Power Man and Iron Fist #111-112 (1984): 1st Captain Hero

This is where PM&IF comics start to get really, really good again.  Jim Owsley will stay on the book to the bitter end (issue #125).  The issue starts with Luke being attacked by “Captain Hero” who, it turns out, is pretty similar to Shazam (with some additional shape-shifting type powers), in that he’s got Superman-style powers only he’s a little kid.

After knocking him out, Danny and Luke befriend young/old Captain Hero and get him sent to Project Pegasus for a cure.  But since they’re friends now, they want to visit him there so they go to Falcon for help.  (His connection to Project Pegasus isn’t clear to me.) 

Captain Hero will return in later issues as Super Skrull, but we’ll get to that.  It’s not clear to me that Owsley knew the book would go in that direction later, so I’m betting it’s a retcon.  Nothing here indicates that Cap Hero is a skrull.

By the time the tale is done, we learn that his powers are from an “alien spore” that is slowly killing him, so he is taken to Project Pegasus where he can be controlled and, hopefully, cured.

Falcon makes a brief cameo appearance.

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