#lance gallant

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Crack Comics #27, January 1943. Ruben Moreira cover pencils & inks; Alfred Andriola interior pencils & inks.

Info from Grand Comics Database

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Crack Comics #27 (January 1st, 1943)

Art by Ruben Moreira

[dcdreamblog]

I have always adored the original Liberty Belle and hold nothing but admiration for the woman, so know I ask this out of genuine curiosity rather than to drag her or her daughter's name through the mud. In fact, I even hold Captain Triumph close to my heart, so add him to that list!

Wasn't there some scandal involving these three and a fiancé of Liberty Belle's? Is that at all real or just people being gross and inflammatory?

*FffffffuuuuuuuUUuuuUUUuuuuu...*

Ok, alright dammit. See this is what happens when I commit myself to sharing the truth with everyone no matter the context of the question.

I end up answering questions that make me feel like a fuckin' tabloid magazine.

But I'm going to lay some things on the record for the sake of my good name: This issue is settled. LONG since. In both the legal arena and the personal/emotional lives of those involved. If I see ONE of you people climbing on Jesse Chambers' Instagram to spread bile for something that occurred in her personal life the best part of 20 years ago, we are going to have WORDS before I get Gwen to put a curse on your bloodline.

(Gwen: I'd do it, too)

(An artistic portrait of Jesse done with her mother's image in her silhouette)

Jesse Chambers' relationship with her mother, Libby Lawrence AKA the original Liberty Belle has been fraught. Her parents separated in her childhood and both became absorbed in their work even as Jesse herself followed on in her father's heroic footsteps. After her father's heroic sacrifice in battling the villainous Savitar the women eventually rekindled their family relationship although friction remained.

Frictions that was only reignited when one Phillip Geyer enters our story. Geyer was a Modern literature student at Hudson University that met the elder Lawrence while they both attended a class there and the two relationship blossomed from there. Much to the chagrin of Mrs Lawrence's teammates, colleagues and her daughter since her new beau was younger Jesse was by several years! The first meeting between Jesse and Phillip, publically, went VERY poorly. Which meant no one suspected what came next, even after Phillip and Libby were engaged.

When Jesse Chambers began an affair with the fiance of her elderly mother.

While Mrs Lawrence was unaware of his paramour, she began to suspect that her fiance was cheating on her. A thought she shared over dinner with her former All Stars teammates John Law (Tarantula) and Lance Gallant (Captain Triumph)

Triumph has always been a...psychological enigma. The telling of his origin is that he is able to bond with the ghost of his deceased brother to increase his strength, speed and stamina. Save that over the years they've been stuck together, Michael Gallant's spirit has became more and more malignant and hostile. Seemingly jealous and covetous of his brother's living status and more unwilling to control his emotions as time went on.

He confronted Phillip in the dead of night, originally intending to simply intimidate him into leaving Libby and vanishing. Only to be driven into a rage when Phillip let slip that he had been planning to leave Libby after a year, taking half of her assets in the divorce under threat of blackmail. He had been using BOTH women for his own purposes. Libby for her assets, and Jesse as a knife to hold to her mother's throat. Unable to control his rage, Michael Gallant in the form of Captain Triumph snapped Phillip Geyer's neck.

He was apprehended a short time later by Jesse Quick and Nightwing but by then investigation had revealed the whole sordid affair. It drove a toxic wedge between mother and daughter, sending Jesse into a spiral of overwork that didn't abate until the aftermath of the Battle of Metropolis and its accompanying Multiversal Crisis. During a period where Jesse lost her powers and grew close to Rick Tyler, the current Hourman.

Despite being open about her previous actions, the younger Tyler was besotted with her and pushed her to make an effort to reunite with her mother, a task accomplished when Jesse's own powers returned just in time to help her mother from her own abilities gone out of control. She and Rick married, and have since welcomed their first child into the world, young Johnny Tyler named for her father.

Lance Gallant was placed under intense psychological study after his apprehension, accompanied by regular occult assistance in an attempt to remove the power his brother's hungry ghost held over him. During the most recent Multiversal Crisis, Captain Triumph vanished into the time stream where barring a bizarre appearance of his younger self on Coney Island a few years ago he hasn't been seen since. Wherever Lance Gallant is now, I hope he's found his peace.

It's not a story that makes ANYBODY in it look particularly good, but that's the rub, isn't it?

