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This is an in-universe article with out-of-universe material.

This article covers information about something that exists within the DC Universe, and should not contain out-of-universe material. Please remove all out-of-universe material, or include it in a separate section at the bottom of the article. And take off that silly costume.

"Captain Marvel Faces Fear!": We are greeted by the Concept of Fear, which looks like a white cloak that talks with a human hand sticking out of it sometimes, beckoning us to see what it can do to someone. We’re shown Dr. Carl de Reine, an inventor, who charges a young blond boy with deliv

Captain Marvel Adventures #89 is an issue of the series Captain Marvel Adventures (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1948.

Synopsis for "Captain Marvel Faces Fear!"

We are greeted by the Concept of Fear, which looks like a white cloak that talks with a human hand sticking out of it sometimes, beckoning us to see what it can do to someone. We’re shown Dr. Carl de Reine, an inventor, who charges a young blond boy with delivering a package to the “Nuclear Society” and definitely don’t drop it! Looking at it, the boy sees it has an atomic engine in it and freaks out, thinking it’s a bomb and drops it in a trash can while running and screaming into Billy Batson as Fear declares that this will spread fear like wildfire! Billy basically calls SHAZAM as a reaction to summon Captain Marvel and grab the kid by the pants to find out what he’s actually talking about. Captain Marvel then easily just flies him back to Dr. de Reine’s lab where he explains it cannot kill anyone and is harmless, however news suddenly spreads so hard that it causes riots in the streets as the News Daily destroys their own company by printing “ATOM BOMB ON THE LOOSE!” due to the word of a young boy with no actual way to declare this is an emergency at all. Billy actively tells people over the radio that the bomb doesn’t exist and isn’t there at all, but Mr. Morris just leans in and says it’s not working. Billy calls SHAZAM, hoping that Captain Marvel can figure this out and helps some people from trampling each other getting on to a bus all at once. Captain Marvel entirely explains that just because it’s called an “atomic engine” doesn’t mean it is dangerous or will go off, but the bus leaving backfires exhaust, which a random man declares is the bomb going off, prompting everyone to run away. Captain Marvel soon notes that the Concept of Fear seems to be nearby and chases it down, only to be terrified at the face he sees in its hood and Fear leaves, saying no Mortal can deny its power.
However, his emotional paralysis soon ends and Captain Marvel questions aloud to no one that he doesn’t know why he stopped. Captain Marvel reasons he was momentarily shocked and goes off to find the atomic engine so he can negate this nonsense. Elsewhere, at the dump where the atomic engine has landed, an unhoused man named Roderick finds it and is so terrified he drops his monocle and starts running around like a crazy person screaming about the bomb. Captain Marvel hears about this from Roderick and shows that the atomic engine is just a small engine run by atomic energy and that it’s perfectly fine, looking more like a camera than a bomb and Roderick is convinced. Fear is shocked that Captain Marvel may be too dangerous an opponent. Captain Marvel punches Fear in wherever its face should exist and asks what its deal is, but Fear merely points out that he only exists when people don’t know the truth and those who know better… know he doesn’t exist, whereupon he just stops existing. Later, Billy has a radio interview with Dr. Carl de Reine about the atomic engine, who explains that fear leads to ignorance of fact and, in the presence of fact, fear is meaningless and disappears!

Appearing in "Captain Marvel Faces Fear!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Dr. Carl de Reine

Antagonists:

  • Fear

Other Characters:

  • Roderick

Locations:

Items:

  • The Atomic Engine

Vehicles:




Synopsis for Captain Kid: "The Big Clean-Up"


Appearing in Captain Kid: "The Big Clean-Up"

Featured Characters:

  • Captain Kid

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:


Other Characters:


Locations:


Items:


Vehicles:



Synopsis for "Captain Marvel's Melancholia!"

Lionel Briggs of Langley, White and Briggs Co. is a normal honest man who has been accused of dishonesty, which naturally upsets him. He states he hasn’t stolen anything from the company (as he’s been accused) and that someone has changed the accounts to make him look guilty. His partner then just pulls a gun out of his desk and says he’s taking him to the police as Briggs says he’s not being reasonable and he should have every chance to prove he’s innocent first. Somehow the gun goes off and Briggs has the gun literally in his hand with his finger on the trigger. Hearing a gunshot, Billy calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel and fly into his open window and find Briggs holding a gun, claiming that it was an “accident” that he shot his partner. Captain Marvel says the courts will decide as much (despite being a hero that commonly proves the courts wrong all the time) as Briggs hands over the gun, saying that he’s ruined his family and that he deserves anything that happens to him now.

