DC Database

"Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Battles The Silicon Monsters!"": Rufus Jones, an elderly desert prospector, sees what he believes to be a meteor, but when he approaches, he finds is a spaceship containing aliens that resemble sand-colored bipedal rhinoceroses with drill-shaped hor

Holy Moley! The Silicon Monsters just melted away - like sand! Water was their deadliest enemy! The only weapon that could destroy them!
Captain Marvel Jr., discovering he could have solved this destruction with a fire hose.

Captain Marvel, Jr. #92 is an issue of the series Captain Marvel, Jr. (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1950.

Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Battles The Silicon Monsters!"

Rufus Jones, an elderly desert prospector, sees what he believes to be a meteor, but when he approaches, he finds is a spaceship containing aliens that resemble sand-colored bipedal rhinoceroses with drill-shaped horns and sharp tusk-like teeth. Even more confusingly, they begin eating from a giant pile of sand, eating an entire dune before moving on. Rufus rides back to town where they are due to announce three face carved in a nearby mountain… only to ignore him, reveal the faces… and find they’ve been eaten into crude, disturbing skulls. Soon enough, Freddy Freeman reads about it in the paper and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to investigate as Captain Marvel, Jr. He finds the eaten faces and finds that the marks of them show these creatures have long tusk-like teeth to eat the sandstone with and soon hears the Desert Hill Hotel nearby collapsing! He quickly props it back up from falling over and piles huge boulders in front of it to keep it in place as the owner says they built it on a solid sandstone foundation. He soon finds out about what Rufus saw from the local Sheriff and figures out that these creatures apparently eat silicon, a key element found in the Earth’s crust in both sand and sandstone. He soon flies out to go see Rufus about this and finds a long furrow of eaten sand in the desert and then Rufus taking potshots at the ravenous sand-eaters. It has little effect other than making them announce they intend to kill him. Junior punches them over and they are balked for a moment, but eat more sand, becoming twice as strong (though Junior is still far stronger than them.) One of them sucks up a ton of sand to try to go toe-to-toe with the World’s Mightiest Boy, while the others escape to their ship, taking Rufus as a hostage. Junior soon finds the stronger monster harder to fight, until he just flies it up away from the sand and then punches him out in mid-air until he refuses. Junior decides to sneak in as Freddy so they won’t try to kill Rufus, only for the defeated Sand-Eater to turn on him when he sees that Freddy is weaker than Junior. Freddy and Rufus are soon bound and gagged in a corner as they take off quickly (thinking the Boy in Blue is nearby) and their leader, Bexxx, decides to just wipe out the human race so they can eat as much sand as they want, dumping their hostages out of a bomb-bay door as they decide to blast the Earth with “Snurx” Bombs. Falling through a rain-cloud on their way down, Junior manages to slip his bonds from them getting wet and pulls off his gag in time to call CAPTAIN MARVEL enough to save them both as Junior once more. Junior flies back to find the Snurx Bombs are dropping already and punches them as soon as they’re dropped, keeping them from reaching the Earth and soon breaks into their ship to start cleaning house. They land on a tiny island and try to team up against him. However, Bexxx has found that he’s eating too much of the island they’re on now… leaving them stranded in the ocean where they fall in and disintegrate, like sand in water, revealing that water was their sole weakness all along. Later, Freddy finds the Evening Star reporting that a certain atoll has disappeared and scientists are baffled… though Freddy is sure they’d never believe the truth!

Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Battles The Silicon Monsters!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Rufus Jones

Antagonists:

  • Bexxx (Dies)
    • The Alien Silicon Monsters (Dies)

Other Characters:

  • A Sheriff
  • A Hotel Owner

Locations:

Items:

  • Snurx Bombs (Destroyed)

Vehicles:

  • The Silicon Monsters' Space Ship (Destroyed)


Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and Magic Carpets, Inc."

