Captain Flag and Yank the Eagle in Blue Ribbon Comics #16, at Auction

A patriotic superhero with a weird helmet and an intelligent eagle sidekick? That sounds like Peacemaker and Eagly, but before that, MLJ’s Captain Flag and his impressive eagle sidekick named Yank also fit that description. Captain Flag and Yank made their first appearance in Blue Ribbon Comics #16, cover-dated September 1941, in a story written by Joe Blair and drawn by Lin Streeter. An obscure, unusual, and fascinating superhero saga from the WWII era, there’s a Blue Ribbon Comics #16 (MLJ, 1941) CGC Apparent FN 6.0 Slight (B-1) Off-white pages and several other issues of Blue Ribbon Comics featuring Captain Flag up for auction in the 2023 May 4 The MLJ Heroes Showcase Auction #40222 at Heritage Auctions.

Eagly was created for the Peacemaker HBO Max series by James Gunn, and before his appearance in that series, there was no similar character in Peacemaker comic book history (Eagly has subsequently appeared in comics in Strange Love Adventures #1). Gunn revealed on Twitter that the relationship between Peacemaker and Eagly was inspired by the story of Jeff Guidry and his eagle named Freedom.  Eagly has quickly become a fan favorite.

The creation of Captain Flag and Yank was inspired by the times of the early WWII era. Publisher MLJ by that time already had a major patriotic hero with the Shield, who debuted in Pep Comics #1 cover-dated January 1940. They added Captain Flag and Yank to their lineup about six months after rival Marvel/Timely introduced Captain America. It’s little surprise that such a symbolic character as an eagle named Yank was used in the context of the war era considering what was underway in the superhero comics of the period. In fact, Yank figures heavily in Captain Flag’s origin story — saving him from certain death at the hands of America’s enemies during his transformative moment.

Captain Flag only appeared in Blue Ribbon Comics #16-22 during the Golden Age, and Yank the Eagle was with him during several of those adventures.  An obscure WWII era superhero saga that is deserving of more attention, there’s a Blue Ribbon Comics #16 (MLJ, 1941) CGC Apparent FN 6.0 Slight (B-1) Off-white pages and several other issues of Blue Ribbon Comics featuring Captain Flag up for auction in the 2023 May 4 The MLJ Heroes Showcase Auction #40222 at Heritage Auctions.

Blue Ribbon Comics #16 (MLJ, 1941) CGC Apparent FN 6.0 Slight (B-1) Off-white pages. Origin and first appearance of Captain Flag. Hitler appearance. Shield and Dusty back cover pin-up. Rang-A -Tang appearance. Sam Cooper cover and art. Paul Reinman art. CGC notes, “Restoration includes: small amount of color touch on cover.” Overstreet 2022 GD 2.0 value = $194; VG 4.0 value = $388; FN 6.0 value = $582.

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