Captain Marvel, Jr. #95 is an issue of the series Captain Marvel, Jr. (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1951.
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. battles The Electrical Bandit!"
A man on the street and a few boys on the street end up running afoul of disturbingly physical ball lightning. Freddy Freeman, seeing a boy about to touch one, calls CAPTAIN MARVEL and becomes Captain Marvel, Jr. to move the boy out of the way of it and find an annoying man who says it’s his ball lightning and he’s “Lightning” Lenny, a scientist who has created this physical ball lightning which he keeps as a pet and makes it “dance” around Junior. He says he’s arresting him for making these dangerous balls of lightning everywhere, only for Lenny to use it to burn all of Freddy’s papers. He runs off, deciding to use the ball lightning to commit crimes, since his father was killed by electric chair and now he’s going to get electric revenge. First, he knocks out a rich man on the street with ball lightning and then just steals his stuff. Next, as night falls, he pitches some ball lightning at the Electric Power, Co.’s transformers, making it gigantic and stealing all power from the Big Apple. Junior finds this to be a vexing problem and figures Lenny is probably behind it. Arriving at the power plant, he sees Lenny and his giant Lightning Ball as he sends it away, saying it’s as powerful now as an atom bomb. Junior finds he can’t easily grab it easily and when he rams into it at top speed, it breaks into smaller Lightning Balls that end up attracted each other and then explode into nothing. A man from the Electric Company says that he needs to get all that electricity back since the City needs to use it. Junior snaps off a lightning rod from a tall building and uses it with a huge spool of cable, connects one end to the powerhouse and shoves it into the Giant Lightning Ball, which returns it to the power planet. Lenny finds he needs to get closer to use his machine to control the Ball as it slowly shrinks while being reabsorbed while Junior has seemingly left… only for Junior to fly down and pick him up so he can snatch the machine from him and chases him with his own Lightning Ball to Police HQ. Soon, the power is all back on, Junior crushes the machine and Freddy is happy things are back to normal.
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. battles The Electrical Bandit!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Workers at the Electrical Power Plant
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Freddy's Newsstand
- Electrical Power, Co.
- New York City
Items:
- Lenny's Lightning Ball Generator (Destroyed)
- Ball Lightning
- A Giant Ball of Lightning
- A Lightning Rod
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Space Fisherman"
Prof. Edgewise finds Freddy Freeman at his Newsstand, only to be yanked off his feet by a giant blunted hook from the sky! Turning around, Freddy is shocked to find he’s gone and soon finds that he didn’t come home later too. A radio report assumes that there’s some kind of kidnappings and Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. and goes to ask some nearby cops in a green police car, only for the car to suddenly Fulton into the sky themselves. Following the hook lifting things out into space, he sees a gigantic pink three-eyed alien wearing normal clothing that stashes away his stolen prizes off of the Earth like fish. Despite running directly into his face to attack him, Junior finds he can’t and that the Fisherman is less of a solid being and more of a concentrated gas. He instead dives into his basket and finds all of the stolen exhibits are sealed in air bubbles that keep them alive, if sedated. Junior figures that the Fisherman sees the atmosphere of Earth as ocean-like, since he lives in the vacuum of space and notes that he has a magnetized hook so as not to harm his catches. Soon enough, he finds that the Fisherman is comparing his catches with another Fisherman and both of them end up disappointed that despite going to several planets, they don’t have a “full catch” of seven tons and must be thrown back. Junior also hears that if they don’t get a full catch, they’ll just move on to a different solar system and puts his thumb on the bottom of the scale to make it seem lighter and flies back all the “fish” they picked up from Earth. Later, Prof. Edgewise is going fishing and Freddy notes that everyone who was stolen were out cold, so they’re all none the wiser.
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Space Fisherman"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- The Space Fishermen
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Freddy's Newsstand
- New York City
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The King of the Dogs!"
A mysterious man in a purple Ulster coat appears at Mrs. Wagner’s Boarding House to rent a room, only for Freddy’s dog, Rover, to start barking at him. Freddy Freeman tells the man the dog won’t hurt him, but the man gives the dog a hard stare and Rover becomes aloof at first and then violent to Freddy. He soon finds Rover is hanging out with the new boarder, who has taught him to stand up on two feet and becomes unusually upset when Freddy says he looks “like a man,” since he believes dogs are “superior” to people. Freddy mildly apologizes, since he does like Rover a great deal. The next evening, Freddy hears Leroy Marks shouting angrily in the yard and finds Rover is biting on his jacket and makes him run into traffic, nearly getting hit by a car. Junior dives down and picks up the car and chides the newly upsetting dog and Leroy says he’s calling the dogcatcher if he does this again. Junior soon decides that man is likely responsible and finds dogs following him all over town, even jumping from their owners to get to him. Junior is confused and decides to drop it for now. The next day, he hears about a dogcatcher being attacked by wild dogs and greyhounds at the track attacking spectators. Seeing some fox-hunters being chased through the streets by their own hunting dogs and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. and Junior flies off to get a net to restrain the dogs. Taking them to the City Dog Pound, he finds it’s been broken open and all the dogs turned on the dogcatcher to escape together. Junior finds a strange lack of dogs on the streets and follows the ones he caught earlier to find that they run out to the nearby countryside where he finds that that man is there again, speaking some kind of strange “speech of dogs” and punches him over, finding that he’s actually… Canus, King of Dogs, disguised as a human. Canus apologizes for trying to lead the dogs of New York into killing the humans and Junior is willing to forgive him if he doesn’t try this again and returns all the dogs to their owners. Later, Leroy says that he chased off a dogcatcher coming after Rover and Freddy thinks on how he’s seemingly forgotten that it was Leroy himself who called for the dogcatcher to start with...
