CAPTAIN TIM

Real Name: Tim Mulrooney

Identity/Class: Human mutate (depowered);
    citizen of the United States of America;
    World War II, post-World War II, pre-modern, and modern eras)

Occupation: Retired;
    former owner of a Times Square electronics store;
    formerly adventurer

Group Membership: Former partner of Captain Wonder

Affiliations: Captain Wonder (Steve Jordan), Fiery Mask (Jack Castle)

Enemies: Herr Dwarf, Adolf Hitler, Mister Death (Max Blucher), unidentified Nazi forces

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: While not an alias, "Tim" was his first "codename" in his costumed identity;
    "Captain Tim, the scourge of crime" (second codename);
    "you little pipsqueak" (nickname used by Mister Death)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    formerly New York City, New York

First Appearance: Kids Komics I#1/1 (February 1943)

Powers/Abilities: Exposure to a chemical compound called "Wonder Fluid" gave Tim enhanced strength, speed, endurance, nigh invulnerability, immunity to poisons, retarded aging and the power of flight. Over time, all these powers vanished, even though Tim did age at a decreased rate. The loss of his powers put a mark on Mulrooney, who spent the rest of his life longing to feel special again. Inherently good natured and well meaning, Tim was also a bit simple-minded. 

Height: 6'1" (by approximation)
Weight: 145 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair:  Grey (blonde in youth)

History:
(Kid Komics I#1/1 - BTS) - Born somewhere in the late 1920s, Tim Mulrooney attended a local Wisconsin high school where the gifted but stodgy professor Steve Jordan taught chemistry.

(The Twelve I#7 - BTS) - The somewhat simple-minded Tim tried to impress his fellow classmates, desperately trying to act unruly in professor Jordan's class, so he wouldn't be considered a teacher's pet by his peers.

(Kid Komics I#1/1) - After he hit professor Jordan in the back of the head with a rubber band, Tim was forced to stay after class. Inquiring why Tim was acting this way, Professor Jordan was startled when the boy revealed he felt science was the bunk and that athletics trumped any scientific achievement. Hoping to change Tim's mind, Jordan showed him a vial of his most recent discovery: Wonder Fluid, which could grant anyone the strength of ten men. However, the naturally clumsy Jordan dropped the vial, which caused the Wonder Fluid to escape and quickly fill the room. Both Tim and the professor were doused in the fumes, but Tim managed to open a window that allowed the Wonder Fluid vapors to escape.

(The Twelve I#7 - BTS) - Because he opened the window, Tim didn't receive the same dosage of Wonder Fluid, which resulted in him being slightly less powerful than Jordan. His powers also waned over time, perhaps because of this.

(The Twelve I#7 (fb) - BTS) - The exposure to the Wonder Fluid gave Jordan and Tim superhuman abilities. Eager to fight crime, Professor Jordan assumed the codename Captain Wonder. Not being able to think of an alternate identity, Mulrooney went with Tim (figuring it *was* his name, after all).

(Kid Komics I#1/1) - During one of their few recorded cases, Captain Wonder and Tim faced the menace of Mister Death, who went about murdering key government officials pretending to be the actual grim reaper, able to kill merely by pointing at his victims (in reality, Mr. Death was a saboteur who sprayed his targets with an invisible, quick acting poisonous gas.) Tim proved instrumental in defeating Mister Death, distracting the villain long enough for Captain Wonder to knock him into a tray of corrosive chemicals, which proved fatal.

(Kid Komics I#2 - BTS) - Following orders from Hitler, the Dwarf ambushed and hypnotized several key political figures, one of them elderly senator Hammond. He forced them all to commit suicide, making their deaths look like an accident and baffling the police, even though Dwarf forced his victims to write suicide notes announcing who the next victim would be.

(Kid Komics I#2) - Learning of the mysterious suicides from the papers, Captain Wonder and his sidekick Tim traveled to Washington to investigate the situation. The note left by Hammond before he died announced his fellow senator Dobbs would be next. Wonder and Tim decided to stay near the senator to make sure they'd be able to act as soon as the killer showed himself.

