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"Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Unknown Invasion!"": Freddy Freeman is peddling papers at his Newsstand when he sees repeat customer Mr. Peeble. Freddy finds a small notebook has fallen from Peeble’s coat and he goes to return it to him. However, when he looks into his window, he

They're cunning! Nobody can prove what they are! But I'm going to try the next one.... Dr. J.T. Vance! I'll try different tactics here! Doctor, I know who you are! And I'm going to x-ray your insides!
Captain Marvel Jr., trying to unearth Fifth Columnists from beyond the stars.

Captain Marvel, Jr. #78 is an issue of the series Captain Marvel, Jr. (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1949.

Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Unknown Invasion!"

Freddy Freeman is peddling papers at his Newsstand when he sees repeat customer Mr. Peeble. Freddy finds a small notebook has fallen from Peeble’s coat and he goes to return it to him. However, when he looks into his window, he finds Mr. Peeble is actually Agent X-33, an amorphous semi-humanoid goo alien that is reporting information about Earth’s defenses, prompting Freddy to call CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr., punching over the alien invader. Agent X-33 cops to having been a sleeper agent for five years and that his home planet is overcrowded, but they also have no plans on invading either, since Earth clearly outguns them. Instead, they are invading by taking human form and adapting into important facets of society like businesses, the government and the military. Junior says he’ll find the others and punches him out, which pops Agent X-33. Luckily, Junior finds the notebook that the Agent dropped has all of the listed agents in it. The first is TW Rogers, a railroad tycoon and denounces him, but nobody believes him and he instead goes to see the next person, famed doctor JT Vance. Vance mocks that the invaders can now adapt perfectly to human x-rays and no one will believe they are each subversive agents. He decides to return to being Freddy and holds on to the side of Rogers’ car, finding that he seems to have a certain colorblindness towards red objects and if a red cloth is dangled directly in his field of view, he even then can’t see it. Freddy figures these aliens come from a planet with a bluer star and goes to call the magic words, only to be attacked by Rogers. However, a lamp is knocked over, starting a fire that melts him into a pile of goo. He soon finds that Dr. Vance also can’t identify the color red, meaning he can easily expose their sleeper agents. Dr. Vance shuts off the lights and orders his secret base to make an all-out attack on the military. He finds another sleeper agent pilot “Major JC Todd” is flying the attack plane, so he paints a nearby mountainside red with paint and the detachment of invaders crash into the mountain, destroying themselves. Later, the world is convinced that Junior was right and the unknown invasion was halted.

Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Unknown Invasion!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • "Mr. Peeble" (Agent X-33) (Dies)
  • T.W. Rogers, Railroad Tycoon (Dies)
  • Dr. J.T. Vance
  • Major J.C. Todd, Military Pilot

Other Characters:


Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:

  • Attack Planes (Destroyed)


Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Danger Across the Tracks!"

Two kids fall off of a fire escape when it suddenly breaks and Freddy Freeman, nearby, calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. to catch them and decides to address the people interested in keeping these kept up, owner Tim Dwight as Freddy Freeman. He soon finds Dwight openly doesn’t care and won’t install any new fire escapes if there’s not an ordnance making him and tells Freddy to basically get lost. Freddy instead appeals to his collegiate son, Frank. On the way there, Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. and saves a child who’s managed to run in front of the path of an oncoming train and that his dad didn’t put a fence up there. Frank, disgusted, confronts his father who tells him to shut up and go back to his schoolbooks while he runs a company. Frank says he’s walking out on him and Dwight insists that he’s going to return when his money dries up. Thus, one week later, Freddy finds Tim Dwight looking for his son and Freddy says he moved into the tenements by the tracks and has drawn up a petition he’s going to show to the Mayor and moved in to show solidarity with them. He can’t even identify which one is his son’s address: none of the houses have numbers on them. He points it out to him and they go to the roof to get the signatures when a fire breaks out. Due to there being no fire extinguishers, broken doorknobs and the fire escape still being broken, Freddy waits until Dwight says that he’s going to fix up these houses to go save everyone. Calling CAPTAIN MARVEL, Junior soon drags them down and puts out the fire. Some time later, the tenements now have a wall next to the train station and Mr. Dwight even is an umpire for local kids playing stickball.

Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Danger Across the Tracks!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Frank Dwight

Antagonists:

  • Tim Dwight

Other Characters:


Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:

  • A Train

Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Voodoo Clock!"

Freddy Freeman is cleaning up with Mrs. Wagner and finds a strange clock that she says a boarder just forgot when they moved out months ago and that he was an explorer from the Belgian Congo! He says it seems to be broken, but she corrects that it’s a “Voodoo Clock” used by a clock-worshiping tribe from the Belgian Congo, but if he wants it, he can keep it. He soon cleans it off in his room and reads the inscription of nonsense words that makes the clock eject a card. It reads “Today’s Time Schedule” and notes that at 2pm a star will fall, at 3pm the world will go up in flames and at 4pm Captain Marvel, Jr. just will stop existing. Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to investigate it as Captain Marvel, Jr. and takes it to an expert clockmaker who says that some foreigners came in looking for something like that as an air raid siren goes off, indicating a pilot is crashing. Junior pushes the plane into settling and finds it’s piloted by famed actor Van Rable! Junior is shocked to see that the first prophecy came true: A star will fall! Later, a man in a fez and two men with mustaches and turbans return and become angry, thinking that the clockmaker was lying about it. Junior flies in before they can punch out the strange men. Suddenly though, Junior fires there’s a huge fire outside and breaks open a water main in the street to put it out, then fixes the main and fixes the road over it. Junior finds that The World National Magazine’s building has burned down and is shocked to see that the second prophecy came true: The World will go up in flames! Soon enough, Junior saves a falling piano from breaking on the street, punches out a goon who tries to shoot at him unsuccessfully, and he drops him off at prison. Returning to pick up the Voodoo Clock, he finds that it now works perfectly and asks the Foreigners about it. They reveal they’re from the Congolese Clock-Worshiping Cult and they wanted the Voodoo Clock for its sacred prophecies. He drops them off at the DA and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL… just as it reaches 4pm, shocking Freddy that the third prophecy came true too.

Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Voodoo Clock!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • Congolese Clock-Worshipers
  • A Random Gunman

Other Characters:

  • Van Rable, Famed Actor
  • A Clockmaker

Locations:

Items:

  • The Congolese Voodoo Clock

Vehicles:

  • Van Rable's Plane

Trivia

  • Despite the cover, no character likes this shows up at all. Instead, Captain Marvel, Jr. finds the Voodoo Clock gives out only deceptively worrying information and the men looking for it are just generic Arab men and not some form of... caricatured African tribesman.


See Also


Links and References