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The King of the Dogs!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Leroy Marks
- Rover
Villains:
- Canus, King of Dogs
Other Characters:
- Other Dogs
- Huntsmen
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Mrs. Wagner's Boarding House
- City Dog Pound
- New York City
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Exiled Earth!"
The year is 1,000,000 CE and the Earth is becoming colder and colder! A scientist worries that all on mankind will be doomed and uses his Time-Screen to look into the past to see what they can do, hoping that Captain Marvel, Jr. can solve this problem and activates a Thought-Projector to send Freddy Freeman a mental 411 in the form of his Daily Gazette reading EARTH EXILED ONE MILLION AD... KARQ!, but it soon returns to normal. He soon sees the same message on the side of a truck as well and decides to go home early. At home at Mrs. Wagner’s, he thinks that it might be a message to him… as he sees the same message in the sky now. He decides this must mean something and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. and flies out to hang off the Rock of Eternity to get to the future and find this “Karq.” He soon finds that the Earth is now outside the Solar System proper and is blasting out light rays all over. One of them seems to drag Junior in and he lands near Karq’s laboratory. Karq explains that centuries ago, Earth acquired universal peace and brotherhood, but the other populated planets have decided to fire force rays at Earth to shove them out of the Solar System and the peaceful Earth doesn’t know how to fight back by now due to eons of peacetime. Further, if the temperature continues to drop, their insulation shield will crack and the last city on Earth will freeze to death. Junior flies out and just starts pushing the Earth back into orbit against the force of the force-rays. Soon, many rocket-ships try to attack the Earth directly and Junior defeats them easily. A large-eared alien says that they surrender and apologizes for not recognizing their strength sooner. Junior gives them a tour of Earth to show they’re happier not having war and they all learn a lesson that Earth is a beautiful place. Karq wonders if the rest of the Universe will follow suit, but when Freddy is delivering papers, he finds a new message from Karq saying that Universal Peace has been declared.
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Exiled Earth!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Karq
Villains:
- Invading Interplanetary Forces
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Freddy's Newsstand
- New York City
- The Rock of Eternity
- The Year 1,000,000 CE
Items:
- Karq's Time-Screen
- Karq's Thought-Projector
Vehicles:
- Rocket-Ships
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Battles The Demon Fencer"
Prof. Edgewise relates a story about a peasant rebellion in 951 CE against an evil Baron wielding black magic. Baron De Moniac mocked that they don’t know his large ornate cup is the source of his power, but they soon broke in and threw it out a window, since they didn’t care about his rich belongings anyways. When they attacked the Baron himself, they discovered that he was a demon wearing a human guise and he suddenly vanished into a puff of smoke, since his powerful cup was gone. Freddy Freeman asks Prof. Edgewise if he thinks he’ll return, but the absent-minded Professor says those are just legends. They soon head out to see a fencing match at the History Society, wherein the prize is the same legendary Cup of Baron De Moniac. Later, one of the contestants heading there is ambushed and strangled by the Baron, who has returned for one day on Earth with which he needs to get back the Cup. Hearing the man screaming in a nearby alley, Freddy asks Prof. Edgewise to go in without him and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to go after him. He finds the fencer dizzied and unconscious, but when he wakes up, he says he was attacked by something that wasn’t human and had a long tail. Junior thinks he’s gone mad and takes him to the hospital as De Moniac dons his fencing outfit to replace the man, John Masters. The contest begins and De Moniac quickly wins the first round as Junior finds that John Masters has forgotten everything but his name. Prof. Edgewise tells Freddy when he returns that Masters is doing well at the exhibition and soon wins, so Freddy follows him to his locker room and finds that it’s De Moniac, who punches him out before he can call his magic words and retakes his magic cup, disappearing in a puff of smoke in front of Prof. Edgewise to go back to his “native country.” When Freddy wakes up, the Professor says that the area that “Baron” De Moniac ran was in what is now modern day South Ruretania. He calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to fly there as Captain Marvel, Jr. while De Moniac uses his Cup to create his ancient castle fortress and an army of 1,000 evil knights. Junior arrives though and defeats the knights easily, defeats him in fencing battle and De Moniac jumps off a balcony to his death rather than face defeat and Junior finds the Cup is broken now. Back at home again, Prof. Edgewise offers to tell Freddy the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but Freddy says his stories aren’t as relaxing just now.
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Battles The Demon Fencer"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Prof. Edgewise
- John Masters
Villains:
- The Demon Fencer (Baron De Moniac) (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Freddy's Newsstand
- South Ruretania
- New York City
Items:
- The Cup of De Moniac (Destroyed)
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Kanvasback: "The Family Reunion"
Appearing in Kanvasback: "The Family Reunion"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Trivia
- Despite the cover, The King of Dogs does not enable dogs to wield a Gatling gun or dump boulders on to people at all and doesn't command them to do crimes with a stick either. Instead, Captain Marvel, Jr. defeats him before he can unleash a canine reign of terror.
- The region of "South Ruretania" is likely a reference to Ruritania, a moderately stuffy and minor European monarchy from Anthony Hope's novels, starting in The Prisoner of Zenda. It is sometimes used as a general nonspecific "anywhere" like Americans say "Podunk" or "Squeedunk."
See Also