The Good Captain

""Captain Cold... Captain Boomerang... they probably would have gone for it if I was a captain.""

- Trickster, Justice League Unlimited

There is a definite prejudice in Superhero comics towards using force rather than reason to sort things out. As a result, a fighting man with a military-sounding background gets more respect than a thinking man with a doctorate or a medical qualification. This is probably an inheritance from the early days of comics, where the patriotic World War II setting made military good guys obvious. The rank of "Captain" probably became common as, in the Army, it is low-ranking enough to be approachable and avoid the inevitable moral ambiguity of the most senior ranks, but high enough to deserve some respect.

The upshot of this is that characters whose names begin with "Captain" are almost always good, unless explicitly subverting this or a Nazi. (In the case of a Nazi, or in the case of German officers from other periods, the correct title Hauptmann could occur. If the Nazi Captain is referred to as Kapitän we might have a case of Did Not Do the Research, since Kapitän exclusively refers to the marine. Another trap for the unwary is referring to an SS officer of this rank as Hauptmann when he would in fact be a Hauptsturmführer.)

"Commander" carries similar connotations to "Captain." As a naval rank, it's a likely designation for commanding officers in Space Navies.

Not necessarily The Captain.

Anime and Manga

 * Busou Renkin: Captain Bravo-- Good.
 * The Captain from Hellsing, sometimes called Hans Günsche a la his prototype version: Evil because he's a Nazi, but shows occasional "good"ness, or at least helpfulness to the goodies.
 * On the other hand, Captain Pip Bernadette/Bernadotte/Vernedead stays on the good side to the end... And even after that.
 * From One Piece, Captain Luffy: Good. Then again, then there are the other pirate captains in this series which can be good or bad...but usually bad.
 * Eustace "Captain" Kidd: Based on his record, bad, including going so far as to crucify opponents who were trying to run away and killing civilians.
 * Also various Marine captains, who can also be good or bad depending on the person (but they would all tell you they're good).
 * Gurren Lagann: Captain Viral -- Became captain of the Chouginga Dai Gurren after his Heel Face Turn.
 * Captain Nanoha Takamachi - Good. Likes to befriend people.
 * In Gundam, Captain Bright Noah of the White Base, Argama, Nahel Argama, and Ra Calium: Good, Team Dad, nicknamed "The Eternal Captain" (obviously for a good reason).
 * Also from the Universal Century: Captain Eiphar Synapse, good. Captain Norris Packard, good for a Zeke. Captain Ethan Ryer, General Ripper of a Feddie.
 * Zeta Gundam's Henken Bekkener of the Argama and the Radish. Good. Team Dad and Only Sane Man.
 * Captain Bask Om. Titans field leader. Bad. Horrifically bad.
 * Gundam Seed's Captain Murrue Ramius of the Archangel: Good, Team Mom
 * Captain Natarle Badgiruel of the Dominion: A Sergeant Rock, but still Good
 * Captain Andrew Waltfeld of the Lesseps and Eternal: Anti-Villain, Heel Face Turn to the heroes' side.
 * Captain William Sutherland of the Earth Forces General Staff and later, the Doolittle: General Ripper, fantastic racist, Obstructive Bureaucrat, and The Dragon to Muruta Azrael. Bad. Very bad, and The Strategist to boot.
 * Gundam Seed Destiny's Captain Talia Gladys of the Minerva: Good, but loyal to a Well-Intentioned Extremist leader.
 * Captain Neo Roanoke of the Girty Lue. Manipulative Bastard, Criminal Amnesiac, and all around bastard. Bad, Team Dad. Later.

Comic Books

 * Captain America: Good. Was briefly "Nomad" and later "The Captain" before Nextwave's version, but went back to America. Still good.
 * Captain Atom: Good, but occasionally falls into Knight Templar; led to the accidental destruction of Kansas in Kingdom Come. Note that he originally actually had the rank of Captain in the Air Force, but was later promoted to Major.
 * Captain Britain: Good.
 * Captain Canuck: Satirical but good.
 * Captain Cold: Enemy of The Flash, Evil.
 * Captain Boomerang: Enemy of The Flash, Evil.
 * The above two led to a Lampshade Hanging in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Flash and Substance," where they teamed up, and the Trickster laments that they never bought into his ideas, saying, "Maybe if I were a captain they'd listen to me."
 * Captain Comet: Good.
 * Captain Dynamo: Good.
 * Captain Liberty (New England Comics): Employed as a hero by the US government. Purposely given a name that would make people assume she's a man.
 * Captain Marvel (The DCU): Good.
 * Captain Mar-Vell (Marvel Universe, more than one incarnation): Good, although the Genis-Vell incarnation was a Knight Templar and completely off his rocker.
 * Captain Metropolis (Watchmen): Good... but bigoted.
 * There's also Captain Carnage, who is not so much evil as a totally fucked up Combat Masochist.
 * And a Captain Axis, who the first Nite Owl once beat up.
 * Captain Nazi: A hero of his nation, but as his nation was Nazi Germany, evil.
 * In Justice Society of America, the current Captain Nazi leads a squad of other Nazi villains, many of whom are also Captains. This gets Lampshaded.
 * The Captain of Nextwave: Grand mockery of this trope.
 * HIS NAME IS THE CAPTAIN!!!
 * Captain Rectitude was not actually a made-up example. Bad. Also badly dressed.
 * Captain Justi Ueki Tylor: Good for the most part. Now, whether this is through sheer dumb luck or the most brilliant tactical mind or some combination of the two is up to debate.

