There were no end of captains during the Golden Age. There was Captain America, Captain Marvel (not to mention Captain Marvel, Jr.), Captain Courageous, Captain Red Blazer, Captain Freedom, Captain Battle, Captain Flag, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Well, add Captain Triumph to the list. He was spawned in the mid range of the Golden Age (1943) when the first wave of superhero characters had crashed against the shores of reader's hearts and were rather rapidly receding. First appearing in Crack Comics (probably not a title that would be used today) #27, January 1943 and published by Quality Comics, Captain Triumph was actually an amalgam of two people - twins Michael and Lance Gallant (there was also a Captain Gallant but that's another story altogether). They were identical twins and had been very close throughout their lives. Then Michael became a pilot with the army air corp and one day (their 23rd birthday as it turned out) as he was landing a plane the hanger exploded, witnessed by Lance and Michael's fiance Kim Meredith. Michael died in their arms and Lance swore an oath to avenge his brother. The mythological Fates had been watching and decided to form a champion. Thus Lance was soon visited by the ghost of Michael who told him that if Lance touched the T-shaped birthmark on his left wrist (a feature they had both shared) Michael the ghost would merge with Lance the living and become one super powered entity - Captain Triumph. It turned out to be handy having Michael in ghost form because he could go out and gather information unseen by anyone but Lance (and occasionally Kim) and then merge with Lance when the fisticuffs were required. Lance/Michael and Kim later hooked up with a bruiser named Bif who accompanied them on their adventures. Because he was introduced rather late in the superhero period his outfit is a little less "superheroic" than many in the genre. When I was doing the action figure I decided to use various GI Joe and related parts to make Captain Triumph. The gloves with open fingers came on the figure I used for the arms but I rather liked the effect so I left them. I thought it gave him a more "gonna kick your butt" kind of look.
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