Captain Nazi

---

---

Context

Captain Nazi (spoiler – he’s a villain) is one of the traditional enemies of Captain Marvel (Billy Batson).

However, there were many evolutions over the decades. This profile thus covers 1995 to 2010. During this span he’s more of a JSA and Wonder Woman enemy.

We suggest that you refer to our Guide to Captains Nazi for more. It is best to read those in order, since the profiles make comparisons to previous versions of Captain Nazi to compare and contrast them.

Background

Powers and Abilities

Captain Nazi possesses superhuman strength, durability, speed and agility.

But though he’s undeniably very powerful, he’s clearly not as good as the alpha-class superhumans he tends to end up fighting.

However

However, for opponents who are not at the level of these top dogs, Nazi is a serious problem. For instance :

In the 2000s, with a better Hero pointsDC Heroes RPG concept expressing narrative importance/immunity total, Captain Nazi could meet small teams of JSA members in battle by himself. He won fights against redoubtable opponents such as Hawkman.

His power level is thus unusual. Very powerful across the board, but not quite alpha-class.

Other capabilities

Captain Nazi has connections among American neo-Nazi terrorists, prison gangs, militias, etc.. The most determined call him “the White man’s real Superman” and have conducted terrorist actions to demand his liberation after he was arrested.

Part of the Superman comparison is because Captain Nazi can fly. Unless with previous takes on the character, this is intrinsic. He doesn’t need an inhaler to use this power.

Our game stats assume that Captain Nazi’s durability includes a minor regenerative aspect. This helps account for how quickly he recovered the use of his eyes. However this is not clearly demonstrated. It’s an hypothetical.

Krieger claimed that he was the very incarnation of Nazi ideology — a sort of mystical avatar — and could not die as long as those ideas had supporters. While some assume that he was making a statement of fact, this just seems to be a grandiose boast. Hint – don’t trust Nazis.

In a 2010 appearance, Captain Nazi spots Wildcat (Ted Grant) hiding in shadows. He then smugly mentions having enhanced senses. The panel implies that he heard Wildcat breathe.

No such power was ever mentioned before. And no previous incident leads one to suspect that he has any enhanced senses. Our game stats therefore assume that he spotted Wildcat in the old-fashioned way and made a deceptive, self-aggrandising boast. But there *could* be something.

A nazipothesis

One *unsubstantiated* hypothesis is that Captain Nazi heals and then becomes stronger after being nearly killed or getting grievously wounded. That would explain :

This is however *unsupported* by the material. Nothing like that is ever mentioned in any source.

Still, it would explain all discrepancies in one clean sweep.

Who moved my big red cheese ?

Captain Marvel (Billy Batson) was hugely popular back during the 1940s. There even were live action series.

But later Captain Marvel stories were chaotic. This was caused both by legal issues and failures to recapture the favour of the public.

DC Comics acquired the rights of the character. They tried to reintroduce him as a major hero in the DC Universe in the wake of the Crisis on Infinite Earth. The first attempt didn’t work, but a new take 10 years later was more successful.

Each of these attempts included a Captain Nazi. But the take on the character was different in each case. Writers attempted to modernise and develop the villain. Writeups.org treats these takes as different characters – an unified profile would be a complete mess.

The version that appears in 1995 — profiled here — is the most successful one. This take of the character has far more appearances, and is much better defined than all previous interpretations of Captain Nazi.

It was also less tied to the Marvels, clashing with many different heroes and villains.

History (part 1)

Albrecht Krieger was born in Germany (or rather the Second Reich, under Kaiser Wilhelm II  ) during the early 1910s.

His childhood was miserable. His mother was a prostitute, and his father was her pimp.

Herr Krieger was a violent, moody man. He ended up killing his own wife over a bag of stolen groceries. He also beat Albrecht and his little brother Wolf every day.

Übermensch

How Krieger became Captain Nazi is unchronicled. Krieger mentioned that Hitler had personally mentored him, and given him his code name. But nothing else is known.

It is unlikely that Albrecht’s pimp father was also a scientist inventing miracle food.

The 1980s version of Captain Nazi was enhanced by something called Formula X, developed in a lab in Bavaria. So it is possible that something very much like it was used to enhance Krieger.

