DC Database
Register
Advertisement
Ambush Bug 07
DC Rebirth Logo

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 and Mr. Tawny's New Home!": Billy is going to visit his old friend "Mr. Tawny" and finds he’s apparently been kicked out of his apartment and all his stuff is on the street, since it appears his landlady has introduced a “No Animals Allowed” policy, which he thinks it due to him

Captain Marvel Adventures #90 is an issue of the series Captain Marvel Adventures (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1948.

Synopsis for "Captain Marvel and Mr. Tawny's New Home!"

Billy is going to visit his old friend "Mr. Tawny" and finds he’s apparently been kicked out of his apartment and all his stuff is on the street, since it appears his landlady has introduced a “No Animals Allowed” policy, which he thinks it due to him “scaring away” tenants. Billy knows better as a young friend of theirs, Kensie, gives Mr. Tawny a friendly pat on the back. Mr. Tawny is happy to know that he does have friends, but points out he is still homeless, so Billy calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel and offers to pay Kensie to look after Mr. Tawny’s stuff until they return. He flies him to the Jungle Club for Men, a club for big-game hunters and other jungle-enjoying types, only to find that they’re mostly interesting in hunting animals, thinking all tigers are man-eating monsters and being generally discriminatory to him, seemingly thinking he’s “riff-raff.” Mr. Tawny manages to get Captain Marvel to leave before he pastes the owner of the Club, JQ Harsch.

Mr. Tawny offers he should go back to the jungle, but Captain Marvel offers he’ll find him a home yet, trying out taking him to the new Wildwood Development to speak with a real estate agent. The real estate agent is taken aback, but is also more than willing to rent to an elephant if it means he makes his commission, setting up for a rental cottage. Mr. Tawny is a little worried about signing the paperwork, since he doesn’t have a first name, but Captain Marvel offers that he can just invent one later, something he’s had experience with before! Soon enough, the World’s Mightiest Mortal flies the entirety of his belongings there to move him in. However, later that week, Mr. Tawny finds out that JQ Harsch also lives in Wildwood and decides that he’ll just openly drive him out of the community by purposefully spreading lies about him to everyone, falsifying a large petition to do so. An elderly woman does so, despite the fact that her children are actively playing with him, since Harsch claims he could just “go berserk” at any minute and kill her children. Giving this over to Mr. Tawny, he is far too mannerly to think that he should bother others (regardless of what reasoning that Harsch didn’t tell him) as Billy walks up and asks what’s going on. Harsch generally says he had a petition signed by everyone for him to just leave this “exclusive” neighborhood and when Billy asks to even see it, JQ Harsch open-hand smacks a child in the face in broad daylight, prompting him to call SHAZAM to show him how hard Captain Marvel can slap too. Harsch declares that he will drive him out yet, but Captain Marvel says he’ll only do it over his dead body. Mr. Tawny tries to speak up, but Captain Marvel says that he’s not hurting anyone, the neighbors are just being discriminatory and prejudiced and they must hold fast.

That night, Harsch and others dress up like Klansman, deciding to drive him out of Wildwood with clubs, but immediately back down when they find out that clubbing Captain Marvel yields predictable results! Captain Marvel hopes that this will dissuade him from doing more, but instead they just throw torches on to his house. Captain Marvel manages to put out the fire quick and punch over Harsch and his goons, only to find the fire spread to the rest of Wildwood and they soon rush off to save people from the houses, as even the Speed of Mercury can get this far to save people, prompting Mr. Tawny to save some people himself. Captain Marvel tells Harsch when all is said and done that the people love Tawny and that he’s going to enjoy a highly exclusive place: a jail cell for the crime of arson! The next day, Captain Marvel finds that Mr. Tawny has been named the lofty title of “Honorary Mayor” of Wildwood, but points out he still doesn’t have a first name! Looking through a phone book, Captain Marvel offers gems like Sylvester, Percival, Marmaduke, Herkimer and Lancelot, all of which Tawny politely declines, instead offering… that the readers choose one for him and that the sender of the winning name will get a full-color picture of Captain Marvel and Mr. Tawny!

Appearing in "Captain Marvel and Mr. Tawny's New Home!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • JQ Harsch
  • Other Racists

Other Characters:

  • Kensie

Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:




Synopsis for "The Hand of Captain Marvel"

At an underworld hideout, “Gimmick” Gus is chasing around his goons with an RC plane, upsetting them that he’s always playing around with toys and gadgets. Gus merely insists that he can use them for a new crime! Elsewhere, famed sculptor Dorian Jones is making a sculpt of Captain Marvel’s hand, which is perfectly the same, even the fingerprints! Captain Marvel asks why he sculpts hands and arms only and Jones admits it’s more or less an obsession of his, which Captain Marvel accepts, even if he’s confused. On his way out, he runs in to “Gimmick” Gus, but doesn’t recognize him and heads on his way. Within, Dorian Jones says his art isn’t for sale and gets blackjacked for doing so as Gus decides to set up shop at his studio and will rig up these hands to work via radio control, taking up the hand of John Gresham, a famed violinist, first!

