Captain Marvel Adventures (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1953.
Synopsis for Jon Jarl: "The Miniature Menace"
Appearing in Jon Jarl: "The Miniature Menace"
Featured Characters:
- Lt. Jon Jarl
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and The Riddle of the Space Reds"
Flying saucers appear to batter American troops stationed in Korea. Captain Marvel flies to the rescue, but after wrecking several ships and trying to capture one to interrogate the crew, they commit suicide by blowing up their ship instead of revealing their secrets. Captain Marvel then scours the world looking for the saucers' base and finds nothing until he catches them by surprise diving out of a cloud bank as more saucers fly by. Penetrating the craft, he finds they aren't human at all: they're Plutonians, who live in a dictatorship and decided to aid the Earthly communists who have the same political views. Again the aliens self-destruct before they can be captured, however. Marvel tries again, changing to Billy as soon as he lands on top of a saucer so the aliens will think he left. Stowing away, Billy discovers the reason he couldn't find the aliens' base before is it's actually on the moon. Despite being captured he manages to escape by smashing bubble helmet on the ground and catching his gag on the shards of glass, then transforming. When the aliens make their next attack, Marvel picks up the biggest cannon the American forces have and uses the enormous anti-aircraft gun like a rifle to shoot the Plutonians down.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and The Riddle of the Space Reds"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Commander Karz (Dies)
- The Imperial Pluto War Fleet (Dies)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
- Plutonian Flying Saucers (Destroyed)
- UN Sabrejets (Destroyed)
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the Queen of Spies"
Billy receives a radio broadcast from a Tibetan named Ming, who wants to meet with him in Istanbul to reveal a great secret. On the train ride into the city Billy's almost knifed in his bed, but transforms just in time. From a decorative bracelet and the distinctive smell of perfume, Captain Marvel realizes his would-be killer was a woman. This Queen of Spies and her henchman capture Billy and throw him into a river, but he escapes. In the meantime, they've found Ming, tortured his secret out of him, and fed him a paralyzing potion. By the time Captain Marvel finds Ming, he can no longer talk, but the Queen of Spies hadn't reckoned on Ming's Tibetan mental disciplines allowing him to tell Marvel where to find his secret by using telepathy. Marvel finds the villainess has already acquired Ming's secret, but follows the smell of her perfume to where she's auctioning it off to Communist agents. After arresting her, he discovers the secret is a device that can detect thoughts from anywhere in the world, which American could use to protect itself from any hostile foreign power.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the Queen of Spies"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Ming
Antagonists:
- Delura, Queen of Spies
- Ghunga
- Other Communists
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- Turkey
- Istanbul
- A Cemetery on Bosporus Hill
- The Banks of the Hellespont
- Istanbul
- Tibet (Mentioned only)
Items:
- Ming's Telepathic Tuner
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Doc Sorebones: "Nails One Down!"
A woman tells Doc Sorebones that she solved her husband's obsessive nail-biting... by hiding his teeth!
Appearing in Doc Sorebones: "Nails One Down!"
Featured Characters:
- Doc Sorebones
Supporting Characters:
- A Woman
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Doc Sorebones' Office
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Tightwad Tad: "A Prudent Purchaser!"
Tad buys a half-priced briefcase and when asked if he wants it wrapped, he offers the clerk just put the paper and string inside his briefcase instead!
Appearing in Tightwad Tad: "A Prudent Purchaser!"
Featured Characters:
- Tightwad Tad
Supporting Characters:
- A Clerk
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
- A Half-Priced Briefcase
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and the Vampire Burglar!"
A strange vampire goes around breaking into warehouses to lift crates of candy bars. After repeated incidents, Captain Marvel decides to look into the bizarre crime and catches the creature of the night in the act. The vampire burglar explains he's revolted by the taste of blood, so he's been eating this brand of candy bars instead, because they're the only other thing in the world that contains the essence that vampires need to survive. Captain Marvel finds the entire thing completely nutty, but hands the vampire over to the head of the candy company to decide what to do. When the president hears that there are thousands of vampires in Transylvania he could be selling his candy bars to, he appoints the vampire burglar as head of sales to Transylvania instead of pressing charges.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and the Vampire Burglar!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- The Vampire Burglar (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- President of the Goody Goody Company
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Station WHIZ-TV
- The Goody Goody Company
- Transylvania (Mentioned only)
- New York City
Items:
- Goody Goody Bars
- Malakiza
Vehicles:
- A Goody Goody Company Truck
Synopsis for Capt. Kid: "The Secrets of Success!"