Weeks later, Mr. Langley openly testifies that Lionel Briggs was stealing from the company (something he literally in no way provides any evidence of) and that their partner, George White (the victim) was shot to keep it all up. Instead of any cross-examination whatsoever, the Prosecution calls Captain Marvel and only asks him if he saw Lionel Briggs standing over White with a smoking gun in his hand, which Captain Marvel accedes is entirely true, not in any way at all having investigated anything Briggs could have told him about the case. Only after the fact does Captain Marvel realize that he’s more or less had some ostensible part in executing a man who has a family and thinks on how he must be guilty, unable to constrain these two discordant concepts in his head as a newsie exclaims that Briggs is to be executed at midnight. Mr. Morris sees Captain Marvel and he casually explains the case, but Mr. Morris only offers he just not think about it and go to an amusement park. Surprisingly, going on a wooden roller coaster does not improve the idea that Captain Marvel got a man sentenced to death, since the happy children only make him think of Brigg’s incredibly sad children. While walking around town, he gets hit in the head by a baseball and a team of young kids invite him to play in their game, starting to feel like this may help his troubles. However, he manages to strike out and then feels even worse, deciding he’ll go fishing instead. Doing so, he catches a fish with the face of Lionel Briggs, accusing Captain Marvel of sending an innocent man to the chair.
To shake these doubts, Captain Marvel actually investigates the crime whatsoever, finding that the cops also didn’t think to find the only bullet hole in the room, in the ceiling, proving that Briggs didn’t do it. At Jerome Langley’s house, he openly brags to no one that he’ll take over the company with Briggs and White dead as Captain Marvel shows up and openly accuses him of having shot White, since he has his fingerprints on a transom in the office, having peeked in over a door to do so at the right moment. Langley goes for his gun, but Captain Marvel punches him over in the chest and takes it, saying he lied about the fingerprints part, but he can now check the bullet they pulled out of White to prove that it came from his gun and flies him to jail. Briggs is freed and Captain Marvel soon takes him and his now happier family to the amusement park to make up for it all.

Appearing in "Captain Marvel's Melancholia!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Lionel Briggs
  • George White

Antagonists:

  • Jerome Langley

Other Characters:


Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:



Synopsis for "Captain Marvel and the Pride of Mr. Morris"

At Station WHIZ, Mr. Morris offers a business associate Mr. Dale 1,000,000 for the TV rights to his theater presentations (Over $12M today!) which Dale says is fine and he will bring the contracts in a few days. Billy greets Mr. Dale about this and is happy to hear this, since theater shows on TV are a crackerjack idea that will make Station WHIZ the television center of America! Billy goes to tell Mr. Morris he’s quite interested in the idea that will make big news, but Mr. Morris is needlessly dismissive to Billy, since he’s reading a magazine ad about “Television Hams,” (ham being an elder term for “amateur,” like a “Ham Radio” operator working only on short-wave) and offering a “big prize” concerning it! Mr. Morris admits that he used to be a ham back in the day and hopes that he can invite Billy over to do something wacky that will get their home movie on television! Later, Billy arrives at the Palatial Morris Estate and is almost hit with the old “bucket of water over a door” trick, only for it to astounding land correctly on the ground, spilling almost nothing, which they pretend isn’t just as crazy. Billy goes upstairs to unpack for his weekend stay only to find smoke suddenly engulfing the house! Calling SHAZAM, Captain Marvel heads downstairs to find that Mr. Morris was just smoke-damaging his house with a smudge-pot as a prank and Mr. Morris laughs at him, saying he should learn to take a joke… but Captain Marvel reveals the lens cap was on, taking it off and using the house camera to record Mr. Morris getting so furious he high kicks a chair higher than his own head. Heading out on to his lawn, Mr. Morris finds that his butler and his maid are set up for what is supposed to be a “funny” candid camera thing, but it turns out they are just in love with each other and have been for months now. Mr. Morris is upset that this wasn’t as funny as he’d hoped and Captain Marvel flies the two off to the parsonage to get hitched while Mr. Morris worries about things. Thus, he sets up a dummy that happens to look like himself in his parlor and leaves a gun next to it to scare Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel enters and quickly figures it out, only to find that Mr. Morris seems to have tripped over a lamp cord while trying to find a good shooting spot and the World’s Mightiest Mortal offers him a glass of water to revive him, then quietly films him raging that he missed a good shot. Our hero hears a crashing noise and presumes a burglar has broken in, only for Mr. Morris to claim this is Dillward the Gardner, who is doing this as a bit, only to find it’s a real burglar when real bullets whiz past Mr. Morris and glance off Captain Marvel’s forehead, earning the Burglar a punch to the snoot. Dillward soon enters with a cap gun and Mr. Morris complains that his hilarious home movies turned out funny as a tombstone, only for Captain Marvel to point out he caught engaging real life incidents, showing an amazing prank gone wrong, a furious man, two lovers getting married and a burglar getting caught. Some days later, Mr. Morris thanks Billy for Captain Marvel’s help and he casually signs off on the Dale Account while barely paying attention and notes that his Champion Television Amateur Award is awesome and he doesn’t even remember what he signed, since it’s nowhere as important as this!

