Captain Marvel Adventures #116 is an issue of the series Captain Marvel Adventures (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 1951.
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and the World Without Fire!"
Doctor Sivana is at his own Sivana Real Estate office set up on another planet to sell whatever plot of Earth land they want as long as they acknowledge him as their King. The pink, antennae aliens agree, since they’re overcrowded on their planet and Sivana is made King. He promises that the land they want will have “no people there” and Sivana returns to Earth to just kill everyone on Earth by releasing his new Anti-Fire Catalyst over the Earth’s atmosphere. Meanwhile, Billy Batson is speaking with a scientist, Sir Basil, on WHIZ-TV’s WHIZ-Quiz and he states that fire is the most important discovery, since it started civilization. However, Sir Basil is astonished to find he can’t light his pipe with a full box of matches and someone bringing a lighter in. Billy gets news on the teletype of a fire breaking out in a nearby metropolitan city and calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel. However, when he gets there, the massive city-wide fire… suddenly goes out! Dr. Sivana snickers on his rocket-ship at having rendered Earth’s oxygen “inert” and “chemically dead,” preventing it from creating fire as Captain Marvel finds a plane is crashing, since an internal combustion engine still runs on fire. Captain Marvel starts to realize that no fire exists on Earth and soon finds on the teletype that trains are off, machines are all dead, power stations aren’t working and also a tiny village is being struck by a blizzard, so he goes to help the village before they freeze to death.
Lashing together their dog-sleds, he drags them to safety and soon flies off. While out, he notices the pink aliens setting up shop and proffering the “deed” to the land they “bought” and, when he tells them otherwise, they leave politely. Captain Marvel soon follows them to their unnamed home planet and finds that Sivana’s guarded laboratory has an antidote to the Anti-Fire Catalyst (since the pink aliens will no doubt need fire in the future.) Since they are moderately naive creatures, Captain Marvel calls SHAZAM and returns Billy, who they let in immediately. However, while snooping around Sivana’s lab and finds the formula he needs, he’s knocked out from behind by Sivana wielding a club. When he wakes up, he’s bound to a stake and gagged where Sivana decides to give him an ironic end by burning him alive while the rest of the Earth is freezing to death. After Sivana walks off, the fire manages to burn off Billy’s gag and he calls SHAZAM to quickly punch out Sivana, inform the pink aliens of a new world that is actually deserted and open for them to settle on, then releases the Anti-Anti-Fire Catalyst, returning the world to normal. Later, Captain Marvel shares a fire with a hobo and then goes to jail to hand Sivana a deed… to his own cell!
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and the World Without Fire!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Sir Basil
- Unnamed Pink Aliens
Locations:
- Earth-S
- Unnamed Planet of the Pink Aliens
- Sivana's Laboratory
- Sivana Real Estate
Items:
- Sivana's Anti-Fire Catalyst
- Sivana's Anti-Fire Catalyst Antidote
Vehicles:
- Sivana's Rocket-Ship
Synopsis for Captain Kid: "The Case of the Violin Case"
Captain Kid is picking up eggs and keeping his head on a swivel for the local bully, Scully, only to be tripped around a corner by Scully, who then shoves his face in the eggs. Pudgy offers they get revenge and says that they can trick Scully into breaking a cheap violin they’ll buy, pretending it’s owned by the great violinist Jay Long Bowe. Scully snickers to himself as the other kids set up this prank. However, on the way there, they find the real Jay Long Bowe is willing to pay them a dollar to take his violin to the Concert Hall, since he hates carrying his case around with him. Scully runs in and breaks it, then reveals that the knew that that was a fake Jay Long Bowe violin… only for Jay Long Bowe to bring a cop with him and say that Scully has to pay for this and that he’s pressing charges. The cop’s math sounds like Scully will be in jail for life as Captain Kid and Pudgy enjoy that he’ll be gone forever.
