Real Name: Captain Hercules Hurricane

Identity/Class: Normal human or human mutate

Occupation: Captain in the Royal Marines, Commando; formerly captain of a tramp steamer, briefly magazine editor

Affiliations: "Maggot" Malone, Steel Commando, Battler Britton

Enemies: The German armed forces, the Japanese armed forces

Known Relatives: Aunt Harriet

Aliases: None known

Base of Operations: Active in all theatres of the war

First Appearance: Valiant #1 (I.P.C., 6th October 1962-76)

Powers/Abilities: Superhuman strength when enraged. Hurricane's strength seemed to be directly related to his temper, and his episodes of greatest power were always at the height of one of his "ragin' furies".

History: Hercules Hurricane was the captain of the tramp steamer S.S. Sweetness until his ship was sunk eighty miles West of the Clyde by German U-Boat U484 on September 28th 1939, only a few weeks into World War II. Hurricane and his first mate, "Maggots" Malone, subsequently enlisted in the Royal Marine Commandoes, and took the fight back the Axis forces. As first the Germans and later the Japanese discovered, Hurricane had a short fuse, and when his temper was aroused his strength was literally superhuman. Two years after his ship was sank, Hurricane got his chance for revenge when U484 surfaced near Gibraltar to charge batteries, unaware they were alongside the troopship carrying Hurricane's platoon to the Middle East. Seeing the vessel that had sank his own ship, Hurricane became enraged, dived into the sea without hesitation, and swam to the U-Boat. As he reached it, the troop ship's guns opened fire, prompting the U-Boat to begin a crash dive, but as they submerged, Hurricane ripped open the foredeck hatch with his bare hands, forcing the Germans to stop the dive and abandon ship.

Comments: Created by R. Charles Roylace.

In his earliest appearances, despite clearly possessing superhuman strength when he was enraged, Captain Hurricane was depicted relatively seriously and not physically over-exaggerated. However, within a few years the strip's tone shifted, becoming more humorous, and with that change in style came an accompanying modification of Hurricane's appearance.

One of the main writers of Captain Hurricane was Scott Goodall. Thanks to Scott Goodall himself for supplying this information.

Jon Rose also got in touch on this topic to say "I was one of the writers who did a couple of Capt Hurricane Stories for Valiant in the 70's. It was tough because you had to be historically accurate on times, dates and places where the Marines actually were or the kid's Dad's wrote in and complained! Every phrase had to be nautical (Marines) and you were given a list of acceptable exclamations "Blistering Bulwarks! " etc. As I recall it paid about 35 quid a story - including amends."

The mighty Royal Marine commando was the toughest fighting man of the second World War, and was accompanied by his former first mate and Batman - Maggot.

While his own strip had ended, Captain Hurricane continued on as the 'editor' of the Battle comic for many years subsequently.

Steve Taylor informs me "he had an aunt. She made several appearances. She was about 60, quite thin, in a black dress with a handbag, and she was the only person Hurricane was afraid of. In one episode she told Maggot (?) that it was she who taught him how to have a raging fury." Geoff Whetton also confirms an aunt, although perhaps a different one - "I remember a storyline which I believe was in one of the Valiant annuals of the mid to late 60's, when his aunt Harriet came to stay. She was a tiny woman who, after exhibiting a "ragin fury" of her own explained to Maggot what a poor excuse for a lad her nephew had been before she took him in hand."

Many thanks to Chris "Doc TOC" Halliday for additional information on this character.

A version of Captain Hurricane, called simply Hurricane, turned up in Paul Grist's Jack Staff. The Captain also turned up in Albion. Interestingly, both series took a similar stance of suggesting that his superhuman strength was the result of World War II super-soldier experiments that went wrong, turning him into a character not unlike the Hulk, whose strength increases with his rage.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

• Hurricane, enemy of Captain Britain

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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