Captain Kid is looking glum, so his friend asks what he’s upset about. Captain Kid says he wanted to be a bank teller at the Second National Bank, but they don’t count for much! He says that he also thought of being a taxi driver, but he met one with a hacking cough. Seeing a poster for the Hilowah Race Track opening soon, he offers that Captain Kid could be a jockey, but Captain Kid says they’re too frivolous, since they’re always horsing around! Walking by Powley’s Radio Rahndevoo, Captain Kid hears Byron Bryson, a big-shot DJ, and says he wants to be one, then says he shouldn’t, since he heard one DJ reached a point where he couldn’t face the music! Captain Kid goes home anxious and falls asleep, dreaming of inanimate objects that tell him secrets of success, but their aggressive puns make him wake up and decide that he’s going to grow up to be a nervous wreck, but decides he’ll just work on finishing school first and that hopefully he’ll know what he wants to be by the time he graduates.
Appearing in Capt. Kid: "The Secrets of Success!"
Featured Characters:
- Captain Kid
Supporting Characters:
- A Friend of Captain Kid's
Locations:
- Earth-S
- Podunk City
- Powley's Radio Rahndevoo
- Hilowah Race Track
- Podunk City
Items:
Vehicles:
- A Taxicab
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and The Thief from the Past"
Captain Marvel airlifts a cop car bound for a museum in regards to a valuable necklace. Once they arrive, they find that it wasn't because the ancient necklace was stolen, but that it's mysteriously returned after being stolen fifty years before. Unfortunately, the necklace then vanishes without explanation again! Captain Marvel decides to look into it from the beginning, by flying to the Rock of Eternity and coming back in the year 1903 when the necklace first vanished. Learning a night watchman was on duty the whole time, Marvel suspects him, but the museum staff dismiss such a notion, praising this Sal Vimon for his brilliance. This only serves to make Marvel even more suspicious, since if Vimon's so brilliant, why is he making his living as a mere security guard? Billy goes to Vimon's house, but is spotted and knocked out when Vimon drops a big book on his head from the second floor.
He reveals to Billy he used his "Time Trap" to swipe the necklace by moving it temporally 50 years into the future, and then bringing it back to 1903 right into his hands. He then tries to get rid of Billy by throwing the boy off a primitive plane of his own design, but Billy kicks and struggles until its delicate equilibrium is destroyed and it crashes. Billy goes over a cliff but transforms. With Vimon dead in the crash, Marvel destroys the "time trap" but is then perplexed by the two-fold problem of returning the stolen necklace, but not distorting the records of history. Instead, he leads the police to Sal Vimon's abandoned house in 1953, where they recover the missing prize.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and The Thief from the Past"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Sal Vimon, the Thief from the Past (Single appearance; dies)
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Station WHIZ-TV
- The City Museum
- New York City
- The Rock of Eternity
- February 2nd, 1903
Items:
- Time Trap
- Necklace of Queen Nehachapi
- A Large Yellow Book
Vehicles:
- Prototype Airplane (Destroyed)
Synopsis for dopey Danny Dee: "In a Fog!"
Danny's friend points out that it's getting foggy out and a nearby lighthouse has turned on, but also starts ringing bells and whistles. Danny dopily says that the lighthouse is useless: nothing it does stops the fog!
Appearing in dopey Danny Dee: "In a Fog!"
Featured Characters:
- Dopey Danny Dee
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
- A Lighthouse
Items:
Vehicles:
Trivia
- Despite the cover, Captain Marvel doesn't actually fight a thief coming from the past via time travel, nor is it a dudded-up man-about-town, but instead is a blond scientist with a different outdated mustache by going back to the past. If anything, his Time Machine doesn't seem to be big enough for him to fit into.
See Also
- Cover gallery for the Captain Marvel Adventures series
- Images from Captain Marvel Adventures Vol 1 147