Perhaps his brother Wolf, who seemed to excel with technology, played a role.

Captain Nazi clashed with American heroes during the war, and in particular Bulletman.

Flight of the Führer

Captain Nazi was part of one of the Reich’s 1945 Hail Mary plans. The idea was to clandestinely ship key Nazi officers to America. There, they would lay low and rebuild their power.

Captain Nazi was to personally oversee the transfer of Adolf Hitler, who was placed within a suspended animation capsule. His orders were to then enter suspended animation, using a similar capsule. Nazi would be awakened when the Führer would come back.

A flailing attempt to determine whether Allied intelligence knew about the transfer led Krieger to the conclusion that the plan was no longer secret. He had to alter it.

Captain Nazi sunk the freighter that was carrying the capsules, leaving the one with Adolf Hitler hidden in the wreck.

Krieger then conspicuously left with his own capsule. He gambled that the Allies wouldn’t search the wreck – and assume that Nazi had already taken the most important cargo with him.

I like to be in America

Nazi then used the capsule to place himself in suspended animation on American soil. He presumably had made contact with his brother Wolf to make sure that the capsule would be monitored for as long as necessary.

The first thing Nazi intended to do upon awakening was to dive within the wreck and recover Hitler’s hidden suspended animation capsule.

(These events are curious. It is well established that in the DC Universe the Führer was killed by the Unknown Soldier, who then arranged for the death to look like a suicide. Given the haphazard nature of the suspended animation capsules plot, it is likely that it was just meant as a diversion).

(One hypothesis is that the “Hitler” in the capsule was a body double placed there to send the Allies on a wild goose chase. In this hypothesis, to maintain verisimilitude, Krieger was not told that the man in the capsule was not actually Hitler.)

(Of course, this would make the end result ironic. With Hitler being killed by the Unknown Soldier before the real plan could be executed, and decoy Captain Nazi ending up being the one who survived.)

Keep on rockin’ in the free world

For half a century, Albrecht’s brother Wolf cared for his animation capsule. He had emigrated to the USA – possibly as part of Operation Paperclip  .

The capsule got increasingly worn and leaky, but Wolf faithfully maintained it.

Wolf Krieger had children, then grand-children.

At least one of the latter, Katrina Krieger, was indoctrinated as a Nazi. She also was given powers as Madame Libertine. She helped her grandfather by stealing supplies for her grand-uncle’s capsule.

History (part 2)

In 1995, Albrecht emerged from suspended animation. The capsule had generally worked, and Captain Nazi had not aged. However he was sick, feverish, confused and hyper.

Refusing to rest and go through a medical check-up, Nazi wanted to immediately leap into action.

His brother stated that there wasn’t any money left to build a power base. As a result, the coughing and sweating Captain Nazi decided to rob some bank.

He ran into Captain Marvel almost immediately. Their flying duel took them over Fawcett City’s bay, where Captain Marvel stunned Nazi.

Two fishermen in a rowboat saved Nazi from drowning, not realising who he was. The raging Captain Nazi killed the older fisherman, Jacob Freeman, and hurled Jacob’s grandson Freddy away.

Freddy Freeman

Captain Marvel saved Freddy twice. Once over the bay. And once a short while later when Nazi, incensed by the young Freeman being described as a courageous survivor by the media, came to murder him at the hospital.

The increasingly sick Nazi was defeated by Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel. The pair then narrowly saved Freddy Freeman a third time by turning him into Captain Marvel, Jr..

Captain Nazi was placed under special restraints and treated for his sickness. It turned out to be a flu strain – to which he had no immunity since he was from the past.

Theo Adams

Thanks to mute convict Theo Adams, Captain Nazi soon escaped from the hospital. He then summarily dropped Adams to his death. Captain Marvel, Jr., who had just learned of his grandfather’s death, saved Adams then attacked Krieger.

Captain Nazi managed to get rid of Freeman, then resumed his mission. Now that he was healthier, he remembered about Hitler’s suspended animation capsule.

Krieger recovered the capsule underwater. He opened it on a nearby beach. But to his shock he only found an uniformed skeleton inside. The distraught Captain Nazi was apprehended by all three Marvels without much resistance.

His grand-niece Katrina attempted to free him, but was also arrested.

