Captain X

• Also known as

Professor John Payton was the birth father of Dane Dorrance of the Sea Devils. At the end of World War II, Professor Payton left on an oceanography expedition. Off the South American coast, he drifted alone on a pontoon raft, testing sea survival techniques. Suddenly, a Nazi submarine surfaced and captured the Professor. Although the war was over, these Nazis intended to use their advanced sub, fitted with unique scientific weapons and devices, to terrorize the seas and avenge their homeland. The Professor was able to free himself, and he quickly activated a gadget with a sealed control. The Nazis frantically attempted to surface, screaming that he had activated the moleculizer. They rushed into the life-rafts, abandoning the Professor in the sub. A strange glow from the device affected everything, including the Professor's own flesh. He soon learned that the unperfected gadget altered his body cells so that he could never live outside the sub, however inside the sub the glow's effects made him immortal. Doomed to the sub eternally, he assumed the identity of Captain X.