Film

 * Captain Chaos: Good but goofy in The Cannonball Run; evil but goofy in the Scottish Amicable adverts.
 * And Captain USA at the very end of the movie. Dom Deluise blooped "Captain America" as can be seen in the end credits.
 * Mystery Men's Captain Amazing: Strictly commercial. Vanquishes baddies, but also occasionally gets them released from prison for selfish publicity-seeking reasons.
 * In Pirates of the Caribbean, Captain Jack Sparrow: Good (?), though often drunk/crazy. Or is he? Occasionally sells out his friends as part of a Batman Gambit. It's okay, they frequently return the favor, and unlike them, Jack usually has a Plan B to get them out of it...
 * Captain Hector Barbossa: Affably Evil.
 * Captain Zoom - Initially reluctant, but heroic in the end.
 * In Godzilla, Captain Gordon: Good, and a incredibly huge Badass. The man defeated Godzilla by burying him in ice, successfully lead a resistance against the massively powerful alien force with just his crew and Godzilla and killed aliens with a katana and his bare hands, and even at the end of the movie when Godzilla brought down he still is prepared to fight him with just a sword.
 * Star Wars's Captain Han Solo: Good.
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars's Captain Rex: Good... Which very likely changes with Order 66.
 * Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Commander Lyle Rourke is a subversion of this, and a good one too. There are a couple hints in his dialogue that he's not what he seems, but overall he does a good job faking the audience out and setting up the reveal.
 * In M*A*S*H, Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, "Duke" Forrest, and "Trapper" John McIntyre are all Captains. They're not quite as good as their television counterparts, but they're much better than their counterparts in the novel.

Literature

 * Discworld's Captain Carrot: Good.
 * The other Captain Carrot: Also good.
 * Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea's Captain Nemo: It varies, depending on the interpretation used in the film/story in question.
 * Treasure Island's Captain Smollett: Somewhat reprehensible (except when played by Kermit the Frog), but basically good. Captain Silver: Ostensibly the villain, but far more affable.
 * Captain Jack Aubrey - Good Dude, Badass.
 * Captain Horatio Hornblower - Good.
 * Hornblower's sidekick eventually becomes Captain William Bush - also good. In fact even the 'evil' Captain Sawyer was really a figure of pity due to his increasing insanity.
 * Moby Dick's Captain Ahab - Anti-Hero or Villain.
 * Captain Underpants: Good, but dumb.
 * A Series of Unfortunate Events's Captain Widdershins: good.

Live-Action TV

 * Captain Blackadder: Jerkass.
 * Captain Darling: Paper Tiger.
 * Captain Power: Good.
 * Torchwood's Captain Jack Harkness - starts out a bit dodgy, but turns good once he meets The Doctor.
 * Captain John Hart - Captain Jack's Evil Counterpart.
 * Firefly's Captain Malcolm Reynolds: Tries to be a Jerkass. But underneath it all....
 * Star Trek: The Original Series's Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. Good.
 * Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise-D and E. Good.
 * Captain Johnathan Archer of the Enterprise. Good.
 * Captain Jonathan Archer of the ISS Enterprise. Evil Twin.
 * Commander Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine. Good.
 * Captain Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine and the USS Defiant. Better.
 * Captain Kathryn Janeway of the USS Voyager. Good. Noticing a pattern yet?
 * Sesame Street's Captain Vegetable - Good for you.
 * Babylon 5's Captain Sheridan - Good, though with a wicked destiny complex.
 * Captain Kangaroo: Good.
 * Lost's Captain Gault: Good, after some uncertainty. He opposes Keamy's plans and helps Sayid.
 * Lampshaded in Top Gear by James "Captain Slow" May (Good, compared to his cohorts).
 * Chuck's "Captain Awesome" Devon Woodcomb - Awesome.
 * Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger's Captain Marvelous - Good by means of being Goukai Red.
 * Classic Battlestar Galactica's Captain Apollo

Meta

 * Captain Obvious: Self Explanatory. Also explains the perfectly obvious a lot.

