They still want to fight, eh? Well, I've never lost a fight yet! And I won't lose this one! The land I've bought is worthless unless I get that six acres! I'll force 'em to sell! You heard me! Dynamite that well! Wreck the equipment, and the company won't be able to stay in business! 
- — Phineas T. Hoggsworth, the Original Wolf of Wall Street
Captain Marvel, Jr. #55 is an issue of the series Captain Marvel, Jr. (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1947.
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Pyramid of Eternity"
Freddy Freeman is out shopping when he notices a Curio Shop and goes in to help the proprietor, Mr. Gelling, unload his new shipment from “the Orient,” which Freddy finds to be a jade green “incense burner” shaped like a four armed seated statuette and labeled as coming from “Bhokal,” a very tiny nation in the Himalayan Mountains. The note says that they’re in trouble and need someone to come to the Pyramid of Eternity in Central Bhokal. Thus, Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. and fly out to Bhokal, finding that everyone there is poor, oppressed and being whipped by racist caricatures of Asian men in turbans with pointy shoes. Junior punches out the taskmasters and uses the Wisdom of Solomon to discover that they are slaves to Rajah Jhind and are forced to do hard labor by his brutal guard while he lives a life of luxury, which has been going like that for about the last 1,000 years or so. Rajah Jhind is soon paraded through town on a palanquin and orders his men to attack Junior for not bowing in his path. However, when threatened, Rajah Jhind says that his slaves agreed to their terms until they can solve the Pyramid of Eternity and that were they not lazy slaves, they would just do so.
Junior is soon shown that the Pyramid of Eternity is a gigantic 38-stack version of the Tower of Hanoi, a classic stacking puzzle. However, due to the inherent complexity of the moves needed to shift them all, the smartest scholar working on it, Eldeen, says it’ll likely take another 9,000 years and would take a total of 274,877,906,943 moves to complete it. Captain Marvel, Jr. works extra hard and completes the Pyramid of Eternity in one day, but Rajah Jhind reveals that the contract actually includes three tasks: counting all the pebbles in the entire nation. Junior wisely says that there are as many pebbles as there as stars in the sky, but that Jhind must count all the stars. When he admits it cannot be done, Junior points out that counting the pebbles would be just as impossible then. For the final task, Junior must urge an elephant to the top of the highest mountain in Bhokal. Since Rajah Jhind is riding atop the elephant, he becomes worried when Junior does push the elephant all the way up to the now freezing cold mountaintop and he agrees to free all his slaves for 1,000,000 years. Eldeen is happy to hear it. Later, Freddy is at his newsstand where he made a Pyramid of Eternity with only ten pieces to move… and finding it’s taking over 1,000 moves so far!
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Pyramid of Eternity"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Eldeen
- Other Slaves of Rajah Jhind
Antagonists:
- Rajah Jhind of Bhokal
Other Characters:
- An Elephant
- Mr. Gelling
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Central Bhokal
Items:
- The Pyramid of Eternity
- An Incense Burner
Vehicles:
- A Rajah's Palanquin
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "The Rivalry"
Freddy Freeman finds Mrs. Wagner has invited her niece, Betty Wagner, over to have fun and serve ice cream later. A big scavenger hunt is planned and Freddy ends up paired with Betty to find a green beetle, a newspaper from 1900 and an old bird’s nest. They work together to overturn stones and when Freddy figures he’s not doing well, he shouldn’t become Captain Marvel, Jr., since it would be unfair. Instead, he uses a board to overturn larger stones using the simple machine known as a lever and they find the beetle they need. Next, Freddy heads to an elderly hermit who is known to hoard things, hoping he’ll have an old newspaper, but the hermit shouts angrily… toppling all his newspapers on himself! Freddy is forced to call CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. and save the hermit and highly impressing Betty. She is more than willing to tell Freddy all about seeing Captain Marvel, Jr. and he swallows sadness that she isn’t really interested in him after all. She soon finds a copy of the Evening Gazette from 1900 and they soon head out to spot a disused bird’s nest in a nearby tree. Betty offers to climb it, but Freddy warns her of the height. Freddy is forced to call CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Junior again when the branch under her snaps, but this time, he brags that he’s amazing and the World’s Mightiest Boy. Betty finds this conceited of him, a trait she dislikes. Thus, Freddy instead returns, absorbing the goodwill that he isn’t like Captain Marvel, Jr. They report the three items to the scavenger hunt and win and sometime later, Betty leaves, shaking hands with Freddy at the train station. The day after, Freddy thinks about her at work.
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "The Rivalry"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Betty Wagner
Other Characters:
- Mrs. Wagner
- A Hoarding Hermit
Locations:
Items:
- A Green Beetle
- An Evening Gazette from 1900
- An Old Bird's Nest
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and the Wolf of Wall Street!"
