THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE (1983)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

I chose this German poster for RETURN OF CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE because it tossed in a couple of color-coded bimbos in negligees, neither of whom appears in the film. Since INVINCIBLE is a musical, there are a handful of skimpily clad singers in one or two scenes, but White Negligee and Black Negligee are not among them.

The musical numbers, as it happens, are also the only remarkable thing about INVINCIBLE, an Australian attempt to spoof the SUPERMAN movie franchise. Some of the songs were penned by Richard "ROCKY HORROR" O'Brien, and two of them allow starring villain Christopher Lee to show off his impressive baritone. Star Alan Arkin also turns in some decent spoken-singing, though it's clearly not his strength.

Metallic-suited Captain Invincible (Arkin) somehow acquires super-powers sometime during WWII, and he uses those powers-- largely magnetic in nature--to fight the good fight against the Nazi menace. Unfortunately, since for a time the Allies were allied with the Russians, his past actions get the captain in dutch with Commie-hunters in 1950s America. The captain becomes so disgusted with this small-minded political persecution that he disappears for the next thirty years, holing up in an Australian city. In addition, he becomes a drunk and a bum, and it's not at all clear how he sustains himself during this time.

In 1983 the captain's long-time enemy Mister Midnight (Lee) resurfaces, beginning by stealing a vital piece of U.S. ordnance, a "hypno-ray." It's never very clear what Midnight wants to accomplish with the ray, though there's a sequence that suggests some sort of real-estate scheme, possibly a nod to Lex Luthor's evil plan in the 1978 SUPERMAN. 

Providentially, a young policewoman named Patty witnesses the captain use his powers, and she contacts the U.S. with news of the hero's survival. The President himself (an amusing Michael Pate) journeys Down Under to persuade the hero to come out of retirement, and eventually the captain allows himself to return to America, with Patty in tow. 

Since no semblance of romance is ever suggested, clearly the script, co-written by nineties wunderkind Steven E. de Souza, was hoping to remain kid-friendly all the way. And in truth, with the exception of the humor in the songs, all the comic stuff in INVINCIBLE feels like it was designed for one of those tepid 1970s Disney comedies. If one happens to be in the mood for tepid humor, then INVINCIBLE fills that particular bill. A representative scene is one in which the captain, trying to test out his rusty powers, magnetically covers himself in dozens of metal implements. It's kind of cute, but not actively funny. Midnight, who may have played some role in forcing the hero into retirement, finds out that the captain is back and begins taking counter-measures. The captain and Patty go mooching about, tracking down Midnight's operation, and after a lot of low-level comedy the captain meets his old foe, who tries various stratagems, including luring the hero back to dipsomania. 

The captain's comical use of his powers provide most of the "action," which just barely edges into the combative mode. Much of the script emphasizes the protagonist's regret for the passing of a more innocent time, though the film's portrait of the eighties is pretty mild, so the film's latter half doesn't advance the sociopolitical content of the opening. Interestingly, four years previous, a DC comic book asserted that the heroes of the Justice Society had gone into retirement because of similar anti-Communist accusations during the early 1950s. But in those days, it seems unlikely that any writer who wasn't already a comics-fan would have been aware of that precedent.