Captain Marvel Adventures #115 is an issue of the series Captain Marvel Adventures (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1950.
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and the Day Civilization Went Backwards!"
Billy Batson has invited over Professor Swope, an expert on civilization, which he says is based on a series of great discoveries and inventions: fire, iron, the wheel, the steam engine, railroads, automobiles, the airplane, radio and television. However, at 12 noon, he’s going to reverse civilization, donning a metal cap and then slaps Billy in the face on live television, shouting how he will undo all of civilization and shouts that he’s un-inventing television! Billy quickly calls SHAZAM and summons Captain Marvel, thinking Prof. Swope is just crazy and tries to stop his ranting… but finds the crew are throwing all the TV equipment out of the windows are now thinking backwards too, finding a nearby television store is shutting down and throwing all the sets into the trash and being collected as junk. Meanwhile, Prof. Swope has escaped and goes to a large antenna in the woods that is projecting a hypnotic “Backwards Ray” that makes people “think backwards” as they are now, which is also why he wears his metal cap. Swope soon un-invents the telephone, streetcars and roads until there are gigantic landfills in the countryside of rejected inventions of the modern world, then starts a campaign of loading all the un-invented things on to a large blue rocket-ship. Captain Marvel punches over Swope and he cops to a scheme to sell people back their inventions, but also that people thinking backwards now think of him as a great un-inventer and are violently devoted to him and start to mob around him.
Prof. Swope escapes into his ship and takes off through a large circular portal to “Dimension World,” a small parallel dimension of medieval development where Prof. Swope intends to create industry for both dimensions and become Ruler of both. Captain Marvel punches him in the face and immediately arrested by the local people (who think Swope is a wizard) and they prepare to take him to the Bastille. Since Captain Marvel refuses to break the law even in a violent alternate dimension, he calls SHAZAM to return Billy and let him try to run away while they’re distracted by the magic lightning. Prof. Swope manages to catch Billy and grabs him by the mouth, ordering him taken to his ship where he’s left bound and gagged under an exhaust pipe to be smothered by noxious rocket fumes while Swope and his goons unload his ship. Billy manages to lift his head through the exhaust and catches his gag caught in the moving gears of the rocket-ship and calls SHAZAM to punch them out easily, fly them back to Earth, breaks the Backwards Ray Tower, the breaks the Dimension Gateway. Captain Marvel is happy that his mad plot to destroy society has failed and didn’t get too far. Later, Billy signs off wearing a yellow sweater and saying that Swope and his men went to prison and he’s King of a Stone Cell for life that he can try un-inventing!
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and the Day Civilization Went Backwards!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Professor Swope
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- Dimension World
Items:
- Televisions
- Telephones
- The Gateway to Dimension World
- Prof. Swope's Backwards Ray Tower
Vehicles:
- Prof. Swope's Rocket-Ship
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel, The World's Mightiest Genie"
“Honest” John Horton of Horton MFG, Co has seemingly gone bankrupt, but promises the workers that he’ll pay them all the same, since he is a man of his word and promises that he’s paying them back $25,000 together. Billy Batson asks how he intends to do that and offers help from Station WHIZ, but the proud Horton refuses and decides he’ll instead just start digging ditches during the day and selling vacuum cleaners at night. After Billy goes home at night, he finds that Horton is washing windows outside and that he stopped sleeping. His wife, Mrs. Horton, is worried that he’s going to collapse from exhaustion soon and calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel to at least help him. However, since Horton is too proud to accept assistance, he refuses. The next day, Captain Marvel finds some strange Arabian objects for sale at a Curio Shop and Mrs. Horton is able to ply her husband into taking 3 ½ minutes off to eat bread and water at home before he intends to return to work. He soon receives a package in the mail carrying an old Arabian lamp and he tries to rub it clean with his sleeve, “summoning” a genie that looks like Captain Marvel wearing a turban, a different shirt and a fake mustache, claiming that this is the “Magic Lamp of Bagdad” and that he will do whatever he wishes!
