In my quest exploring pulp fiction, I fell into science fiction. It was bound to happen. I dabbled a little here and there, but I can’t say that I know it as well as horror or hero pulps. Edmond Hamilton helps bridge the gap because he was a prolific contributor to Weird Tales and became a cornerstone in pioneering space opera.

Like most kids from my generation, my introduction to space opera came from Star Wars. Not the watered-down creatively bankrupt version that Disney keeps pushing. I mean the original trilogy. Anyway, I don’t mean to digress. Space Opera was a derivative term that a science fiction fan made up several decades ago, but in short it is high adventure and heroics in outer space.

I was fascinated by a character called Captain Future. He was modeled after Doc Savage and certainly off of Flash Gordon, designed as a space-traveling troubleshooter who righted wrongs in the galaxy, using his strength and scientific intellect. He was supported by Dr. Simon Wright, a cyborg, Otho, an android, and Grag, the robot. The banter between Otho and Grag is a clear take off of Monk and Ham duking it out in the Doc Savage stories. One of the differences from Doc Savage was that Newton has a love interest, Joan Randall.

Captain Future made his debut in 1940 in his own magazine. As a matter of fact, he was the only explicitly science fiction-themed hero to appear in his own magazine in the pulp era. This didn’t last incredibly long, unfortunately. Edmond Hamilton wrote most of the stories, but the magazine folded in 1944. He appeared in a few more novels in the 40s in the pulp Startling Stories, then reappeared in several short stories in the 50s.

While Captain Future may not be regarded as Hamilton’s best writing, it was still great fun. I immensely enjoyed Captain Future and the Space Emperor, in which we learn of his origin. His real name is Curt Newton, whose parents were murdered when he was just a baby and it was up to Simon Wright, Otho, and Grag to raise him. When he was old enough, Curt decided he would follow his mom’s wishes and use his knowledge and resources to protect the galaxy. Since he was fighting for the future of the galaxy, he called himself Captain Future. In the story proper (remember this is science fiction from the 40s), he is called on to handle a problem on Jupiter in which human colonists are devolving into ape men and the source of this seems to come from a criminal called the Space Emperor. We have Captain Future’s Challenge, in which the entire solar system is in chaos because a terrorist is bombing all the mines of a rare substance that is essential for space travel. In Captain Future and the Seven Space Stones, Newton is in a race against time to uncover the secret that could determine the fate of the universe. In Planets in Peril, Captain Future and his crew travel to a universe where the last remnants of civilization are being wiped out by a race of marauders. In short, these stories are great escapist fun.

Although Captain Future fell out of public knowledge in the United States after the early 50s, France, Germany, and Japan started to discover him and there is still a strong fan base in those countries. In the late 70s, when Star Wars proved that space opera could be profitable, Japan released a Captain Future anime that was mostly true to the pulps. I embraced this cartoon right away since I’m a fan of old anime or anime-style shows. The entire series has English subtitles that are available online if you look hard enough. The English version only covers a few episodes but can be found on Internet Archive. The theme song begins with, “They call him Captain Future. . .” hence the title of this article. Overall, the show has been a lot of fun even though I haven’t seen all the episodes yet.

Lately, Captain Future has made a comeback in the United States. Allen Steele has been writing everything so far, starting with Avengers of the Moon, and continuing with a series of novellas starting with Captain Future In Love, The Guns of Pluto, 1,500 Light Years from Home, and The Horror at Jupiter. He recently released a new Captain Future serial starting with Lost Apollo. I started reading these and I’ve been enjoying them immensely. They are true to the spirit of the character while updating the scientific aspects, making the technological advancements of the future a little less miraculous. The overall tone drops the corny melodrama that might turn people off front vintage sci-fi. Personally, it didn’t bother me too much.

It’s official, I’m a fan of pulp space opera, if being a Stars Wars fan since I before I could walk wasn’t proof enough. I came across the Captain Future books at a time when I needed escapist fiction as much as I need water and so it has become dear to my heart over a short period of time. Little did I understand that through Captain Future and his other work, Edmond Hamilton pioneered a subgenre that made Star Wars, Star Trek, and other space adventure stories possible. My thanks to him for inspiring many other creators and my thanks also to Allen Steele for successfully updating this classic character.

Written by Nicholas Montelongo


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