MIDWAY CITY : Peace Is the General Idea, Says Captain

Striding into an auditorium packed with elementary school students, Captain International held up two fingers in a peace sign. He was greeted with applause, laughter and scattered peace signs in return.

“I have a message for you,” he told them. “You need to be friends no matter what others look like and talk like.”

Captain International was at DeMille Elementary School to promote unity and friendship among children of all races, but students were more concerned with the super-hero’s qualifications.

“Can you really fly?” one child asked Captain International, also known as Marcus Platt, when he appeared at an assembly at the school Wednesday. “What planet are you from?” asked another.

Dressed in traditional super-hero garb, complete with a sweeping cape, mask and gauntlets, the character told the students he could fly but wouldn’t be able to demonstrate. Home, he said, was planet Earth.

“All the super-heros are involved in the effort to promote unity and friendship among all cultures,” Platt said. “I invite all you to join my team.”

Created by a Huntington Beach advertising agency, Captain International made one of his first appearances at the International Festival of Orange County, held last September in Westminster.

Co-creator Clodagh C. Lynn said the concept behind the super-hero was to create a figure to represent the idea of international unity and friendship, a central theme of the festival.

“He went over so well there we decided to start a program to introduce Captain International to kids at schools.”

Lynn and a partner, Robert A. King, started the program dubbed UNIFY (Understanding the Need for Intercultural Friendship among Youth) to bring their creation to schools in the Westminster School District.

Wednesday’s appearance was Captain International’s fourth, and students at DeMille had a mixed reaction to the man and his message.

Seven-year-old Katie Rodriguez thought he was “OK” but couldn’t recall what he had said. She was convinced, though, that he couldn’t fly.

Allan Mahony proclaimed the Captain a fun guy, and thought his message of being friends with everybody was a good idea.

“Friends just need to like me, they can be different from me,” Allan said.

King and Lynn hope that message can reach even more children through a Captain International comic strip. The comic strip also features enemies including Razorface, a drug lord; a witch named Belladonna, and the Mad Terrorist. It appears in several newspapers.

“Children are more willing to accept the message of unity among all cultures from a super-hero,” Lynn said.