Disaster struck at the dawn of the 1930s for Captain Useless, when Sterling Donovan retired and was replaced by his nephew, Phineas Parkhurst Donovan III. Phineas and Johnson (and a string of assistants) embarked on stories emphasizing the plight of workers. While initially well-received, the new political bent of the strip brought a round of condemnation when they launched their "Captain’s Kommie Kids Brigade". The Brigade appeared to be nothing more than a recruitment tool for the U.S. Communist Party. But the rise in communist propaganda in the strip had a devastating effect on the strip’s popularity.

Captain Useless: Superhero

In an effort to stop the steep decline, in spring 1932 Captain Useless was given supernatural powers and changed to a costumed adventurer who was prone to breaking into the homes of factory owners to demand unionization of workers and of dangling them from great heights in order to intimidate them. But the gambit was a failure. Newspapers dropped the strip by the dozen. Editorials denounced the ploy of changing the character to a "super hero" as "offensive both to the intellect and ethical faculties of each and every U.S. citizen." The creative team was again reduced to two.

While interest in their artistic work was diminishing, Johnson and Donovan became involved with the burgeoning labor union movement and in 1937 were among those attacked by the Ford Motor Company’s "Service Department" (created to keep unions out of Ford plants and to keep tabs on Ford workers) at the "Battle of the Overpass" in Dearborn, Michigan. The two ended up hospitalized and "Captain Useless" was placed on an extended hiatus.

But the captain’s curse wasn’t finished. Things went from bad to worse as notoriously corrupt prosecutor Hieronymus Bryk arrested Johnson and Donovan on trumped up charges. They were accused of ordering members of the Kids Brigade to steal a prototype of a two-way wrist radio from the State Department and handing the plans to the Russians. But Team Useless launched into uncharacteristic action. The Kids Brigade was mobilized to look into the accusations while Johnson and Donovan, out on bail, cooled their heels.

While following Bryk, Kids Brigade members stumbled on a meeting between the prosecutor and a corpulent mobster named Many Chins. At this meeting, Many Chins’ henchman, Luger, had the wrist radio. Bryk and Chins discussed copying the technology while setting up Team Useless to take the rap.

The Kids Brigade members followed Luger to the hotel where he was holed up. The kids got Johnson and Donovan, who notified the police detectives’ bureau. The police rushed the hotel room, surprising the mobsters and a scientist who was trying to figure out the workings of the radio. After a tommy-gun battle, Luger and the mobsters were dead, and the wrist radio was recovered.

Bryk fell into disgrace once Johnson and Donovan linked him to the mob. Bryk was sent up the river—shouting, "It may be my son or my son’s son, but I’ll get you two. I will have my revenge! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!!" as he was shepherded off to prison—and Johnson and Donovan were cleared.

Next: The Useless Years

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