Appearing in Captain Kid: "The Case of the Violin Case"
Featured Characters:
- Captain Kid
Supporting Characters:
- Jay Long Bowe
- Pudgy
Antagonists:
- Scully the Bully
Other Characters:
- A Cop
Locations:
- Earth-S
- Podunk
Items:
- Jay Long Bowe's Violin (Destroyed)
- A Pack of Eggs (Destroyed)
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the Magic Carpet Menace"
Billy Batson is interviewing Mr. Zopodian for WHIZ-TV, a rug dealer who claims to have a magic carpet that he can demonstrate on television! Zopodian stands on it and says it’s from Bagdad, then speaks an “ancient magic charm” that whisks him out the window. Billy is stunned when he leaves on the magic carpet (thinking it was just a trick) and is shocked further to find that the carpet he’s standing on has also become a magic carpet, whisking Billy out into the air over New York City! Calling SHAZAM, he summons Captain Marvel when he falls off it. However, all the carpets in the Big Apple are affected and nobody knows how to stop them! Captain Marvel catches a man from falling in a cement mixer and figures that Zopodian’s spell affected everyone who saw the program too and then saves a woman on a quickly unraveling magic carpet. He soon spots Zopodian, who knows how to fly on a carpet (you lift the corners like rudders,) but Zopodian claims he has no idea how all this happened and offers to go back to Station WHIZ to set up a second charm that will undo the first one. However, when Captain Marvel calls SHAZAM to return Billy, Zopodian demands $1,000,000 to use the second charm! Billy points out that Captain Marvel can read the Ancient Arabic and reverse this himself, so Zopodian clocks him with a microphone in the head and Billy wakes up bound and gagged on a magic carpet, sailing over the city. Billy manages to wiggle enough that he ends up crashing head-first through a glass window, which luckily only cuts off his gag to let him call SHAZAM. Captain Marvel punches over Zopodian and speaks the secondary charm to carefully and safely restore all the carpets to normal, then rolls up Zopodian in his own magic carpet to take him to jail. Billy signs off later by saying that the charm only works once, so he sold Zopodian’s original carpet to a museum.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the Magic Carpet Menace"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Mr. Zopodian
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
- Zopodian's Flying Carpet
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and the Mystery of the Flying Saucer"
Timothy Taine is a foolish man, afraid of his own shadow, small dogs barking at him and an elderly man threatening to punch him if he doesn’t squeak like a mouse. He returns to his humble repair shop and wishes people weren’t so mean to him and decides to do what he always does to feel better about himself: beating his cat with a broom. Later, a giant Flying Saucer appears over his small town of Crandale and starts dropping bombs! Billy Batson soon finds out about this on the teletype and calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel to look into it. Captain Marvel quickly spots the craft, but it drifts off into a large cloud where Captain Marvel can’t easily track him and heads down to find these alien artillery isn’t very powerful, but are followed by a taunting flag that reads that they will be attacked again and Captain Marvel won’t be able to help them, but especially that "King Johz" will soon rule the Earth.
After nightfall, the Flying Saucer returns and drops incendiary bombs over the city, but when Captain Marvel goes after it, it suddenly seems to shrink out of sight entirely. Timothy Taine picks a tommy-gun to defend Crandale by taking potshots at it and taking off in a plane to get closer while Captain Marvel prioritizes saving civilians from the fire. Shockingly, Timothy blows up the entire craft and is named an “ex-coward” and Bravest Man on Earth! Suddenly, Captain Marvel flies in and punches Taine in the head, revealing that he was using a small blimp hiding in the clouds to drop the Flying Saucer out of it (it was also a large balloon) and would deflate it when it was done just so he could pretend that he was a hero while committing domestic terrorism. Tim Taine goes to jail and everyone instead has a parade for Captain Marvel, who saved lives and property like a real hero!
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and the Mystery of the Flying Saucer"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Timothy "Tim" Taine
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Crandale
Items:
- Taine's Tommy-Gun
Vehicles:
- Taine's Blimp
- Taine's Flying Saucer Balloon (Destroyed)
- Taine's Plane
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the Sinister Thrill Seekers"
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the Sinister Thrill Seekers"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Jarvis
- The Other Thrill-Seeker
- A Tyrannosaurus Rex
Other Characters:
- The Master's Butler
- A Sleeping Bowery Tramp
- The French Gendarmerie
- Francois the Pickpocket
- A Sperm Whale
Locations:
- Earth-S
- The Rock of Eternity
- Lyria (in the Year 5,000)
- The Year 50,000,000 BCE
Items:
- The Eiffel Tower
- The Washington Monument
- A Skeletal Fossil of Early Man
- A Wheel from a Purple Car
- A Television Aerial
- A Tank of Goldfish
- Electric-Shock Guns
Vehicles:
- Jarvis' Time Ship
Notes
- Mr. Tawny begins to feature now only every other month, starting with not appearing in this issue.
See Also