That night, at Station WHIZ, Billy Batson premieres their new “Great Artists Hour” where famed musicians show up to play music. Suddenly, the lights go out and Billy lights a match to see the musician being punched in the head and calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel. However, being in the dark is still a moderately balking idea for the World’s Mightiest Mortal as he aims for someone’s chin and finds nothing. Once the lights go on again, they find the expensive Stradivarius violin is gone! Captain Marvel is all the more confused, since he there’s no seeming way to escape from the ABC Building without jumping out the window. Back at “Gadget Gimmick’s” hideout, one of his goons says that the RC Flying Arm worked perfectly and that all it takes is watching from a safe spot with binoculars.

Back at Station WHIZ, Captain Marvel finds Gresham’s fingerprints on the light switch and, despite Mr. Morris telling him it likely wasn’t him, our hero flies off to stop him before he takes off for a concert in South America. Arriving on the plane, Captain Marvel confronts Gresham, but an Air Marshall informs him that he was with him when the broadcast was made, absolving him. Flying back to New York, Captain Marvel figures out someone duplicated his fingerprints and thinks of a plan to catch the crooks! The next day, Billy Batson is in the headlines as having solved the mystery and will announce who the criminal is on the air (instead of reporting it to the police.) Reading about it, Gadget Gimmick Gus and his goon worry, but Gus tells him that Billy is likely bluffing, but they’ll have to have him killed… using the Hand of Captain Marvel! That night, the RC Arm of Captain Marvel just appears in Billy’s room somehow and tries to strangle him, but Billy calls SHAZAM so the real Captain Marvel can go back to figure out what is going on, smashing it on his knee. Gimmick and his goon are highly worried as Captain Marvel merely flies in the open window, mocking how he moves without radio control and frees Dorian Jones from being bound to a chair in an adjacent room. He flies the two criminals off to jail, asking them how they feel to be in the Hands of Captain Marvel!

Appearing in "The Hand of Captain Marvel"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • "Gimmick" Gus

Other Characters:

  • John Gresham, Famed Violinist

Locations:


Items:


Vehicles:



Synopsis for "Captain Marvel on Exhibit!"

We’re shown a model of a woman in a dress holding a pitcher on her shoulder, a bowl of fruit and the World’s Mightiest Marvel! We see that Captain Marvel is posing for the Art Students’ Society, a group of struggling young artists. Our hero thinks of them as unknowns that commissioned Billy to get Captain Marvel to help them with this, which the students also approve of: both since he’s strong, handsome and he never gets tired! They soon leave at the end of the day and Captain Marvel decides he’ll try out some painting himself, painting some nice flowers. Meanwhile, one Sebastian Crull visiting Madame Dunkle-Phyfe, a rich elderly woman who is known for being a patron of the arts to the aspiring artist or musician and hopes to soon be living in clover with his new portrait of Captain Marvel. Showing it to her though, she instead wants to see the model for it, running to the studio to see him, ignoring his painting entirely and is also astounded at his work, calling it a “perfect primitive… virile, strong and simple!” She insists vehemently that he come to her house tomorrow to paint her something at her private studio and that he’ll be flaunted by the world of art. Crull is incensed that he’s been ignored and plots to ruin Captain Marvel’s artistic discovery.

The next day, at her studio, but only to tell her he won’t do it. Madame Dunkel-Phyfe merely instead tells him to so she can show it off at tea and Captain Marvel worries doing a good job means she’ll want him to continue doing this, even if he isn’t that interested, then hears someone calling murder! Flying out to stop it, Crull sneaks in and slaps black ink in strokes all over Captain Marvel’s simple portrait of a pot and a bowl of fruit. Finding his painting ruined, he also finds Crull left a note signed by himself that he’s trying to ruin him and openly notes that everyone else at the studio thinks that Crull is a “phony” and decides to fix him by fixing the painting! That afternoon, tea is held and the Madame unveils the painting as Captain Marvel thinks he did what he could, but hopes to dissuade her from sponsoring him and to instead sponsor the Arts Students’ Society! However, they find his seemingly abstract painting of green foliage, a yellow background and some large black stripes, much to Captain Marvel’s bemusement. He goes to approach the Madame while sipping tea and Crull sneaks his foot out behind a curtain to trip him, making him spill his tea in the Madame’s face and goes to punch what he thinks is Crull, cracking a large portion off a marble bust belonging to the Madame! Despite all this, the Madame merely accepts it without thought, saying that tea was a success and she understands artists are “eccentric” and already assumes that he needs to start working more for “the exhibit” that she’s set up for him.