Captain Marvel flies him to his next job, repairing television aerials without any safety equipment and saves Horton from falling off the roof and then fixes the antenna for him. He takes him to fix a plot of quicksand (that looks like a swamp) and dumping logs in them. Horton manages to fall asleep under a shady tree while Captain Marvel does the work for him, then helps him repair an entire bridge and clear an avalanche-covered road, but finds that this is making Horton incredibly lazy and that he’s turned him from an industrious man to a sluggard and tries to encourage him to help out more than not at all, but Horton tells him to do as he’s ordered and that he’s going to keep all this money for himself and is going to abuse his genie privileges so he can be a millionaire once he pays off his debt. Captain Marvel watches him catching his money and finding he’s made all but $1,000 of his debt and steals back the “Magic Lamp of Bagdad” while his back is turned. Horton soon finds it’s gone and almost has a panic attack, but steels his resolve and gets to his last job, demolishing a brick wall with a sledgehammer, only prompting Captain Marvel to get involved when it almost falls on Horton. Captain Marvel returns the Lamp to him, but Horton decides to smash it and says that if he relies on others too much, he’ll lose his self-respect! Later, Billy signs off saying that Horton repaid his debts and decides that Captain Marvel thinks of it as a form of charity.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel, The World's Mightiest Genie"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- "Honest" John Horton
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- WHIZ Radio
- Horton MFG, Co.
- A Curio Shop
- New York City
Items:
- The "Magic Lamp of Bagdad"
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Mr. Tawky Tawny: "Captain Marvel and Mr. Tawny's Personality Peril!"
Mr. Tawky Tawny looks through his junk mail and finds a “personality guide” to see what type of personality, finding that he doesn’t consider himself debonair, cultured, romantic, the life of the party, masterful, a good story-teller or a he-man, meaning he is left with the uncomfortable title of “drab” which makes him feel insecure and mopes around until Captain Marvel visits him and complains that he doesn’t have much of a personality. On the last page, Mr. Tawny finds it offering that he can come to the “Personality Shoppe” by Omar Zingh that purports to offer him one “for sale.” Arriving, he finds Omar is offering a flight of magical potions that will give him a new personality for the “low” price of $1,000 and snickers to himself once Mr. Tawny leaves, since everyone wants to change themselves!
The next day, Captain Marvel visits him and finds Mr. Tawny is now a Debonair type, speaking in a Transatlantic accent, wearing a day suit and a monocle. Captain Marvel expresses that it’s weird and wrong to change your entire personality overnight. A neighbor comes over to borrow a lemon while Mr. Tawny is overly obsequious towards her and offers her a whole fruit basket, making her uncomfortable. When he asks if she prefers him this way, she says she doesn’t and he necks down a potion to make him Cultured, which makes him start LOUDLY quoting Shakespeare until they start throwing things at him. Captain Marvel blocks it and says that these potions are just making his life horrible, but Mr. Tawny takes a Life of the Party potion and starts clicking his heels, waving his arms and putting a lampshade on his head. The children find this obnoxious and he realizes he’s become cringe. He soon goes home and tries out a Tough as Nails potion, changing into black pants and an aggressive white turtleneck, then picks a fight with a stevedore until Captain Marvel punches him over. Captain Marvel decides to look into Omar when he realizes that Mr. Tawny will just keep changing personalities if this continues, only for Omar to splash Childish potion into his face, which makes Captain Marvel skip merrily and pour sand on his own face. Before Mr. Tawny can drink a Romantic potion, he notices the World’s Mightiest Mortal is playing in a sandbox, but then sits up and says that he was just pretending to make Mr. Tawny realize he looked like a fool in public, just like he did. He then punches Omar out, making him drop his fez and revealing he has a big briefcase full of money. Captain Marvel later throws a block party and commends that they like Mr. Tawny just the way he is!
