpedo boat to handle himself.
Then they get pinned down by a machine gun in a pillbox and another marine flanks it and drops a grenade inside. Are you ready for ANOTHER guest star? I wasn't.
And it's not really. Larry Rock isn't Sgt. Rock, he's his BROTHER, also known as the Fighting Devil Dog, who had appeared in Gunner and Sarge stories before. Phew. I was gonna say. The suggestion here is that it's Dec. 7, 1943, too early for the Rock to get a promotion and change outfits and theaters. This little team-up done, Storm leaves with the gift of a dynamite belt. Prepare yourselves for it to be used.
As the sun sets, P.T. 47 spots an anchored battleship and heads for it. Except it's protected by a Zero, which blows Storm into the water before ramming the boat!
And so, Captain Storm, sure to be tagged as a Loser with THIS track record, loses another craft and crew. But he's still got the TNT, so he swims over to the enemy ship and plants the whole belt on the rising anchor. Unfortunately, he's spotted and attacked by an enemy frogman. They both fall deep into the water before Storm can attach the TNT, but there Storm spies the very same tiger shark sub that murdered his first crew. Right under the battleship? Looks like two fish with one stone.
Storm and crew are quickly rescued by a passing Catalina (a big hydroplane) and that's the story of how Capt. Storm finally got his "Yankee Banzai".
Well! You can always count on Kanigher for an action-packed war story no matter the theater or division. And having Kubert on the strip only makes things even more dynamic. And it was cool to see the seeds of the Losers being planted, as most of Capt. Storm's printed adventures would take place in that particular strip, though it would take another 3½ years for DC's shared WWII universe to gets its version of a Justice League.
Who's Next? The man with nine lives.
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