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Shazam! (1973) #17

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"The Marvel Family: "The Pied Un-Piper"": A hippie discovers a new ‘out-there' instrument with which he gathers all the criminals into prison. The police are thankful, and the city offered him a million dollars if he can do this impossible task, but it turns out they cannot spare the money. The

Quote1 Yeah, dig it... but hand the rocks to charity, yeah... like I don't dig money! I just wanted to be appreciated, man, yeah... Quote2
— Allegro Scruff, Genius Musician and Alien Musician

Shazam! #17 is an issue of the series Shazam! (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1975.

Synopsis for The Marvel Family: "The Pied Un-Piper"

A hippie discovers a new ‘out-there' instrument with which he gathers all the criminals into prison. The police are thankful, and the city offered him a million dollars if he can do this impossible task, but it turns out they cannot spare the money. The musician takes revenge by luring aliens to Earth with the music. The first race seemingly steals the Earth's oxygen, but they actually just suck up pollution from planets that do not need it, as they live on that. The second race lands and starts looting, but get addicted to chocolate, and quickly develop cavities, they go back home, promising to build dentist equipment instead of weapons from now on. The third one steals all the color green from Greenville, because they worshiped the color and their whole planet was full of green, but it was stolen from them. The Marvels realize that if the aliens want everything to be green, they can simply provide them with green-tinted glasses. The aliens in gratitude give a million dollars worth of gems. The Marvels rush the loot to the malicious musician, who says they can donate it to charity, and explains it wasn't about the money, he just wanted to be appreciated and goes off to find a band for himself. They later report that he's become a successful musician.

Appearing in The Marvel Family: "The Pied Un-Piper"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Allegro Scruff

Antagonists:

  • Smog-Stealing Aliens
  • Chocolate-Stealing Aliens
  • Ixploo
    • Other Green-Stealing Aliens

Other Characters:

  • A Cop

Locations:

Items:

  • Green Sunglasses
  • A Giant Red Lens
  • $1,000,000 in Diamonds

Vehicles:

  • Three Alien Spaceships


Synopsis for "Capt. Marvel Jr. and the Idol of Vengeance!"

reprinted from The Marvel Family #7

Appearing in "Capt. Marvel Jr. and the Idol of Vengeance!"

Featured Characters:

Other Characters:

  • Ra Dagl
  • John Boardman

Locations:

Items:

  • Idol of Vengeance

Synopsis for "Captain Marvel Gets Promoted"

This story is reprinted from Captain Marvel Adventures #53.

At the Kentucky Centennial Fair, Billy's dragooned into listening to the stories of Colonel Blueridge, who's thrown from his horse in attempting to reenact his daring exploits fighting Indians in the old days. Billy transforms and saves Blueridge from a fatal concussion, but Blueridge still takes a blow to the head. For the hero's valorous actions in saving him from death, Blueridge promotes Captain Marvel to Colonel, but it quickly becomes clear that he's delusional and thinks it's 1846 and an Indian war is going on. However it seems to be more than a delusion when a real Indian war party attacks the fort where the fair's taking place. They're no match for Captain Marvel, who chases them back to their cavernous home, where the tribe has been living underground so long they think they're still at war with the white settlers. When Marvel stops Blueridge from clubbing the chief's head in, he accidentally gives Blueridge another blow to the head that restores him to normal. Captain Marvel has the two parties declare peace.

Appearing in "Captain Marvel Gets Promoted"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Colonel Warwick Washington Jefferson Blueridge
  • Chief-Mud-in-Eye

Antagonists:


Other Characters:


Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:



Synopsis for "Captain Marvel Sails Before the Mast"

reprinted from The Marvel Family #41

Appearing in "Captain Marvel Sails Before the Mast"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • Captain Barton Bryce (Ship captain) (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Quentin Vandecker (Single appearance) (Rich, young thrillseeker) (Single appearance)
  • Ship's crew (Single appearance)

Locations: Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:

Synopsis for Mary Marvel: "Jives Becomes a Jockey!"

This story is reprinted from The Marvel Family #33.

Mary Batson and Mrs. Bromfield are at a horse auction with their butler, Jives, though he's suddenly gone missing. While trying to call to Mary and her mother, Jives accidentally bids $500 for a horse named Silver Lightning, who is both a former racehorse and a war veteran! Mary just openly says that Jives has to buy this horse now as if he didn't understand this until Mrs. Bromfield offers she can likely just tell them it was a mistake. However, instead Jives decides he was born in the saddle, which is unearned, since he immediately proves he can't actually do even that without difficulty. Days later, Jives is out at the training track in stubborn pride as Mary watches him. Three unscrupulous gamblers, “Tinhorn” Terris and his goons, watch the prospective racehorse due to make big money at the Lone Star Steeplechase. As they want a rival, Black Devil, to win, they've conspired to fix this by just shooting Silver Lightning. Luckily, he is a well-trained horse and doesn't require prior training to be mastered well, but also because he stops short of gunfire and before going over a jump. Jives is almost thrown in doing so though, so Mary calls SHAZAM and becomes Mary Marvel, scooping him up and saves him from hitting the ground on his lumber vertebrae. The horse is unharmed entirely.