(Kid Komics I#2 - BTS) - With some of his underlings already in place near the house of Dobbs should he fail,  Dwarf used his borderline mystical long distance hypnotic powers to quietly take control of the senator. Aware of the situation the Dwarf decided Captain Wonder would be his next victim right after making sure Dobbs wrote another suicide note before he was told to shoot himself using his personal handgun.

(Kid Komics I#2) - Captain Wonder and Tim were too late to prevent Dobbs from suddenly shooting himself through the head. Still rattled, they reacted to a  noise outside created by Dwarf's henchmen. Leaping into action, the heroes found themselves captured by the gun toting criminals who took them to a nearby house while waiting for the Dwarf's orders. However, Wonder and Tim freed themselves and started beating on the criminals.  The gang's leader made a run for it, rushing to a car and driving to the Dwarf's hideout while Wonder and Tim ran behind the vehicle. Arriving before the heroes, the criminal told his associate Mugsy to shoot the two heroes on sight.

(Kid Komics I#2 - BTS) - Despite having his automatic rifle at the ready, Mugsy was no match for Captain Wonder who knocked him out. At the same time, Tim had snuck into the house and was captured by the Dwarf and his forces. Furious his sidekick might be hurt or worse, Wonder rushed in only to get ambushed and knocked out as well.

(Kid Komics I#2) - Wonder and Tim were reuinited and chained up, to find themselves in the presence of the Dwarf who boldly announced he was their new master. Tim scoffed at the notion, forcing the Dwarf to use his hypnosis on Captain Wonder, succesfully bending the hero to his will (in reality, Wonder only played along). Dwarf ordered Wonder to throw Tim into a lava pit conveniently located under his base. However, Wonder signalled Tim at the last moment before throwing him towards the Dwarf and his men. Tim beat up the tiny man, but the nazi gave as good as he received and knocked Tim aside befoere running away from Captain Wonder, jumping across several platforms that hang over the lava. Wonder gave chase, finally catching up with the Dwarf at the heart of the firepit. The wily villain almost succeeded in making Wonder fall off the platform to his death, but Tim used his expert aim (honed by playing high school football) to throw a gun he found on the floor at the Dwarf, making him lose his balance and fall to his death in the lava. Captain Wonder commented his young partner had ensured the killer had a just death even as the Dwarf's corpse sizzled away in the molten rock. 

(The Twelve I#7 (fb) ) - During World War II, Captain Wonder and Tim traveled to Europe where they aided the allied forces against the Nazis.

(The Twelve I#1 -  BTS) - In 1945, with the war almost over, Captain Wonder joined a number of super-heroes in an assault on Berlin. Wanting to keep Tim out of harm's way, he didn't allow his young partner to accompany them.

(The Twelve I#7 (fb) ) - When Captain Wonder didn't return after the war (because he was captured by the Nazis and stuck in hibernation pods along with 11 fellow heroes), Tim decided it was up to him to assume the mantle and carry on the legacy of Professor Jordan. Changing his name to "Captain Tim, the scourge of crime" to honor his presumably fallen mentor, he spent most of the 1940s and 50s fighting crime. However, when he got shot and wounded trying to foil an abduction, Mulrooney realized the effects of the Wonder Fluid were wearing off. By the 1960s, his power levels reverted back to that of a baseline human, even though his aging process was still slightly retarded.

(The Twelve I#7 - BTS) - Losing his powers had a profound psychological impact on Mulrooney, who spent the rest of his life mourning the fact he had lost the one thing that made him special. Not a day went by when he didn't dream of having them back, just to feel special again.

(The Twelve I#7 (fb) ) - In order to support himself, Mulrooney opened an electronics store on Times Square where he worked for several decades, hating the fact he spent his days selling stereo components to "kids too gassed up to know a subwoofer from a hole in the head." As he approached old age, he was heartened by the news Captain America had been discovered in the Arctic, this reawakened his hope that one day Captain Wonder might return as well.