Video Games

 * Captain Commando: Good. Equal opportunity employer, as evidenced by partners being ninja, mummy and infant.
 * F-Zero's Captain Falcon: Good. Will Knee you in the face if you say anything about his outfit.
 * Disgaeas Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth!': Good, but kinda dumb...and hammy.
 * Advance Wars's Captain Brenner/O'Brian: The Messiah. In an After the End setting. Good.
 * Pikmin's Captain Olimar: Good, teamed up with Captain Falcon in the Subspace Emissary.
 * Captain Novolin - Real, Good, but bad concept...
 * Valkyria Chronicles's Captain Eleanor Varrot - Good. Boss of the young leader of The Squad.
 * City of Villains's Cap'n Mako - Ax Crazy.
 * Call of Duty's Captain Price: Good, if a bit too eager to resort to brutality in his CoD4 incarnation.
 * SAS. They are brutal. But patriotic and rather too good at lateral thinking for regular squaddies.
 * Captain "Soap" MacTavish: Good, and he's taken more than a few levels in badass since the last time we saw him.
 * Dawn of War: Captains Gabriel Angelos, Davian Thule and Inrick Boreale - Good, for Imperium commanders, although the last one is an exemplar of The Peter Principle.
 * In Dawn of War II: Captain Apollo Diomedes - Good, but too proud for his own good.
 * From Retribution, there's Kaptin Bluddflagg - Crazy Awesome Space Pirate Blood Knight, but hired to do something Good.
 * From Warhammer 40000 Space Marine, there's Captain Titus. Good.
 * Ratchet and Clank's Captain Qwark - Initially a Villain with Good Publicity and Fake Ultimate Hero, though eventually becomes more a Lovable Coward and Anti-Hero with a small bit of The Atoner.
 * Also Captain Sasha, Girl of the Week from Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal. Good. Her biggest flaw is probably that she was hyped as a "female Han Solo" but turned out to be more of a Faux Action Girl in practice.
 * Mass Effect's Captain David Anderson: Good. Mentor to Cmdr. Shepard, who is varying degrees of good.
 * Captain Comic: Good.
 * Viewtiful Joe's Captain Blue! Henshin a go-go, baby!
 * Comic Jumper's Captain Smiley: Self-absorbed idiotic Jerkass.
 * Ace Combat 5's Captain Bartlett, "The Captain", Captain Nagase, Captain Davenport, Captain Grimm, and Captain Snow. All good.

Web Comics

 * Girly's Captain Fist: Dumb as a box of hammers, but he means well.
 * Breakfast of the Gods's Cap'n Crunch: Good-licious!
 * Captain Tagon from Schlock Mercenary, in his own words" [Yes, we kill people], "But they're almost always bad guys, and we only do it for the money."
 * Captain SNES: Good, a Jerkass.

Web Original

 * Red vs. Blue's Captain Butch Flowers: Good, and disturbingly nice towards his men.
 * Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog's Captain Hammer: Subverts and Lampshades this trope. Despite being a superhero and beloved by the whole city, he's also a tremendous jerk and far less sympathetic than villainous Dr. Horrible.
 * Whateley Universe's The other Captain Bravo: good. Well, he thinks he's good, but he's a pinhead. And he's not allowed to use the 'captain' part of his codename until he graduates from Whateley Academy and earns the title in the military. Titles from the military, nobility are academic titles must be earned the hard way before they can be used in a codename.
 * In the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, Capitao Batalha ("Captain Battle") is the premiere hero of Brazil. There's also Captain Australia, Captain Speedy, Captain California, and Captain Hammer. In the 50s and 60s, there was Captain Amazing, but he's dead now.

Western Animation

 * Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels's Captain CAVEMAAAAAAAN! - good
 * Drawn Together's Captain Hero: Dumb as a box of hammers, doesn't mean so well.
 * But there's also Captain Hero from Sim City: Definitely Good -- if he decides to show up.
 * Captain N: The Game Master. Also Good.
 * Captain Planet: Good. Captain Pollution: Evil.
 * The Hunchback of Notre Dame's Captain Phoebus - the one from the Disney adaptation. The original was kind of a jerk.
 * Word Girl's Captain Huggy Face: The Non-Human Sidekick, because Everything's Better with Monkeys.
 * South Park's Captain Hindsight: Good, but doesn't do anything other than point out what could have been done.