Dan is good looking, cool and always in control

Colin Frewin, Dan Dare Corporation

In a new image unveiled on Tuesday, the "pilot of the future" wears a flying jacket and looks younger than his Eagle comic strip counterpart, who first appeared more than 50 years ago.

The new image has come about after consultation with young people by the producers of the series.

Colin Frewin, owner of the Dan Dare Corporation, explained: "We market tested Dan with young people: the under-12s, under-11s, and under-13s.

"The minute we got to the point when they began to say, 'Dan is cool', we knew we had arrived."

There are also plans to launch a live action movie if the cartoon series - with its Elton John theme song - is a hit.

Dan Dare: Eagle-style

The producers of a future big screen project say they would be looking for a James Bond-style actor.

Computer animation work on the UK-financed TV series has just been completed in the US.

Voice-over actor Greg Ellis, who had a bit part in Titanic, plays the heroic Dare.

His foes will be voiced by Robbie Coltrane, Tim Curry and Charles Dance, while Rob Paulsen will play arch villain the Mekon.

Millennium super-hero

His best-known adversary was the ruthless Mekon

Frewin spent half a million pounds to gather all the rights and revive the character.

He said: "We have brought him completely up to date, the new millennium super-hero in the latest form of CGI animation.

"Dan is good looking, cool and always in control."

He says the original concept by Frank Hampson has been respected and "further developed"

But some of those who grew up with the original Dan Dare are perturbed by the superhero's transformation.

Dave Britton, Dan Dare specialist and exhibition organiser, says the comic strip pilot was peculiarly British.

"He embodied everything that was British and now we have this Hollywood makeover," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Dan Dare appeared in The Eagle

Broadcaster Paul Ross said: "The original creator is spinning in his grave.

"It is in a sense sacrilege, money-making sacrilege, and entertaining, but sacrilege all the same."

Dan Dare first found fame after the Eagle comic was launched in 1950.

The strip was created and drawn by Hampson, but others who have illustrated his adventures include David Hockney and Gerald Scarfe.