Captain Marvel, Jr. #81 is an issue of the series Captain Marvel, Jr. (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 1950.
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Battle of Imaginations"
Freddy Freeman is bored and imagining absurd landscapes via the Land of Imagination, only for a Messenger of Imagination to show up and throw a bucket of water in his face for imagining too much! The Messenger says he can’t take him with him since he can’t fly and flies back to the Land of Imagination, so Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to follow him as Captain Marvel, Jr. A local gangster who dresses like he’s from the Turn of the Century, Lemuel Q Krekputt, thinks nearby on how he’s going to find a way to get there via Captain Marvel, Jr. The Messenger shows him to a General Manager, who runs the whole of Imagination Land, who offers people just stop imagining things for a while, since he hasn’t had a vacation for 1,000 years. Junior flies back to Earth and finds Officer Jim Bellows at Freddy’s Newsstand, and tells him about Imagination Land. Jim is charmed, but unbelieving. Junior fixes up Freddy’s Newsstand and finds the Messenger with a head trauma and asks Junior to help him get back to Imagination Land. When he does so though, the man reveals that he’s actually Lemuel Q Krekputt and declares himself King of Imagination Land! Lemuel runs off, imagining a dragon to fight Junior before he punches it over easily. They two find they’re more or less equal in imaginary ability until Lemuel tries to imagine an army of Captain Marvel Juniors, which naturally cannot be evil and turn on him. Junior takes him to the General Manager and points out he technically didn’t break any laws and offers that he take over the GM’s job, which Lemuel quickly finds it’s mostly paperwork and phone-answering. He soon returns to Earth and Jim tells Freddy that the World’s Mightiest Boy told him about a Land of Imagination!
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Battle of Imaginations"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- The Messenger of Imagination Land
- The Former General Manager of Imagination Land
Antagonists:
- General Manager Lemuel Q. Krekputt
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Freddy's Newsstand
- New York City
- The Land of Imagination
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and the Swindle of Time!"
Freddy Freeman is deliver a paper to hermit-like Mr. Drake who owns his shack and lot and aks if he enjoys his life there. Mr. Drake says he’s an old man with no family, but he’s happy and lives a decent life. A shifty man smoking a cigar, Peter Plugg, pops in, claiming he buys “worthless” property, but Drake says he doesn’t care about any of that and won’t sell. When Peter gets rough with him, Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. and drag him off of him and tell him to basically get lost. To look into this further, Junior follows him into town to another “useless” property from a farmer who is too proud to sell him bad land at the price he wants. When he refuses again, Peter pulls a gun on him and Junior blocks the shot and punches him into the side of his car. When he asks for answers from him, Peter grabs his “Time Clock” from his car and sets the alarm to another time and suddenly disappears in a puff of smoke! Thus, he travels to the new and amazing futurescape of 1960, where the farmer’s land is now a valuable oil field. He checks a map of hot spots in the future and then sets the Time Clock to return to the past. Junior hides in his trunk before Peter returns and drives off in his green sedan and tries to buy up a swamp, which he does. Junior finds this isn’t illegal exactly and picks up the Time Clock to return to 1960 and finding that the swamp he just bought will become a popular Rocket Airport in 1960! Instead however, Junior flies back to find Peter offering a hermit $100 for his cave, not knowing that it has priceless uranium under it! Junior tells him it’s worth a million and says that he’s arresting him for fraud. He breaks the Time Clock and punches him out and Junior watches as later, a Judge ironically sentences Peter Plugg to thirty years in prison!
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and the Swindle of Time!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Peter Plugg, Time Swindler
Other Characters:
- Mr. Drake
- A Farmer
- A Hermit
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Freddy's Newsstand
- Mr. Drake's Junkyard
- A Farm / Oil Field
- A Swamp / Rocket Airport
- A Hermit Cave / Uranium Mine
- New York City
Items:
- Plugg's Time Clock (Destroyed)
Vehicles:
- Peter Plugg Real Estate I Buy Worthless Property! Car
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Boy King of Beasts"
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Boy King of Beasts"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Ellis Chalmers
Antagonists:
- Kirzo Chalmers, the Lion King
- A Violent Gorilla
Other Characters:
- Lions
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Freddy's Newsstand
- The City Zoo
- Non-Specific Africa
- New York City
Items:
Vehicles:
- A Plane (Destroyed)
Synopsis for "Car-Ageous"
Appearing in "Car-Ageous"
Featured Characters:
- Kanvasback
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Mysterious Mr. Mirage"
Freddy Freeman is at his Newsstand with Officer Jim Bellows, who tells him that a shifty customer nearby in a checkered cap is Howie Dipps, a known pickpocket, and to be careful around him with his wallet. Freddy asks how he hasn’t been arrested for it yet, but Jim says he has been as a rich man runs up and says he’s had his wallet stolen! However, they find it wasn’t Howie (since they were watching him and he wasn’t within ten feet of him.) Jim goes to have him file a report on this as Junior calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. He soon follows Howie to a door that he seems to close without touching it. Junior walks up to the house and decides to skulk around. Within, Howie Dipps reveals that he can shift the perception of where he’s standing to look like he’s several feet away with his “Mirage Suit” made of Reflecto Plastic. However, his goon partner, Gort, decides to blackjack him and steal it from him, becoming the Mysterious Mr. Mirage! Junior manages to find Howie on the ground and finds he can’t tell (or won’t say) who hit him. He soon goes to the police infirmary and the stolen wallet on him is returned. Meanwhile, the Mysterious Mr. Mirage uses the Mirage Suit to make his head appear at the front of an armored truck, which scares the guards away, finding that it looks like a pair of disembodied hands driving it. The guards soon rush in to Police HQ to tell an exiting Junior about it and that there’s thousands of dollars in that truck. Using the Mirage Suit, he’s able to appear as if he’s left the cab and standing nearby with his hands in his pockets while Junior confusingly punches at nothing. He abandons the armored truck, knowing Junior is no easy job to fight and leaves to instead rob the Smith Jewelry Shoppe, the WF Jones MFG Co, and a factory payload from a very surprised man. Soon, he creates Reflecto Plastic Gloves to hide his hands and becomes a media sensation in the Evening Star. The Mayor soon calls everyone together to say that they really need to catch the Mysterious Mr. Mirage, not realizing that he’s in the crowd with a different suit on and a mustache. He soon tries to steal the Mayor’s watch from his pocket while he’s on stage and Captain Marvel, Jr. throws a banner at the floating watch, wrapping the real form of Mr. Mirage in it and removes his helmet, exposing his plastic suit. Soon, Gort finds that he’s in jail with Howie Dipps, who brags he’s only getting six months for taking that wallet!
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Mysterious Mr. Mirage"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Howie Dipps
- The Mysterious Mr. Mirage (Gort)
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Freddy's Newsstand
- Smith Jewelry Shoppe
- WF Jones MFG, Co.
- A Factory
- New York City
Items:
- The Reflecto-Plastic Mirage Suit
- The Mirage Suit Gloves
Vehicles:
- An Acme Collection Service Truck
Trivia
- Despite the cover, Mr. Mirage doesn't wear a green boater hat and has a lighter tan suit.
- It's never made clear where Peter Plugg managed to find or invent an alarm clock that sends him a decade into the future.
See Also