Captain Midnight™

Character History

History & Public Domain Status

Captain Midnight, AKA Jim "Red" Albright, debuted in 1940's Captain Midnight radio serial before soaring into comics, film serials, and even a TV show.

A masked aviator and brilliant inventor, he embodied wartime courage and scientific ingenuity.

Under the Copyright Act of 1909, which was in effect at the time, works were granted an initial copyright term of 28 years. To secure the full protection, the copyright had to be renewed during the last (28th) year of that first term, 1962. No such renewal was filed as far as we have been able to determine. This places him in the public domain.

While the original Golden Age stories of Captain Midnight are in the public domain, Dark Horse Comics holds a registered trademark for the character in comic books. Our work uses only the public domain elements, currently only for promoting our prose selections and other merchandise and does not overlap with that trademark class.

In our stories, Captain Midnight, AKA Jamie "Jim" Albright, is a pioneering female pilot who concealed her identity during wartime service, flying bombers as "Jim" Albright.

She carries forward the daring spirit of the original but through the lens of hidden histories — a woman who fought, flew, and thrived in a man’s world.

Her Midnight legacy is about resilience, reinvention, and uncovering truths history left in the shadows.

Trademark Note:

Public Domain Super Heroes has filed a Trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office as of November 2025 on "Captain Midnight™" to protect our use of the character in prose. Our work uses only the public domain character and in no way infringes on any trademark held by anyone else.