Captain Marvel, Jr. #38 is an issue of the series Captain Marvel, Jr. (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 1946.
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Fights the Arabian Knights!"
Freddy Freeman finds in the Daily Blah that someone has put out a column asking Captain Marvel, Jr. for help at 88 Blair St from someone named Ali. A man also finds that his dog has been found! Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL and arrives to meet Ali, a charming man in a ten suit and a green turban. He says he’s from Arabia and he is in love with Fatima, the daughter of the Sultan. However, Abdul the evil merchant is also seeking the love of Fatima and the Sultan has offered that whoever brings the Greatest Magic Gift will win her hand. Unfortunately, Abdul has already found the Magic Carpet and Aladdin’s Magic Lamp (he found them in an old shop) and he has only one week to get something better! Captain Marvel, Jr. decides to help and flies him back to Arabia, which they even point out hasn’t changed since The Thousand and One Nights. The Sultan, Fatima and Abdul return from a Magic Carpet ride. Abdul thinks about how he just wants to be in charge and Fatima thinks about how much she doesn’t like Abdul. Ali appears and hails the Sultan, offering him the Magic Cushion, which is more comfortable than a carpet and is actually just pushed around by Captain Marvel, Jr., making it 10x faster than any normal Magic Carpet! The Sultan is highly impressed.
Abdul summons the Genie of the Lamp and wishes for a basket of jewels for the Sultan. Ali twists his “Magic Ring” on his finger to summon a “Blue Genie” in the form of Captain Marvel, Jr. when Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL. The Sultan is impressed less by his size but more when his guard’s scimitars break against him. Abdul insists that his Genie can beat Ali’s Genie, but the Genie of the Lamp soon realizes that he’s no match for the World’s Mightiest Boy in fighting and flying. Suddenly, the Forty Thieves attack from jars they were hiding in along the Sultan’s palace. Junior starts shoving them back into their jars, but Abdul takes the chance to kidnap Fatima and drag her away on his Magic Carpet. Junior soon defeats the Genie of the Lamp in a single flying punch and then whips the carpet out from under them and rescues Fatima, though the Magic Carpet and Aladdin’s Lamp fall into the sea. Soon, Abdul is sentenced to life in the dungeon for trying to steal the Sultan’s daughter and Ali admits that Captain Marvel, Jr.’s trick were just that and the Sultan accepts his marriage to Fatima. Ali thanks Junior and he flies back to America.
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Fights the Arabian Knights!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Ali
- Fatima
Antagonists:
- Abdul the Evil Merchant
- The Genie of the Lamp
- The Forty Thieves
Other Characters:
- An Arabian Sultan
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Nonspecific Arabia
- The Sultan's Palace
Items:
- The Magic Carpet
- Aladdin's Lamp
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and the Stolen Half-Century!"
Freddy Freeman spots a girl running into the road and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to save her as Captain Marvel, Jr. Within the car, he finds that Otto Van Dorn, a rich man and his injured wife and flies her to the hospital. Later, a doctor is alack to tell Mr. Van Dorn that his wife has amnesia and has forgotten the last fifty years of her life and they should all pretend like that’s normal and she’s living in a time before the turn of the Century. Meanwhile, aged criminal Graybeard reads about Van Dorn and remembers that a friend of his, “Slippery” Elmer, told him that he tried to steal the Van Dorn Necklace from a wedding around 50 years back. Graybeard notes that since they’re having a new wedding (instead of an anniversary,) and now he can pull off that same crime! Freddy Freeman is playing into Van Dorn’s illusion, selling papers from the second Cleveland administration, until he notices Graybeard wandered in to the gathering and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Junior again. Graybeard knocks out a guard and opens the gate to let in goons, but Junior is pretty quick in defeating them. However, he finds that someone has stolen a replica of the original Van Dorn Necklace that he was going to give to his wife at their first / original wedding! He adds that the actual Necklace was lost with the sinking of the SS Vulcanus off of Cape Hatteras after being left in a strongroom. So Captain Marvel, Jr. flies down to Cape Hatteras and just gets back the old one! Graybeard soon returns, realizing that it’s a replica and the only person he could realistically sell it to now is him. Before he can, Junior returns with the original and Graybeard lunges for it and scarpers, only to trip on the bride’s train. Mrs. Van Dorn falls over and hits her head, but this happens to cure her amnesia. Since about the same thing happened the first time around, this jogged her memory and Graybeard actually helped cure her! Later, Freddy writes in his diary about how Graybeard went back to prison and got a second 99-year sentence!
