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"Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The World of Babel"": Sivana, Jr. has escaped from reform school yet again, but is identified in public, so he starts wearing a bushy wig and mustache… which also gets him identified in public. Angered, Young Thaddeus decides to leave the country and fi

Captain Marvel, Jr. #108 is an issue of the series Captain Marvel, Jr. (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1952.

Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The World of Babel"

Sivana, Jr. has escaped from reform school yet again, but is identified in public, so he starts wearing a bushy wig and mustache… which also gets him identified in public. Angered, Young Thaddeus decides to leave the country and finds that his old man disguise also is easily identified. He soon decides to get very lost and hide out in his secret laboratory in Southeastern Tibet… though the radio soon announces where he’s going too in his orange plane before he parachutes out and decides to just live in a cave like a hermit for now. After walking 10 miles through the mountains of Tibet to get to his laboratory, when he tries to relax by the TV, he finds that there’s a program on saying that “YOU can help catch Sivana, Jr.!” Tired of this valid hounding by the media and international law enforcement, he decides the real problem is that he needs to affect the world’s ability to communicate…

Some time later, Freddy Freeman is peddling papers when a man asks him for the “Daily Blfysk” and Freddy quickly finds that the English language has failed him and it takes at least several attempts until he can call CAPTAIN MARVEL correctly and flies off. Due to lack of communication, Junior has to stop planes from landing atop each other since Air Traffic Control is meaningless without language. He also ends up having to save trains for running into each other (since train dispatch has fallen apart too) and Junior surmises this might be something electrical in the atmosphere causing this. Arriving home at Mrs. Wagner’s, Junior finds Young Thaddeus on TV, announcing that he’s basically the only person who can speak any language (and translating it for the international market) and says he caused the communication breakdown via his Sound Scrambler, demanding he be named Prince of the Universe yet again. Junior begins to create an Insulator Helmet like Sivana, Jr.’s to hope that it’ll work for him as the World Council get into a donnybrook due to not understanding each other. Sivana, Jr. is upset when he finds that Junior has brought in more Helmets to let the World Council discuss things. Using an “electrical measuring device,” Junior manages to track Young Thaddeus back to the mountains of Tibet and destroys the Sound Scrambler, only to find Sivana, Jr. has escaped to another hermit’s cave, trying to bribe him. However, Junior can hear him in the echoing mountains and punches him over, then points out that the hermit is deaf and can’t hear him at all. Later, Freddy notes the irony that Sivana, Jr. tried to steal people’s ability to understand each other, but the hermit not understanding him got him caught.

Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The World of Babel"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • The World Council

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • A Deaf Hermit

Locations:

Items:

  • Sivana, Jr.'s Sound Scrambler

Vehicles:

  • Sivana, Jr.'s Orange Plane (Destroyed)


Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and Freddy Freeman's Lost Week End"

Freddy Freeman wakes up and finds it’s Saturday, a day he can sleep in since papers are delivered later, turning off his alarm clock to sleep another hour. However, Mrs. Wagner appears in his room and says it’s Monday and points out that Freddy has apparently purchased a talking parrot from a sailor. Freddy quickly realizes he doesn’t know what happened to his weekend! Freddy finds a foreign watch in his pocket, but it has no parts or face to it. Confused, he decides to call CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. Junior flies to a watch importer and finds the empty watch of his is a Hisslaken Model not seen in the US often and the only recent shipment came in on the SS Laturnia. Junior soon flies to the ship, finding it’s still in the harbor… but it’s also completely empty! Reading the Captain’s Log, he finds that on Saturday the Captain discovered that someone is pulling a crime on his ship and sent out a message… but it cuts off ominously afterwards. Junior finds that the shipment of Hisslaken watches are conspicuously absent from the ship. He spots a bomb on deck, but jumps on it, shielding the parrot and flies up and out of the hatchway the bomb was dropped in and finds a goon he can beat on and demands to know where the crew are and the goon squeals that they’re at their hideout HQ at 42 Venson St.

To sneak in without being seen, he returns to being Freddy and looks around with his very loud parrot. An evil sailor pistol-whips Freddy from behind and he wakes up, as usual, bound and gagged, but this time with the Captain also tied up nearby. The sailor mentions a “drug” that must have worn off if Freddy returned and Freddy soon realizes that they’re smuggling in some form of amnesiac drugs. Thus, the smugglers decide to just kill them instead. Freddy manages to slip his bonds while the parrot loudly shouts, and pulls off his gag, calling CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. and punches the goons into one another. Later, the Captain explains he slipped the empty watch (which were used to smuggle the drugs) into Freddy’s pocket to help him remember what was going on.

Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and Freddy Freeman's Lost Week End"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • A Loud Parrot

Antagonists:

  • Unnamed Drug Smugglers

Other Characters:

  • The Captain of the SS Laturnia

Locations:

Items:

  • An Empty Hisslaken Watch
  • Amnesiac Drugs

Vehicles:

  • The SS Laturnia

Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Great Sandstorm!"

John Sillkont owns a farm on the edge of the desert and suffering from desertification, even up to his front doorstep. A man asks to stay the night with him before heading to the desert and finds that the food is sandy, the house is sandy and when John opens the closet, there’s more sand falling out of it. The man offers that he’s an inventor and has something that will blow all the sand away! Using the Vacuumill, it creates a vacuum that sucks air in and blows away sand. John says he’s a genius and the man says the folks at the asylum don’t think so. Soon enough, orderlies come over and say the man, Homer Van Mitre, is crazy and this is his third escape from the asylum. They are happy that he’s not hurt anyone this time and take him away. John is unsure about if he should use the Vacuumill, but sees no danger in it…

Some time later, Freddy finds his Newsstand and the rest of New York City being hit by a gigantic sandstorm and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to try to stop it as Captain Marvel, Jr. He stops to fix a marquee from the Avon Theatre crushing people, a bus getting trapped in the sand and soon builds a quick stone wall around the City Reservoir so it won’t flood it. John soon hears on the radio about the sandstorm and is ashamed at what’s happened, but when he tries to shut off the machine, he finds the vacuum intake makes it impossible to get near. Thus, he heads out to the city to get help. Junior soon finds Mrs. Wagner’s is nearly buried under the sand and saves Prof. Edgewise from being trapped in his room by removing the sand in front of it. He is relieved to see Red O’Riley, Officer Jim Bellows, Mrs. Wagner and even Leroy Marks are doing about as normal. The radio soon gets word from John that Junior is the only person who can help him stop the Vacuumill, shutting off and reversing it to absorb the sandstorm, though it buries John’s farmhouse and barn. John is dismayed, but happy that innocent people aren’t hurt and Junior says that the people of the city will know he saved them. Later, Freddy finds in the paper that the people of New York City have chipped in to move all the sand from John’s farm to create a new sandy beach that everyone loves.

Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Great Sandstorm!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • John Sillkont

Antagonists:

  • Homer Van Mitre

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

  • Van Mitre's Vacuumill

Vehicles:

  • An Aslyum Van

Trivia

  • Despite the cover, Captain Marvel, Jr. losing the ability to speak intelligible languages doesn't lead to:
    • Him calling someone on the phone who is very confused
    • A woman smacking him with a purse
    • Encountering a dog and urging it to be quiet
    • Or being aggrieved by off-brand Rice Krispies that make the wrong noise.


See Also


Links and References