Appearing in Mr. Tawky Tawny: "Captain Marvel and Mr. Tawny's Personality Peril!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Omar Zingh
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
- Omar Zingh's Personality Potions
- The Debonair Potion
- The Cultured Potion
- The Life of the Party Potion
- The Tough as Nails Potion
- The Romantic Potion
- A Lampshade
- A Fruit Basket
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Capt. Kid: "Capt. Kid and the Double Date"
Betty Mae tells Captain Kid her dad said she can’t go out to the dance with him and Pudgy offers that he can get him a new date, his cousin Annie. Minutes later, Captain Kid sees her and is convinced that it’s a good idea and he decides to go home to get dressed. Pudgy says he’ll walk her to his house after showing her around town. Later, Captain Kid finds Pudgy has arrived to say Annie is waiting for him at the dance, but he soon gets a phone call from Betty Mae, finding that she convinced her dad to let her go with him to the dance! Soon, the two lead Betty Mae to the hospital and pressure a janitor into dressing up like a doctor and telling Betty Mae that she’s sick, but he tells Captain Kid he wants a favor from him, which is Captain Kid’s excuse to leave. Captain Kid manages to go to the dance with Annie, then the afterparty at Pop’s Place, but pretends he needs to get home mildly early, much to Annie’s suspicion. She decides to follow him until Captain Kid returns to the hospital as she finds from a real doctor that the ruse that has been pulled on her. She picks up a green vase and smashes it on his head, only for Annie to arrive and find she’s been two-timed and picks up a red vase to smash on his head too. The doctor notes that Captain Kid sure needs to be in the hospital now and he figures that he just can’t win.
Appearing in Capt. Kid: "Capt. Kid and the Double Date"
Featured Characters:
- Captain Kid
Supporting Characters:
- Pudgy
Antagonists:
- Betty Mae
- Janitor Disguised as a Doctor
Other Characters:
- Annie, Pudgy's Cousin
- Real Doctor
Locations:
- Earth-S
- Podunk
- Captain Kid's House
- Podunk Hospital
- Pop's Place
- Podunk
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the Television Terror"
Billy Batson prepares for a broadcast in color at Station WHIZ for WHIZ-TV as he’s announced by Mr. Morris in AM, FM and TV and their newest show You the Public, where Billy will interview random people around town in a “man-on-the-street” segment. They speak to the talkative and fashionable Lucy Thistledown of Idaho before they try to pull in a random passerby, finding his case is full of jewelry and a gun, indicating he’s a criminal. The police find on live TV that this is Marmaduke Van Slick, the world’s most wanted jewel thief who takes a year to plan every heist. Van Slick dashes past them by slapping Mr. Morris in the throat and scarpers around a corner, shouting about the “art” of his heists. Billy calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel, who flies after him, but loses him in a confused crowd. Later, Van Slick is depressed about having failed to get away with all his loot. Captain Marvel turns it over to the police and Mr. Morris keeps rolling, then later offers Captain Marvel that they can do a new program with him too on WHIZ-TV!
A week later, they do a program with Captain Marvel about crime prevention, but when it’s aired on TV, the colors are all wrong: Captain Marvel’s suit is green, his skin looks purple and his teeth are blue (though everything else is still the same color.) When they go through their equipment, they find a dead mouse had fallen into the wiring and disrupted their “color synthesizer” and, when removed, everything is fixed! However, the next night when they try to air another Captain Marvel crime program, it’s wildly distorted, not unlike a funhouse mirror. The next day, they find another dead mouse in the machinery and then a dozen more, proving they have a dead mouse problem and the next program is ruined by being both distorted and discolored. The FCC soon call Mr. Morris and tell him they’re revoking his broadcast license if they don’t fix things. The next day, things are all being shut down as Billy arrives, only for the FCC to call and say that they’re still on the air! When they turn on the TV, they find a shifty-looking Impostor Billy introducing a horror program: Captain Marvel Turns Frankenstein! He soon finds edited footage of a man dressed in a Captain Marvel costume attacking people on the street with a club, saying that he wants to kill. Billy calls SHAZAM to summon the real Captain Marvel who uses a frequency tracking machine that leads him to a large mansion in the country. Within, Marmaduke Van Slick has hired two goons to dress up as Captain Marvel and Billy to get revenge by using a Scrambler Signal to mess with WHIZ-TV. The real Billy Batson sneaks in while he loudly gloats about how he’ll get his revenge, then calls SHAZAM as Captain Marvel punches the three criminal into each other. That night, Billy and Mr. Morris announce the return of WHIZ-TV with jugglers, acrobats and dancers to welcome back their viewers.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the Television Terror"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Marmaduke Van Slick
- Impostor Captain Marvel
- Impostor Billy Batson
Other Characters:
- Lucy Thistledown of Idaho
Locations:
Items:
- Several Dead Rats
- A Frequency Tracker
- Van Slick's Scrambler Signal
Vehicles:
See Also