Comic Book Review: Codename: Action written by Chris Roberson, art by Jonathan Lau
It is 1966, and a young trainee has just passed his final test to become a field agent for the agency. Which agency? You don’t have a need to know, but it’s been protecting America from the shadows since the 1930s. Newly minted “Operator 1,001” is teamed up with veteran Operator 5 on a suddenly urgent mission. Several world leaders have abruptly become belligerent, pushing the international community towards global war. Thanks to an earlier action of the agency, it’s known at least one of them has been replaced by a doppleganger. But who’s behind it and why?
Meanwhile in France, the aerial government agents led by “Black Venus” have just gotten orders to hurry to North Africa to find and destroy any secret Soviet troops there. The orders are apparently legitimate, but clearly insane, so the squad in general is sent to “seek but not find” while Black Venus investigates what’s really going on.
And the costumed hero American Crusader, who’s lent his voice to the “diplomacy first” movement, is ambushed by a man who looks exactly like him.
Back in 1966, Captain Action was a toy line of 12″ action figures from the same man who’d first come up with the idea for G.I. Joe. As the Ideal Toy Company held a lot of licenses at the time, including both DC and Marvel superheroes, the idea was that Captain Action could don masks and costumes to become any of the adult male characters they had rights to. Later, a kid sidekick, Action Boy, and a villain, Dr. Evil (no relation) were added. The toy line only lasted a couple of years, but was fondly remembered and is a favorite with collectors.
It’s had a couple of comic book series over the years from different publishers, and this version was from Dynamite Comics in 2013 using characters they had access to at the time.
Operator 5 disguises himself as the United States ambassador to the U.N. and comes out for nuclear disarmament in a bid to have himself captured and replaced so that Operator 1,001 can then track him to the villains’ lair. Black Venus tracks some misappropriated nuclear warheads and the two cross paths and team up.
Meanwhile, other costumed heroes like the Green Hornet and the Spider are captured.
Eventually, it is discovered that the dopplegangers and other villainy are the work of an organization known as Hexagon, which wants to cause global war and then take over the weakened survivors. Their head scientist, Dr. Thorpe, has bigger plans (it’s fairly clear he’s a disguised alien.)
Operator 1,001 (at one point referencing his toy line origins by disguising himself as the American Crusader), Black Venus and Operator 5 manage to free the captive heroes, stop a nuclear launch, and at least temporarily thwart the plans of Hexagon and Dr. Evil. The American secret agency is folded into a new international intelligence organization (still not named) and Operator 1,001 gets the new codename Captain Action.
As an origin story for Captain Action, it’s okay. His personality is a bit bland, but workable, and we get to see his skills in action.
While most of the other heroes are what TV Tropes calls “Advertised Extras” who get maybe a page or two and are then relegated to crowd scenes, all these potential protagonists make the story feel crowded. Captain Action doesn’t even get his codename or distinctive costume until the last two pages!
Hexagon’s plans to destabilize society by sowing distrust of government, authority in general, and costumed heroes could have used more breathing space that this miniseries just didn’t have room for.
The collected edition has a look at an early script, a bunch of very nice alternative covers, and a character design sheet.
While this series is okay for what it is, the primary appeal is to the collector’s market.
