He is a fearless aviator with trademark facial hair whose adventures inspired his fellow British baby-boomers. It is tempting to wonder how much Sir Richard Branson imagines he resembles his latest acquisition: Dan Dare.

The entrepreneur, aviator and adventurer announced yesterday that his Virgin Comics imprint will be reviving the stalled career of the Pilot of the Future in a new monthly series of adventures from November.

Nobody would be surprised to learn that Dan Dare was Sir Richard’s boyhood hero. Like him, Sir Richard is 57. He was born three months after Dan Dare first appeared in the introductory issue of The Eagle. The comic sold nearly one million copies a week at its peak.

Like Dan Dare, the Virgin boss has extravagant facial hair, with his ever-present beard at least as distinctive as the comic book hero’s lavishly curled eyebrows. Like Dan Dare Sir Richard is an enthusiastic pilot with designs on space travel: his Virgin Galactic programme aims to put paying customers into space within five years.

And like Dan Dare, Sir Richard is often to be found adventuring around the world, albeit with less at stake than saving Earth from the clutches of the devious green Mekon.

“Dan Dare is an heroic, thoughtful and fiercely independent character,” he said. “I was an avid reader of his epic journeys. It is a pleasure for Virgin Comics to be involved with such a legendary character – one of the original great aviators.”

Virgin Comics is based in Bangalore, India, and is a collaboration between Sir Richard’s Virgin Group, Gotham Comics, the largest publisher of comics in South Asia, the author Deepak Chopra and the film-maker Shekhar Kapur who directed Elizabeth. It specialises in comic strip adaptations of Indian myths for Indian and Western audiences. The original Dan Dare adventures captivated a generation of British readers in the 1950s, offering a dashing, morally upright, homegrown alternative to American comic book characters.

Gorgeously drawn by the artist Frank Hampson, Dan Dare relied on quick wits rather than super powers to defeat the Mekon, the intelligent ruler of the Treens, an alien race bearing suspicious similarities to the Nazis.

Dan Dare’s first incarnation came to an end in 1969 after 991 issues when The Eagle merged with Lion magazine. He has appeared since in other comics, and on Radio 4 and as the computer-generated hero of a television series.

The Virgin Comics’ version will be set a few decades from the present. Colonel Dare is energetic, courageous and retired. He is in self-imposed exile, reflecting his disgust with the political manoeuvrings and postnuclear warfare that have destroyed North America and much of Asia – leaving Britain as the world’s last remaining superpower.

The cast will include a wiser and more experienced Digby (Dare’s loyal and occasionally bumbling batman from Wigan); the innovative, brilliant and beautiful Professor Peabody; and inevitably the Mekon. Colin Frewin, chief executive officer of the Dan Dare Corporation, which has all rights to films, television adaptations, video games and merchandising, said: “Dan Dare is the real, original superhero. Today, his impact and appeal to readers across the UK and around the world can be even greater.”

Garth Ennis, the acclaimed author of several cult comics, including Preacher and The Boys, will write the series. “Dan Dare is the quintessential British hero,” he said. “He’s our Captain America, our Superman, our Batman, he’s all of them rolled into one. He’s the original and the best.”

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