“Yesterday’s” Comic> Captain Planet & The Planeteers #1

Quick, burn it before it airs!

Captain Planet And The Planeteers #1

Marvel (October, 1991)

When Hoggish Greedly and his flunky, Rigger, use a giant robotic vehicle to drill for oil in a nature preserve, they wake up Gaia, the spirit of the Earth. Seeing all of the pollution that’s been caused during her hundred-year-sleep, she decides it’s time to summon five teenagers with attitude…wait, wrong mentor…five special young people from around the world, to whom she gives magic rings. Kwamie, from Africa, can control the earth. Wheeler, from North America, commands fire. Linka, from the Soviet Union (later “Eastern Europe” after the fall of the USSR), controls wind. Gi, from Asia, controls water. Finally, Ma-Ti, from South America (and joined by his pet monkey, Suchi) can touch people’s hearts as well as communicate telepathically. They head out to stop Greedly, but thanks to their lack of training they are soon outmatched. However, Gaia told them to put their powers together in an emergency, which summons Captain Planet, formed from the powers of their now useless rings, who has great power but the very pollution he fights can be his Kryptonite. Together they’re able to chase Greedly off.

What they got right: This was the first episode of the show, and one of the few good ones. Greedly isn’t out to destroy the Earth; he’s just out to get money (hence his name and pig-like demeanor) and he doesn’t care about the environment. The character’s personalities match their powers. The art on this comic is very good.

What they got wrong: I was about to complain Gaia looked a little more Caucasian than her cartoon counterpart, but I brought up some images in a search engine and it’s pretty inconsistent to begin with. She’s not fully a whitey like Wheeler and Linka but she’s closer than she should be. Then there are problems I had with the show. Why of all the five is the hotheaded loudmouth the American? I’d question if I was reading too much into it, but this IS Ted Turner we’re talking about, as he came up with the thing, using DIC until he bought Hanna-Barbera. Also, if Ma-Ti’s power is heart, how does he also have telepathy, which comes from the mind? I understand the importance of feelings and emotions, something you want in a superhero like Captain Planet and in keeping with their secondary mission of reaching people’s hearts about the dangers of pollution (even though this show too often took that to extremes) but where do the mental powers fit in?

Recommendation: If you’re curious about what the show looked like as a comic (especially if you’re one of those who somehow liked the show), this is a good place to start, as an episode adaptation. It’s also the rare time that a Marvel adaptation wasn’t “Marvelised”, and that alone is worth checking out. Whether the other six issues I have continues the trend or not we’ll be checking out this week and two days next week.