In the silver Arabian desert, an elderly doctor tells Yussuf that his father is dying and Yussuf’s father gives him the great secret of his ancestors and says he’s now Chief of their Tribe. However, Yussuf says he doesn’t want to be Chief, since he’s learned about the modern (Western) world and he wants to live in a big city… His father dies and the doctor says that he’s Chieftain now. Looking over the paper some days later, Chieftain Yussuf finds that the secret is how to weave a magic flying carpets and the doctor says that he can make one like his ancestors, but it is a skilled and laborious process of years… so Chieftain Yussuf decides to discard his title entirely and use the modern world’s factories to create thousands of flying carpets! His tribe is horrible without him (since legend says their fortune will be poor with their Chieftain gone) and he soon heads off to a large western city in America. He tells a transportation magnate, Mr. Igor Trevell, and orders his carpet to fly in the name of Kismet, which makes it work. Trevell, realizing this will change the face of transportation forever, orders some goons in to seize him, but Yussuf flies out the window, accidentally dragging Trevell after him when he grabs on to his carpet. Freddy Freeman, nearby at his Newsstand, calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to save him from falling to his death and Trevell says he’s ruined. Junior soon looks into Yussuf and his flying carpets and he admits that they’re magic and he knows how to make them. Soon, Yussuf opens Magic Carpets, Inc and starts selling flying carpets by the thousands, though Junior finds he still has to help people who aren’t very good at using them yet. Junior tells Yussuf that these are dangerous and cannot be sold, but Yussuf says nothing can stand in the path of progress and that he will not and cannot be forced to. Junior soon finds that one man’s carpet stopped flying and saves another from hitting some electrical wires (before it stops flying) and a third man who has ended up in the seal enclosure at the City Zoo. He flies back to Magic Carpets, Inc. To find people rioting about their failing carpets and Yussuf is upset to find that they’ve ripped his shirt and pants off in anger and Junior flies him off. Yussuf admits that he must’ve done something wrong, since the magic in the carpets doesn’t last long and Junior offers he wear one to keep warm and sell the rest as just normal carpets. Soon, Yussuf returns to being Chieftain and tells the doctor that he was a fool to leave. The wise old man tells him that the skill in making the carpets is what makes them work so long and last as long as they do and Chieftain Yussuf accepts that patience creates the real magic.

Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and Magic Carpets, Inc."

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Chieftain Yussuf

Antagonists:

  • Mr. Trevell

Other Characters:

  • An Old Wise Doctor
  • Yussuf's Father (Dies)

Locations:

Items:

  • The Secret Scroll of the Magic Flying Carpet

Vehicles:

  • Faulty Magic Flying Carpets

Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and Mrs. Wagner's Forbidden Room"

Mr. Marks has pulled a prank yet again, giving Red O’Riley an exploding cigar, upsetting him. Mr. Marks dashes upstairs to escape the gasman’s wrath and goes to climb into the attic, set next to a ladder, but Mrs. Wagner mysteriously says he can’t, since it’s forbidden. The room has bought by the house’s previous owner, Nick Varso, whose only condition was to never enter that room or death will come to he who does so! Freddy points out that curses definitely aren’t real, but she says she did agree to it and that’s enough reason for her. Later, at dinner, Freddy notices Marks isn’t there and they soon hear a horrifying scream from the stairs. Calling CAPTAIN MARVEL, Freddy becomes Captain Marvel, Jr., but only finds that Mr. Marks tried climbing the ladder and it broke under him and he nearly fell down the stairs. Junior chides him for breaking the rules Mrs. Wagner gave him, but Marks says that he should be just as curious. They overhear two men arguing with Mrs. Wagner downstairs and a brutish goon shoves her out of the way insisting that “the Count” be allowed to look around as he likes, despite her saying there’s no rooms for rent. The goon tries to punch out Junior when he gets in the way, breaking his fist and getting both of them thrown out by force. The Count insists he’ll return and Mrs. Wagner says they were asking about the attic room. Soon enough, Freddy is kept up at night and decides to go talk to Marks about it, but finds his bed is empty and, hearing creaking from the attic, presumes that Marks has gone up there himself again. He carefully climbs the ladder and calls out to Marks, only for a bearded man to seize Freddy and slam the door shut. Meanwhile, The Count and his goon return and see a light on in the Forbidden Room and sneak in through a window. In the Forbidden Room, Marks and Freddy are now bound and gagged in a corner as the ranting bearded man reveals that he’s paranoid that they’re coming after his $500,000 in stolen banknotes he has hidden there from the Count and that he’s Nick Varso himself! He picks up a knife to kill them with, but when the Count appears, he misses, hitting the wall between the two boarders’ heads. Freddy manages to cut his gag off with the knife while Marks faints and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to punch out the Count, just as he pulls a gun on Varso and demands his stolen money and smacks his head into Varso’s, knocking them both out. He soon finds the stolen money in a cashbox hidden in the wall and turns it over with the three criminals to the police. The next morning, Freddy reveals that Varso was just eating food out of the kitchen when they weren’t looking in his own madness, since he had all that money… but couldn’t spend any of it. Marks, meanwhile, is trying to nail a Room to Let sign up, only to hit his thumb with it, as Red gave him a trick hammer. Freddy notes this Forbidden Room has been nothing but trouble.

Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and Mrs. Wagner's Forbidden Room"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Nick Varso
  • The Count

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

  • A Cashbox of Stolen $500,000

Vehicles:



Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The World's Mightiest Caveboy"

In the year 8,000 BCE, Mong is an incredibly powerful caveboy, easily fighting off a large ape and a tiger with a mere club and then kills a dragon for a tasty breakfast. However, one day, he falls into an icy crevasse while chasing a polar bear to eat and is frozen in it for 9,950 years! Mong awakens in the modern times of 1950 and starts swimming to shore to get something to eat, since he hasn’t even in maybe a few hours from his perspective. Nearby, Prof. Dooley and his wife are listening to a football game on their radio at a picnic when the lady expresses want for a son… just as Mong arrives. Freddy Freeman, hanging out in the park, hears her scream and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr., but finds that Mong merely stole their picnic basket and left and ate an entire strawberry cake! Junior is convinced that there’s a caveboy around from his odd footprints and tries to look for him, only for Mong to drop out of a tree on the other side of the grove and goes to eat an approaching airplane by smashing off one of its landing gear wheels. The Control Tower sends out an ambulance to capture him, but he easily fights them off and howls loudly in victory. Junior, overhearing it, sets down Prof. Dooley for now and lands the crippled plane and finds the ambulance has been wrecked and goes off to find him with Prof. Dooley once more.

Mong soon gets confused at the Delmont Race Track and hearing a similar YAHOO as his from an announcer, he punches through a PA speaker and drop kicks the guards when they come at him. He soon decides those horses look tasty and attacks one, upsetting the race as Junior arrives to try to calm the panicking horses. Prof. Dooley tries to run across the racetrack to help Mong, but is nearly trampled by one of the horses, only for Mong to lift it into the air with one hand. Looking deep into his eyes and decides that Prof. Dooley would make a good father, while Prof. Dooley wishes he had a son like him. The race track employees order the police to arrest him, despite Prof. Dooley’s protests, but find that he can withstand a club to the chest and is much better at fighting back. As all the horses are returned to the paddock, Junior finally confronts Mong himself and Junior finds that he can hit hard enough to lift him off his feet… though he’s able to defeat him in one punch. Prof. Dooley finds he’s not injured and promises to pay damages and educate Mong to be a model citizen. Some time later, Freddy reads in the papers that Mong was adopted by Prof. Dooley and now is both educated in study and a star football player, on his way to becoming the World’s Mightiest Football Star!

Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The World's Mightiest Caveboy"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Prof. Dooley
    • Mrs. Dooley

Villains:

  • Mong Dooley, the World's Mightiest Caveboy

Other Characters:

  • Race Track Guards
  • Jockeys

Locations:

Items:

  • A Club

Vehicles:

  • Racing Horses

Synopsis for Kanvasback: "The Ring Master"


Appearing in Kanvasback: "The Ring Master"

Featured Characters:

  • Kanvasback

Supporting Characters:


Villains:


Other Characters:


Locations:


Items:


Vehicles:


Trivia

  • Despite the cover, "Mrs. Wagner's" Forbidden Room is an attic only accessible by a cheap ladder and doesn't have a bar over it. Further, she doesn't own it necessarily either and refuses to rent it, it essentially just never traded hands from its former owner.
    • Having a man hiding in a secretive room, living an unseen life and eating food from the kitchen in secret, makes it remarkably similar to the 2019 film Parasite, though Varso's motives are different.


See Also


Links and References