Appearing in "Captain Marvel and the Pride of Mr. Morris"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • An Unnamed Burglar

Other Characters:

  • Jeeves the Butler
  • An Unnamed Maid
  • Dillward the Gardner

Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:



Synopsis for Freshman Freddie: "The Glassy Approach"

Freddy has accidentally tackled the football coach made the poor decision of trying out for the football team, especially since he needs glasses to see and claims to the Coach that he’s good at forward passes (holding a ball, running a ball and passing a ball.) The Coach points to the bench and tells Freddy to grab one of the footballs there to demonstrate as Freddy struggles to move towards that direction, falls over it and smacks his chin into the ground. He grabs at anything and throws a bucket at the Coach’s head and Freddy worries he’s cut. The Coach offers that he might be able to carry the ball at all on his team and orders the other football players to just tackle him if they can manage it. Instead of heading to the endzone, nearsighted Freddy runs for the exit and the Coach says he’ll chase him to another campus if he has to to tackle him. However, just outside the field a janitor has seemingly just dug a real large hole, which Freddy and then the rest of the football team fall into! The next day, the Trainer asks the Coach is he really kept Freshman Freddy, but the Coach points out he’s the only able member of the team left!

Appearing in Freshman Freddie: "The Glassy Approach"

Featured Characters:

  • Freshman Freddy

Supporting Characters:

  • The Coach

Antagonists:


Other Characters:

  • The Trainer

Locations:


Items:


Vehicles:



Synopsis for "Captain Marvel fights Silent Sound"

We’re shown a tuning fork, a vibrating metal prong that makes a singular musical note. If it vibrates faster than 20,000 times per second, the human ear cannot register it, thus this “ultra-sonic” is a “silent sound” that we can find Dr. Sivana has implemented in a powerful machine that he’ll use to become the Rightful Ruler of the Universe, broadcasting a warning to New York City, threatening that he’ll just burn down the ABC Building and Station WHIZ with it, taunting them to try stopping him. Billy, hearing this, calls the police. At noon the next day though, Sivana merely dips out a hole in a fence and zaps the ABC Building with his Ultra Sonic Gun and somehow manages to light it on fire, claiming before that they’ve only managed to use it to combust cotton beforehand. Billy is confused about it and soon just hears Dr. Sivana giggling about it in his creepy way until he calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel. However, using the Ultra Sonic Gun on the World’s Mightiest Mortal is surprisingly effective, making him violently vibrate from side to side in a way that he apparently cannot move or think particularly well. Dr. Sivana promptly leaves and Captain Marvel, hearing shouts, finds that people are still trapped in the building and flies in to help them, reasoning he’ll likely find Dr. Sivana later. The firefighters inform Captain Marvel that was the damage was mostly superficial, but they don’t know where or when Sivana might strike next!
The next day, Billy hears Sivana announcing on the radio that he’s going to destroy an elevated line train with his Ultra Sonic Gun and goes about to do so while Billy calls SHAZAM so Captain Marvel can look into this. Doing so, Sivana notes that normal science has only managed to lift small marbles in the air with ultra sonic sounds, but his can raise an entire train, lifting it off the tracks and terrifying everyone inside. Captain Marvel soon is about to paste him, but Sivana rightly points out that he wouldn’t abandon a train full of civilians and our hero settles it back in place while Dr. Sivana starts firing the Ultra Sonic Gun at the harbor, boiling the river dry and creating a thick enveloping steam in the meantime making the World’s Mightiest Mortal crash into a ship. However, he soon realizes that humans can’t hear the Ultra Sonic Gun (which for some reason he thinks also would apply to him?) and flies off to the zoo to requisition a bat that he can use to find it instead. Tracking down Sivana, the World’s Wickedest Scientist merely shoots a car with the Ultra Sonic Gun which somehow makes it explode into atoms. Further and more confusingly, Captain Marvel then reveals that he followed Sivana to his hideout since the Ultra Sonic Gun breaks glass when used and he was just using it the entire time without realizing it while he ran. Sivana says it matters little, activating his Hyper Ultra Sonic Projector, which vibrates so hard that Captain Marvel Is reduced to a jagged humanoid stain on the floor. Struggling to get up, he manages to still punch Sivana into the machine, breaking it, then punches him out while he’s similarly undergoing the effects of high-speed vibration. Later, Sivana is still vibrating wildly in prison, wondering why he had to hit so hard that he might not stop soon! Billy soon signs off, saying that Sivana found his plot wasn’t that sound at all!

Appearing in "Captain Marvel fights Silent Sound"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

Other Characters:


Locations:

Items:

  • The Ultra Sonic Gun
  • The Hyper Ultra Sonic Projector

Vehicles:


Trivia

  • Despite the cover, Captain Marvel does not destroy the Hyper Ultra Sonic Projector with his bare hands! Instead, he cannot even seem to physically approach it & throws Dr. Sivana at it.


See Also


Links and References

Superboy Vol 4 69
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