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and the Stolen Half-Century!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Magic Act"
Freddy Freeman is peddling papers at the waterfront where there’s a crowd to see Spavini, a famed magician and escape artist, emerging from a locked trunk. Freddy soon leaves and later sees two dazed men who are trying to rob an armored car at gunpoint by walking up to it and trying to hold the truck still and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. At Police HQ, the cops say that these men have been doped heavily with opium and are not in their right faculties. They note there’s likely someone smuggling it in, but they don’t know where from and haven’t seen it at the docks. Freddy reads about more dope fiend criminals being arrested and a ship from “the Orient” arriving that day that’s due to be heavily searched. Freddy goes boating and finds the ship in question dumping garbage overboard by a cook that he tails to a mansion house where he meets with Spavini. Spavini’s goons discuss his plot: having the cook throw steel boxes of opium into the water, then picking them up with a magnet attached to the trunk he’s locked in when he does his escape acts and is also using it to drive people into criminality. Freddy goes to stop them, but is knocked out with a bottle to the head and wakes up bound and gagged. Spavini decides to try hypnotizing him into volunteering to try out the trunk test. However, once he’s bound in chains and lowered in to the trunk, it bounces against the dock and he recalls Spavini’s hidden skeleton keys inside it, but instead just calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. He flies out and stops the dope smugglers and Spavini and the cook, then turns them over to the police.
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Magic Act"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Spavini the Magician
- An Unscrupulous Sea Cook
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
- Opium in Metal Canisters
- A Large Trunk
Vehicles:
- A Ship from "the Orient"
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Haunts the Ghost Vigilantes!"
Freddy Freeman is out peddling papers with his friend Johnny and decides to get another side-job, establishing a new newsstand and then gifting it to another boy who needs the business. Thus, he decides to head out to J Cronin of Buzzardville, AZ to go about doing so. He soon finds the “prosperous new community” is a broken down ghost town. Mr. Cronin appears and says that 50 years ago this town struck gold, ran out and died off, but now it’s full of something just as valuable: pitchblende, the ore that uranium is refined from and he hopes to turn into a new kind of boom town! Everyone starts to arrive and things start becoming lively and prosperous after all. However, two ghosts of outlaws are upset that people (alive ones, no less) are in their ghost town and tip over a painter’s scaffold, nearly breaking his neck. Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr.. He asks why they tried to kill that guy, so they try to shoot him, yielding more predictable results than normal, but Junior finds he can’t easily punch a ghost in the face either. They almost agreeably state that they’re going to drive out the new people and go report to their Boss at Vigilante Hill, where they plan on just being horrible to humans until they leave. Thus, Junior works with Cronin and installs large arc-lights for night work, which chases them away. Cronin is confused, but goes back to bed anyways. Cactus notes that he saw Freddy turn into Captain Marvel, Jr. and so they just wait him out until he thinks they’re gone and ambush him (somehow they can touch him now) and throw him bound and gagged in a mine shaft. He manages to hook his face on a rough rock and it shoves off his gag, letting him call CAPTAIN MARVEL. He soon finds the ensuing cave-in forces him to prop it open with a boulder and rubs some uranium all over his body to scare the ghosts! The ghosts all leave rather than be haunted themselves and soon, Freddy starts up a newsstand and turns it over to Charley, pushing the Buzzardville Bugle.
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Haunts the Ghost Vigilantes!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- The Ghost Vigilantes of Buzzardville
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Buzzardville, AZ
- Hotel Buzzardville
- Vigilante Hall
Items:
- The Buzzardville Bugle
Vehicles:
Trivia
- Despite the cover, Captain Marvel, Jr. doesn't reveal the Forty Thieves hiding in forty jars. Instead, they reveal themselves and he punches them back down into them.
See Also