First appearing in Action Comics No. 421, Captain Horatio Strong was created by writer Cary Bates, who had wanted to see what would happen if Superman and Popeye were to meet. In the first story, Bates presented a darker side of the famous sailor; the green vegetable that gave him his strength was a drug, making him dangerously irrational as well as superhumanly powerful. The character was designed to be more realistic-looking than Popeye, but still similar to him in appearance and speech. Other characters who appeared in his stories included Carnox, his girlfriend Olivia Tallow, whom he later married, and his idle rich friend J. Wellington Jones. In one story Strong was reunited with his long-lost father, Pappy Strong. Captain Strong appeared in five stories from 1973 to 1985, and in one post-Crisis story. He reappeared in The New 52 Harley Quinn's solo title. Here's a list of his appearances:
Horatio Strong, captain of The Fantasia, is naturally stronger than most men, but one day he discovered a strange seaweed he called "sauncha," the consumption of which made him superhumanly strong. At first he used his newfound power to do good for others, but the sauncha had unexpected side effects; it acted like a drug, making its user dangerously irrational and causing severe withdrawal pains. After being stopped by Superman and taken to a hospital, Strong swore off ever using sauncha again, saying that he would only rely on normal vegetables to keep up his strength. Strong became a friend of both Clark Kent and Superman.
''The New 52''
In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Captain Strong is reintroduced as trying to untangle his boat from some strangely glowing seaweed. He eats some of the seaweed, which has some strange effect on him, making him glow like the seaweed. Later on, his wife reports him missing and hires Harley Quinn's newly-formed Gang of Harleys to find him. Two members of the gang go out to investigate. They find him in the toilets of a bar, but the seaweed gave him super-strength and drove him mad, so he knocks them down. Harley and the other members of her gang go after him. Harley eats his seaweed and begins to hallucinate. While she is taken to a hospital, Strong takes the rest of the gang to his boat. There, his mind clears for a moment, but the seaweed caused addiction and he eats more of it, becoming irrational again. Harley rushes to save her gang, but Strong defeats her. Captain Strong is only stopped by the arrival of Mrs. DiAngelis, mother of five of the Harley Gang members. She shoots him with machine gun fire, knocking him down. She and the Harleys pitch the alien seaweed. Later, while on an island of doom created by a rich and crazed stalker of Harley's calling herself Harley Sinn, Captain Strong gives Harley's gang a ride to rescue her. During a battle with mercenaries, it is revealed that he was a former sniper and still has a gun, providing assistance to Harley and her friends by taking out their adversaries, a collection of mercenaries hired by Sinn, from his boat.
