With that scandal behind them, the team resumed production of the strip in mid-1941. Captain Useless was once again gaining popularity, but as usual it was short-lived. As the U.S. became embroiled in World War II the strip’s fortunes took a turn for the worse when Captain Useless was drafted into the army. While Captain Useless was serving a surprisingly pastoral tour of duty defending Europe’s freedom, his spot was filled—like so many others vacated by young men called to serve their country during those difficult days—by a can-do American housewife who, instead of working in a factory, fought evil in a series of adventures that can be seen in retrospect as pure wartime propaganda.

Unfortunately, this very drive was such a radical departure from the usual and beloved Captain Useless inertia that confused readers once again left like rats leaving a sinking ship. From his earliest days hawking shotguns and cheap booze, people have never associated Captain Useless with effectiveness. However, Captain Useless was bolstered during this time by a series of wartime serials with the same propaganda bent as the strips of that epoch.

The movie deals helped send a signal that better days were once again around the corner. Returning as a war hero and resuming his role in the strip, the Captain saw the prestige lost during his communist phase restored and the dawn of an era of unparalleled popularity.

In October 1947, prompted by a labor union strike that had affected the filming of the Captain Useless serials, Donovan and Johnson were brought as friendly witnesses to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, marching in arm-in-arm with Walt Disney and then-Screen Actors’ Guild president Ronald Reagan. However, despite being friendly witnesses, Team Useless was grilled at length about their own views rather than the strike. Possibly fearing repercussions from their political activities during the 1930s, Donovan and Johnson denied any involvement with the Communist Party, instead pointing an incriminating finger at some of their past assistants, several of whom had already conveniently disappeared.

They pointed to the role of their movies in stirring up morale during wartime. However, the committee found fault with the depiction of Russia as an ally in World War II-era serials, expressing concerns that any positive depiction of Russians was essentially recruitment materials for the communists, as shown in this excerpt from the transcript:

Mr. STRIPLING. Well, do you suppose that your picture influenced the people who saw it in this country, the millions of people who saw it in this country?

Mr. JOHNSON: Wow! Millions of people saw our movie? That’s so cool!

Mr. DONOVAN: Blimey!

Mr. STRIPLING. Well, due to the present conditions in the international situation, don’t you think it was rather dangerous to write about such a disillusionment as was sought in that picture?

Mr. JOHNSON: What the…?!

Mr. DONOVAN: Well Guv’nor, it wasn’t dangerous at all to put a piece of paper in the old typewriter and write a bit of a script, except for that one time when I dropped the little bugger on me foot! Now, Mr. Johnson and meself definitely sussed in 1942 what would happen in the world now. I was having a nosh on a nice jellied eel one day when some bloke from the future warned us of what was coming. But we thought the most patriotic thing we could do was go on with the movie to get a bit of dosh.

The congressmen were forced to agree that lining their pockets was in the finest tradition of capitalism, commended Johnson and Donovan for their adherence to American ideals, and sent them away with a substantial grant.

Invigorated by his acceptance into the political mainstream, Captain Useless rode out the rest of the 1950s on strong public support. His adventures at this time were mostly innocuous and pro-establishment, occasionally taking him into pro-government espionage (ending, as one might expect, in complete futility), but more often involving the moral equivalent of rescuing orphans from fires or getting kittens out of trees. Captain Useless was something he’d never been before: boring. Those looking for excitement looked elsewhere, as the captain’s curse raised its ugly head once more.

Next: Dark Days

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