Planning on this the next day, Captain Marvel figures out how to make this work and to bow out of it by exhibiting the Art Students’ Society’s paintings in place of his work! However, Crull is upset that other people that aren’t him are making money and tries to spray the paintings with liquid tar, only to find that the Captain Marvel “painting” wasn’t real and was just Captain Marvel standing there himself, spraying Crull in the face with the tar, hoping this means he’ll be gone for at least a week. Later, once the exhibit is over, Captain Marvel reveals this wasn’t his work, but the work of his good friends at the Art Students’ Society, inspiring Madame Dunkle-Phyfe. Crull is (somehow) unharmed, but very frustrated at having to use numerous cleansers and cleaners to try to continue removing the tar in his bathtub with a brush. At home, Billy signs off showing he has a Captain Marvel original in his apartment that everyone admires for Captain Marvel’s short, but exciting artistic career!

Appearing in "Captain Marvel on Exhibit!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Madame Dunkel-Phyfe

Antagonists:

  • Sebastian Crull

Other Characters:

  • The Art Students' Society

Locations:

  • The Art Students' Society

Items:


Vehicles:



Synopsis for "Captain Kid and the Lost Golf Ball"

An Elderly Golfer is furious that Captain Kid has managed to lose eleven balls so far. Captain Kid unhelpfully offers they make it an even dozen, prompting him to start swinging at him. Captain Kid tees up his next ball & the Golfer tells him to keep his eye on it. He ends up somehow making an incredibly crooked shot… before landing in a water hazard. Captain Kid unhelpfully notes he needs a deep-sea diver, prompting the enraged Golfer to throw his clubs in the water hazard as well, swearing off golfing until someone can make a golf ball that can’t get lost, giving Captain Kid an idea! He offers that he will do it for $100 but he’ll need until tomorrow. The next day, he finds Captain Kid has a golf ball with a fishing pole & a golf ball, meaning it won’t go missing. The Golfer offers to try this out & he does so, hitting another violently crooked shot. Following it, they find that it smashed in the window of a large angry man & punches the Golfer in the face, prompting him to start going after Captain Kid with a club in hand, onlookers confused & not interfering.

Appearing in "Captain Kid and the Lost Golf Ball"

Featured Characters:

  • Captain Kid

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • Unnamed Violent Golfer
  • Unnamed Violent Homeowner

Other Characters:


Locations:

  • A Golf Course

Items:

  • A Golf Ball
  • A Fishing Rod

Vehicles:



Synopsis for "Captain Marvel and the World of Mr. Atom"

Although he seemed to have been obliterated after betraying the Comet Men, Mr. Atom finds himself dazed, but alive and intact sitting on a sand dune. A good samaritan landing his plane nearby to check on the troubled-seeming figure informs Mr. Atom that it's the year 2053, and that all power in the world comes from an atomic storehouse. Hearing this, Mr. Atom decides a world powered by atomic energy is the perfect one for him to rule!

In 1948, the ghost of Shazam commands Billy Batson to awake as trouble's afoot in the future. Becoming Captain Marvel, he flies to the Rock of Eternity and then to 2053. Civilization quickly comes to a halt as Mr. Atom turns off the power plant to demonstrate his desire to rule. Captain Marvel flies there and attacks the evil robot, but Mr. Atom threatens to sabotage the power plant and destroy it, crippling the entire world, which gets Marvel to back off.

The people of 2053 prepare to give in to Mr. Atom's demands, but Marvel convinces them to let him try something. A delegation soon meets with Mr. Atom, but one old man deliberately slips away from the group to get between the robot and the controls. Atom notices him, and the old man casts off his disguise to reveal himself as Captain Marvel. They battle, and Marvel punches his enemy down a chute toward the machinery. Mr. Atom's right next to the atomic engines when they come to life, and shredded to nothingness.

Appearing in "Captain Marvel and the World of Mr. Atom"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • The Director of the Central Atomic Storehouse

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

  • The Central Atomic Storehouse

Items:


Vehicles:

  • 2053 Model Utility Glider

Trivia

  • This is the Final Golden Age appearance of Mister Atom. He will not return again until he is incorporated into the DC Universe in Justice League of America# 137 along with a majority of Captain Marvel's most memorable villains.
  • In the final story, Captain Marvel disguises himself in the same outfit the Wizard Shazam wears!
  • This issue would contain a card to mail-in with to provide a name for Mr. Tawky Tawny. They previously did this for people to vote for Captain Marvel's Birthday (They would vote for it to be Leap Day, coincidentally the same day as Clark Kent.)


See Also


Links and References

Advertisement