Phineas T Hoggsworth is a belligerent tyrant of Wall Street who owns a penthouse suite of a skyscraper, earning him the nickname “The Wolf of Wall Street.” He shouts at people about how his 10,000 acres of oil-rich land hasn’t produced a single barrel due to the Cooperative Oil Company having control of the six acres he really needs and won’t sell. The Wolf demands that they be driven off, by fair means or foul. Meanwhile, Freddy Freeman is out with Officer Jim Bellows, who are both shareholders in Cooperative Oil. However, they’re told that the small oil job doesn’t have enough money to drill the additional feet required and can’t secure a loan from the bank, likely because Hoggsworth owns the bank. His goons soon leg it to the window and throw tear gas into their meeting, prompting Freddy to call CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr., who opens all the windows and drop-kicks both goons in the back before arresting them. Junior finds out Hoggsworth hired the goons and flies them off to discuss things further. He finds that Cooperative Oil needs another $50,000 to get the right machinery to continue drilling. Instead, Junior moves a house in, digs giant holes and pulls ships into harbor as high-paying odd jobs to make the money he needs! He makes the last three cents he needs selling a paper at Freddy’s Newsstand.
Soon enough, Junior goes to confront the Wolf himself and catches him ordering his goons to dynamite everything and that no amount of money can make his men fight the World’s Mightiest Boy for him. Junior flies him outside and says he’s going to fly him to the site to order his men to stop personally, but the goon sets off the dynamite… releasing the oil! Thus, Cooperative Oil is now flush with black gold while Hoggsworth is both broke and going to prison. Later, Freddy thinks that people who live “by the rules of the jungle” like him always lose out.
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and the Wolf of Wall Street!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- A Man Working for Cooperative Oil Company
- Officer Jim Bellows
Antagonists:
- Phineas T. Hoggsworth, The Wolf of Wall Street
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Wall Street
- Hoggsworth's Penthouse Office
- Wall Street
- New York City
Items:
- Dynamite
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Visits Gloomland"
Freddy Freeman decides to go on a vacation in a random area of the countryside and flings a pin at a map to find Verdant Valley. He takes a train, a bus, walks ten miles, meets a farmer who tells him he won’t like “things goin’ on there” and Freddy soon walks another ½ mile, finding that Verdant Valley is now locked behind a large yellow riveted metal gate and has been renamed Gloomland. A lanky guard asks Freddy is he knows the password and, since he doesn’t, he can’t enter. Freddy gets frustrated and says this is almost enough to make him cry, which ends up being the password. He is led in to find that, true to its name, everyone in Gloomland is sullen, depressed, slouching and even the streets have sad names. Freddy spots a woman crying, but she can’t really say why and then spots another woman fall out of a window. He calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. and fly up to save her, but she bursts into tears at being saved. He is further disturbed when he finds a man locked in a medieval pillory for the crime of grinning. Junior proves he’ll laugh and grin if he feels like it and is soon arrested for it and taken to see the dour Mayor and Judge Walter Woe. He’s quickly sentenced to ten years for laughing out loud, but Junior becomes bored and blows his prison bars open to go find out why everyone lives this way. He quickly finds that everyone doesn’t want to leave their homes in the valley, but that Moe is just a naturally depressing and horrible person and just decided everyone else should be too. Junior slips and falls on his rear on purpose to make the dour Quaker-looking man next to him guffaw, then unleashes a torrent of funny faces, silly poses and Giant Swinging cops by their ankles. Mayor / Judge Woe becomes angry and orders more cops out, but Junior’s superior sense of comedy in mimicking a donkey drives them up the wall. Junior offers they elect the jolliest man in town to be Mayor and Mayor / Judge Walter Woe abdicates because he just hates laughter and happiness that much. Later, Freddy relaxes in a hammock, saying that Woe became a hermit and thinks about sending a laughing hyena to him as a companion...
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Visits Gloomland"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- The Sad People of Gloomland
Antagonists:
- Mayor / Judge Walter Woe
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Gloomland / Verdant Valley
Items:
- A Pillory (Destroyed)
Vehicles:
Trivia
- The Nation of Bhokal might be a reference to the similarly-named Kingdom of Bhutan
- Similarly, the Tower of Hanoi puzzle is "supposedly" also based on a "real" 64-stack golden Sacred Tower of Brahma, which will only be solved when the world ends due its length of play.
- Despite such legends, it is was actually created by French mathematician Édouard_Lucas under the name "N. Claus de Siam" (an anagram,) who also invented the Dots-and-Boxes Game before dying of being struck by a crockery.
- Similarly, the Tower of Hanoi puzzle is "supposedly" also based on a "real" 64-stack golden Sacred Tower of Brahma, which will only be solved when the world ends due its length of play.
- Phineas T. Hoggsworth would take up the name "Wolf of Wall Street" almost 60 years before Jordan Belfort would call himself by the same man in his tell-all autobiography of the same name in 2007.
See Also