The prisoner

Nazi was kept restrained at a STAR Labs facility. It was eventually determined that he would first be tried for his WWII crimes in Poland.

When he discovered where Krieger was held, Captain Marvel, Jr. became irrational and kidnapped him. However, Freeman came to realise that he had no idea of what he wanted to do with the bound Nazi.

Krieger escaped. For a time it was unclear whether Junior would kill Nazi or the other way around. But Nazi was eventually sedated by aged, retired hero the Minuteman.

While imprisoned, Krieger associated with White supremacist gang the Aryan Alliance. It is unclear whether he joined it, started it or took over it.

With other Society operatives. L to R: Cheetah (Barbara Minerva)’s tail, Shadow Thief, Brutale, Knockout, Captain Nazi, Crazy Quilt II, Multiplex, Hellhound, Black Spider, the Wizard.

History (part 3)

In 2000, Krieger was briefly busted out of prison by Klarion… bum bum bum… the witch boy !

Klarion was playing a prank by turning adult heroes and villains into children, and vice versa. Temporarily deaged to about 13, Krieger was taken out by the Marvels.

Jokerized

This time Nazi was sent to the Slabs prison for metahumans.

In 2001, the Joker exposed most inmates to a variant of his Joker gas. This made them all look Joker-like and behave in an erratic, insanely violent way. The riot became a breakout.

Captain Nazi, now green-haired, alabaster-skinned and sporting a contorted grin, led a gang of a dozen “jokerised” superhuman inmates in an attack on Pennsylvania.

The First Marine Regiment was flown in. They were issued man-portable energy cannons and other anti-superhuman weaponry.

After heavy fighting in Dresher, most villains surrendered. Captain Nazi was rendered unconscious.

Most persons exposed to the Joker venom, including Krieger, were saved by medical teams. They could recover their health and sanity.

The great Society

Krieger was next spotted in 2005, as one of the agents of the Society. The Society was an enormous organisation of superhuman and/or costumed criminals. It was assembled by an impostor passing himself as Lex Luthor.

It is possible that the Society busted Nazi out of prison and asked for him joining in return.

Nazi also fought Wonder Woman at least once during this general time frame. This encounter is undocumented.

Captain Nazi was among the Society agents deployed to hunt down and capture the so-called Secret Six. These were a small group of skilled villains assembled by the real Lex Luthor to oppose the impostor.

He also assisted Society member the Crime Doctor in conducting lengthy torture sessions to have the Secret Six spit out their secrets.

With cybernetic goggles.

Watch out for the claws

One of the Six, Catman, escaped.

He took Captain Nazi by surprise, then infuriated him by insulting Hitler. The combination created enough of an opening for Catman to jab a pair of drugs-filled syringes into Krieger’s eyeballs.

(A later scene miscolours a Übermensch-like character using the Captain Nazi palette. Wrongly giving the impression that Krieger returned quickly to the field, whereas he actually was undergoing surgeries).

Blind but not out

Nazi survived, but lost his sight. However, cybernetic goggles built by Society doctors soon allowed him to return to the field.

Gotham crimelord Black Mask requested that Society heavyweights slay murderous vigilante the Red Hood. Nazi, the Hyena and Count Vertigo nearly killed the Hood, but Batman intervened.

The Hood ended up jamming a powerful stun gun into Nazi’s cybernetic goggles. He directly electrocuted the villain’s nervous system, felling him. The Red Hood assumed that he had killed Captain Nazi, but Krieger could not be slain so easily.

In fact, Krieger recovered the use of his eyes, and ditched the goggles.

Khandaq

The Captain made a deal with the Luthor impostor. An army with powers similar to Nazi’s would be created. In exchange, Krieger flew to Khandaq, Black Adam’s kingdom.

His mission was to create massive disruption. That was to prevent Black Adam from allying with the Society’s enemies.

Nazi reportedly freed many prisoners from Khandaqi jails. He then engaged Black Adam, trying to choke him to death while spouting racist insults. Black Adam eventually prevailed, thanks to his greater durability.

Captain Nazi survived the conflict in an unrevealed manner. Perhaps a freed enemy of Black Adam attacked, allowing Nazi to crawl away before the monarch of Khandaq could finish him off.

Continued !

The second half of this article is there.

---

---

---