The Marvel Family #87 is an issue of the series The Marvel Family (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1953.
Synopsis for "The Marvel Family Crushes the Crazy Crimes"
A yacht floating in the sky advertises a business where boat prices are really low from the Crazy Captain. The prices for the boats the Crazy Captain sells are very low. Later the Marvels go on a weekend sail with Sterling Morris. They are suddenly attacked by a giant Octopus, so the Marvels summon their superpowered forms and stop the Octopus, but Captain Marvel sees it has left an oil slick behind, but the other two decide to patrol the bay in case it attacks again. Another boat is attacked and dragged underwater, so the Marvels try to save the occupants. Jr. throws down life-preservers, while Mary makes life-boats from shells. Cap dives underwater following an oil trail and finds the Octopus is an artificial monster with rubber tentacles and tractor treads. The Octopus squirts black ink at Cap, enabling it to escape. Cap finds an old Viking wreck and jams it with seaweed to fill the holes and cracks, making another lifeboat. The Marvels decide to investigate in their civilian forms at the point where the Octopus came up twice, but they are knocked out from behind by the robot's tentacle. The octopus driver realises they seem to summon the Marvel Family, but decides to take them along and get rid of them. Rather than dunking them in the sea or crushing them with the tentacle he uses to lift them up, they are bound and gagged, and taken to the Crazy Captain's underwater cave base, where the Captain reveals his racket. Everybody thinks there is a real monster sinking ships, but really the ships are taken to the cave where the Crazy Captain's gang alters and re-paints them beyond recognition. The Captain sells them real cheap, but it's a profit to him. The Captain throws the kids into a water tank, which they first start floating in, but they realise it has hungry baby piranha fish inside, which start trying to eat them. However, Billy seizes two of the fish, and after thrashing around, uses them to chew through Mary's gag as they are so eager to get at her, allowing her to transform and free the other Marvels. They then defeat the Crazy Captain's gang and drag the Octopus backwards when it tries to steal a water-wagon, finally making it hit a rock, where it is destroyed. The Crazy Captain is captured and the Marvels later say he is stir crazy behind bars, his stolen ship racket is over, and 'Anybody who thinks crime will pay is just plain crazy.'
Appearing in "The Marvel Family Crushes the Crazy Crimes"
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Vehicles:
- Mechanical octopus
- Stolen boats
Synopsis for "The Pinhead Plague"
Many years ago a Pharaoh is buried in a pyramid. Pa Potter later clears it out, thinking it is a dusty antique. Later, while cleaning, Mary says they should open it. Inside they find a muumy with a shrunken head. Pa reads the hieroglyphics and says the man was stricken by the Pinhead Plague, which caused the heads of living people to shrink. Mary thinks it must have died out, and Billy shuts the sarcophagus again. Pa's head starts shrinking down however, and the doctor says there is no modern remedy for it. He claims the patient, dying by inches, feels no pain an is a delirium of joy. The unknown germs are from 3000 B.C. Freddy is told, and claims in the newspaper he found out about Dr. Roy Ralston, who was deported last year, is doing medical research in Cambodia, near Anckor Watt. He is the only living expert on ancient diseases. The Marvel Family transform, but Ralston was deported and has no passport to re-enter, so he cannot be brought to America. Potter cannot be moved from his bed or house, one jar could be fatal, so the house is taken. They see Ralston being gored by a water buffalo and chase him away, but find Roy has no pulse and is apparently dead.
However Cap says hearts have been started up by electric shock. The lightning is used, and Freddy gives Roy artificial respiration. They tell him about Pa Potter and he begins work, examining the mummy. However a man of Asian appearance with two other thugs comes along just when Ralston has made plaguecillin, and tells Ralston to sell his discovery. Ralston tells Ivan Ching to go away, but he offers $50,000. He reminds him he was deported for trying new experiments on human who dies, so he owes America revenge. The youngsters hear the talk, and Billy says Ivan Ching is a notorious red agent. But the Doctor refuses, and when Ching says to his thugs they must use 'Persuasion,' the Marvel Family is summoned, and chases the agents away. Ralston says they went the Germs and Cure for bacteriological warfare, they could drop pinhead plague germs on America and millions would suffer, they could first inoculate their own people to safety. Ralston says he will purify the cure first, but that night a stone tower collapses, which could destroy all the ruins,crushing Pa and the Doctor. Mary and Jr. bring a Hindu idol which supports the tower, not thinking of merely pushing the tower away. They then find Ralston, and the Sarcophagus gone, and signs of a struggle, and realize the tower was a decoy by Ching, who is taking the plague, cure, and Doctor away on an elephant. Jr. says it is too dark to follow any trail, even an elephants. But Cap uses an Indian trick of sound carrying through ground. Jr. stops the elephant, Mary takes the Doctor and sarcophagus, and Marvel knocks the spies over. Ralston then administers the cure at dawn. But Pa has trauma reaction shock and needs a blood transfusion, so the kids transform, and it is revealed that Freddy has the wrong blood type. But the kids are then struck from behind with a plank of wood, and when they come to they are bound hand and foot, mouths gagged. They are on a giant stone drum ringed with spikes, with a huge stone idol holding a hammer above it. A voice says in ancient days they made sacrifices to this idol. A lever makes the arm and hammer swing down, to crush the victims like bugs. Billy thinks Ching is behind it as the hammer comes slowly, but steadily.
But Freddy uses his crutch to stand up, and making up for not giving blood to Pa, removes his gag on a spike and becomes Captain Marvel Jr. He then smashes the hammer, and frees the other two, who also transform. They find a scrawled message saying 'SPIES GOT ME, THIS WAY' under which is an arrow pointing to the right. The Marvels find the hide-out, with pictures of Mao Tse-Tung and Malenkov on it, but the spies surrender, and reveal they gave up trying to get Dr. Ralston. Pa is recovering, but the sarcophagus, plague, and Doctor are gone. Billy says he has a hunch they will find the thief in the ruins, but a trapdoor opens, plunging them towards a fire god idol's jaws, which connect to an underground pool of molten lava. The Marvels transform before they enter the jaws. The villain pushes a minaret towards the house, but it falls apart as it is hit. However Mary moved Ma and Pa Potter from the house, he can be moved safely since he got the serum. They find Ralston, and it is revealed he was behind it like Billy figured. He cured Pa as he knew Plaguecillin would be important, and turned down the money knowing he could get a million dollars easily from red agents. Mary says they should never have trusted anybody deported from America, and they throw the plague into the fire idol, and leave the bound Ralston for the authorities. They take the Potters back, but a doctor says it will take at least a year for Pa's shrunken head to return to normal size, so Billy and Mary leave, and move into Freddy's boarding house, owned by Landlady Mrs Wagner.
Appearing in "The Pinhead Plague"
- Appearances not yet listed
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