Our heroes have never claimed to be greater than us. Immune to being lead around by their hearts in all the worst ways. Jesse Chamber was a young woman who had sex with someone she shouldn't have. It's not like she was responsible for the murder, her mother forgave her, she found the strength to forgive HERSELF and indeed to love again, to become a loving wife and mother if that's something that's important to her.

We make mistakes. Bad ones. Because we're angry or afraid, and the backsplash hurts the people closest to us. But we soldier on. And we move forward. Because its all we CAN do.

And if there's something Jesse Quick knows. Its how to put one foot in front of the other.

[chernobog13]

CRACK COMICS (vol. 1) #33 (March, 1944). Cover by Alex Kotsky.

Despite his rather prosaic superhero costume, which would be more fitting for the polo grounds, Captain Triumph was one of Quality's more powerful characters.

When Lance Gallant rubbed a T-shaped birthmark on his wrist he merged with the ghost of his twin brother, Michael, and became Captain Triumph. The Captain had the powers of flight, invisibility, limited invulnerability and super-strength, and the ability to change his shape and appearance.

The clown on the cover is Biff, Captain Triumph's personal assistant who - thankfully - does not wear his clown regalia in most of his appearances.

[ufonaut]

Promotional art for The Golden Age (1993) four issue miniseries. Art by Paul Smith with colours by Richard Ory.

[why-i-love-comics]

Captain Triumph info page

art by Ron Harris

[marvel-dc-art]

Harley Quinn v3 #51 - “Harley Quinn Destroys DC Continuity” (2018) pencil & ink by Sami Basri color by Alex Sinclair

[dcdreamblog]

With so many Golden Age legacies running around, are there any heroes you’re surprised that someone took up the mantle of - either because they’re so obscure as to be nearly forgotten, or so bizarre that it’s difficult to think that someone would want to?

Yes and no? And I'm going to explain the 'no' quickly before I get onto the yes. As I've said before I have to resign myself to the fact that I don't know what's going on in superheroes' personal lives and that I don't have any right to. What might seem to us to be totally obscure or even bizarre in reference might be deeply connected and personal to the person who chose to take up that mantle. All superheroes are people after all and the ripples such people leave behind even at their most obscure are worthwhile and need consideration. It's why, for instance, I didn't choose the modern version of The Whip. While the Whip is in the running for most obscure superhero of the Golden Age period, we know that the modern Whip is that original hero's granddaughter and that that connection is very personally important to her. There's nothing bizarre about that.

Now beyond the intellectual faffing about and onto the actual answer.

(A photo of the second Captain Triumph saving a downed helicopter) This woman is the second person to call herself Captain Triumph. Which is not only an obscure legacy to claim but also an odd one. The original Captain Triumph was US Air Force pilot Lance Gallant but ALSO his brother Michael in a story that involves ghosts, and a Final Destination style rebalancing of the scales of death. (Which is not only too long, complicated and sordid a story for this topic but also the second time that sort of thing happened in the Golden Age) Once the original Captain Triumph fell into retirement after the Second World War he become very obscure. Left out of most histories that weren't events in which he was directly involved and only given a small spike of understanding in my particular circles by his inclusion in the wonderful Alt History novel JSA: The Golden Age which I highly recommend if you're interested in that sort of thing. This new woman, well there's very little to be known about her in specific. What can be gleaned about her is tied to her being one of the members of the Crusaders, a group of superheroes backed by the Department of Defense who were framed as (say it with me if you can): "A more patriotic alternative to the radical independent superhero community more beholden to US national interest". Yea, that old song and dance. Her abilities resemble the former Captain Triumph but that's not saying much since those abilities just amount to flight, superhuman strength and some measure of invulnerability. The "flying brick" archetype that seems to be so statistically common among superhumans. Once the Crusaders inevitably went wrong (the collapse of which was part of what drove the Stormy Knight Phantom Lady into her public alcoholic spin out) this heroine seems to have vanished right back into whatever obscure corner she came out of.

I call this one the most obscure and most bizarre simply because we know so little and also that was probably the entire reason this pedigree was chosen for her, if indeed it was. Captain Triumph is a name that comes from the past, he was a respected member of the All Star Squadron in good standing BUT as far as we know the Gallants have no living family and no inheritors of their mantle meaning that the Defense Department could claim to anchor themselves back to the most respected and widespread superhero team of its original age without getting called out on it by anyone who knew better.