(The Twelve I#7 - BTS) - Now retired, Mulrooney was diagnosed with inoperable lymph node cancer. Not too long after that, he received word that Captain Wonder and his fellow heroes had been recovered in Berlin. He contacted the military to set up a meeting.

(The Twelve I#7) - Eventually granted an audience, Mulrooney visited the estate Captain Wonder and the others were staying at. Initially, Captain Wonder didn't recognize his former, aged sidekick but the two soon reconnected, with Wonder telling Fiery Mask how he and Tim used to fight evil together. When Fiery Mask excused himself to allow the two of them to catch up, Tim quickly came to business: he wanted another dose of Wonder Fluid, both to fight his cancer and to be special again. He figured that, after 65+ years, Jordan would have perfected the formula, unaware the professor had spent all that time in hibernation. When Wonder tried to explain he couldn't help him, Mulrooney angrily stormed off, calling his old friend a "sonofabitch" and telling him to go to Hell. Some time later, thoroughly demoralized now that his final chance was gone, Mulrooney climbed to the roof of a skyscraper, put on his Captain Tim cape and jumped to his death, with "special" being the final word on his lips as he fell.

Comments: Created by Otto Binder & Frank Giacoia.

    While writing The Twelve, J. Michael Straczynski took some liberties "interpreting" the source material and origin stories of the Timely and Atlas heroes. As such, many of the little details in Binder and Giacioa's origin story don't quite match up. Some are minor: in Kid Komics a rubber band is snapped at professor Jordan, while the flashback scene in The Twelve claims it was a rubber ball.  Another one is Tim's reputation in class. JMS portrayed Tim as a teacher's pet, while according to Binder he was actually one of Jordan's most unruly students.

    Then there's bigger things like the Binder-introduced fact he forced Captain Wonder to take him on as his sidekick (in much the same way Captain America got Bucky for a partner) which JMS doesn't bring up. Another thing that's glossed over is the fact Captain Wonder and Tim could de-power themselves using an antidote called "Black Fluid." For a quick re-powering, they each wore a special ring outfitted with a tiny needle that shot Wonder Fluid straight into their bodies after which the teenage Tim happily exclaimed he felt ready to give anybody a good licking.

    Ow Otto... 

    I found a copy of Kid Komics I#2 (Summer, 1943), but was only able to confirm Frank Giacoia as penciler and Vincent Fago as the editor. Rhe order is a little hard to determine. Obviously, the main story of Wonder and Tim happens some time after their origin story in Kids Komics I#1, but the origin of their enemy the Dwarf mentions he received his orders from Hitler on December 8th, 1941.

    Considering Wonder and Tim didn't make the scene until early 1943, it's not too unbelievable Herr Dwarf spent the better part of 1942 planning the killing spree he'd eventually began to carry out in the early months of 1943, leading up to his confrontation with and death at the hands of Wonder and Tim.

    Thanks to John Holstein for pointing out the Kid Komics#2 appearance.

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Tim Mulrooney has no known connections to

•  Any other "Tim" or "Mulrooney" characters

images: (without ads)
The Twelve I#7, p10, pan3 (main image)
Kid Komics I#1, p8,pan1 (thinks science is the bunk)
The Twelve I#7, p19, pans3,4,5,6 (receiving his powers)
Kid Komics I#1, p14, pan5 (feels like could lick anybody)
The Twelve I#7, p13, pan1 (as Captain Tim aware he was losing his powers)
The Twelve I#7, p14, pan5 (as an old man)

Appearances:
Kid Komics I#1 (February 1943) - Otto Binder (writer), Frank Giacoia (pencils & inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Kid Komics I#2 (Summer, 1943) - Frank Giacoia (pencils), Vincent Fago (editor)
The Twelve I#7 (October 2008) - J. Michael Straczynski (writer), Chris Weston (pencils & inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)

Last updated: 11/23/14

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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