[4][5] Roy Thomas asserted, "Captain Ultra was a parody character that George Perez and I made up for FF #177, in our own spoof of DC's auditions for the Legion of Super-Heroes (it had that quasi-legion of rejected heroes, remember?).

The joke was that the Frightful Four, if they had let him join, would have been going up against the Fantastic Four--with its Human Torch--aided by a man who passed out in the presence of any kind of flame.

"[6] Captain Ultra debuted in Fantastic Four #177 (December 1976), and was created by Roy Thomas, George Pérez, and Joe Sinnott.

Superheroics interfere with this, such as when the underground dirt creature Mud Pi kidnaps the citizens of Wash Basin, Texas.

After two of his teammates, Paragon and Gadget are killed, Griffin briefly fights Iron Man to protect the rest of his group.

During the course of their investigation it is revealed that there are two new Initiative recruits in the process of being fast-tracked to the Nebraska team, although Captain Ultra expressed irritation at the prospect of having to "babysit the punks".

Daniel Jurlan of Comic Book Resources ranked Captain Ultra 4th in their "15 Obscure Marvel Characters Who Deserve Their Own Movie" list.