Later, they get a threatening note at their door when they get home telling them not to run the Lone Star Steeplechase despite the fact that they weren't even thinking about doing so… so Mary then decides to do so while Jives faints. Soon enough, it is the day of the Lone Star Steeplechase and Silver Lightning is ushered off at a train station… only for us to see that Terris and his goons are literally just stealing the horse on to a truck. Mary calls SHAZAM to become Mary Marvel again and flies after them. They almost immediately try to scatter, but Mary Marvel whips a horseshoe around the neck of one, punches the other in the back of the head and then finds that Terris has escaped and that Silver Lightning is still missing.. Jives worries at the stables, but relieved he won't have to jockey. Instead, Mary Marvel appears on Silver Lightning in time, much to his chagrin. Jives, despite his fear, is shocked to find that he's not dead and his horse is very good at racing, only for the jockey on Black Devil to blackjack with a foreign object. Jives is knocked out, but Silver Lightning is just smart enough to finish the race despite that. Terris tries to just pull a gun on the final stretch until Mary Marvel grips his right tricep, making his shot wing into the air. She then Giant Swings him into the other goons, Silver Lightning wins the Lone Star Steeplechase. Jives manages to somehow walk forward on his feet, barely conscious and accepts the Gold Cup. Later, Jives reveals that he just sold the horse to a “reputable” dealer so he could go back to his normal life of being a butler for Mrs. Bromfield and Mary, though Mary quietly thinks to herself how Jives is likely going to still eat his dinner standing up!

Appearing in Mary Marvel: "Jives Becomes a Jockey!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • "Tinhorn" Terris
    • An Evil Jockey
    • Other Unscrupulous Gamblers

Other Characters:


Locations:

Items:

  • The Gold Cup

Vehicles:

  • Silver Lightning
  • Black Death

Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and the Curse of the Black Thumb"

This story is reprinted from Captain Marvel Adventures #129.

Billy visits Cissie Sommerly as she tends to her garden, but accidentally wakes the garden gnome who lives there by dropping a stone down the hole where he lives. In his annoyance, he curses her and Captain Marvel both with "the curse of the black thumb," which makes any plant near them wither and die. This comes back to haunt the gnome when he finds himself targeted by a hungry fox, and no plants around to hide in because of the results of the curse he laid. Captain Marvel saves him, and Cissie gives the gnome her old dollhouse to live in. In gratitude, he breaks the curse and restores all the dead flowers.

Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and the Curse of the Black Thumb"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • A Garden Gnome

Other Characters:

Locations:

Synopsis for "Captain Marvel's Wedding"

This story is reprinted from Captain Marvel Adventures #150.

An evil witch, Theo Hagge, is doing away with employees of the Kleensweep Broom Company, one by one. (She's stashing them in a cave where she has a secret flying-broom factory, in support of her planned upcoming wave of witchery.) Billy Batson finds out about the abductions, and Captain Marvel investigates, just in time to rescue one abducted employee. The witch flees to a remote shack in the countryside, but when Captain Marvel gets there he finds only the pretty young receptionist from the broom factory, tied up and anxious to escape from there. She's afraid to go home, so Marvel carries her to Mrs. Wagner's Boarding House, where his landlady agrees to rent the girl a room right next to Billy Batson's. When the clock starts to strike midnight, the new tenant abruptly shoos both of them out of the room. No sooner are they gone than her true form becomes visible; this is the cackling old witch herself, and she has a plan for dealing with Captain Marvel (whom all witches hate and fear)!

The next evening, Captain Marvel invites the receptionist to attend a play, and she becomes overly romantic towards him, to Marvel's annoyance. This goes on for several more evenings, at cafes and concerts and night clubs, until reports of this seeming romance appear in the newspaper gossip columns. Marvel decides to publicly squelch the rumors on WHIZ, but when he reaches Mr. Morris' office, the receptionist is there ahead of him, having just finalized an arrangement with Morris to televise their upcoming nuptials. Captain Marvel is in a bind! He doesn't want to be a cad or a boor, so he fears he may have to go thru with the wedding!

That night the World's Mightiest Mortal wanders the streets in a daze. Suddenly overhead he spots a witch on a broomstick, flinging a young girl to her death! One flying rescue later, the girl (a stranger) is rescued, and is quite upset that "the old hag is escaping!" Marvel mishears this as "Theo Hagge" is escaping, which just so happens to be the name of his new accidental fiancee. Marvel is befuddled, but Billy has figured out what's going on, and he says Marvel is a big dope! He then sets up a ruse to reveal that Miss Hagge is actually the gnarled witch, who assumes her true form every midnight. He resets the clock in her room to run one hour early, then visits Theo and plays checkers with her until eleven o'clock, which turns out to be twelve o'clock. The witch reappears, but now she has the upper hand! She knocks Billy unconscious and he doesn't wake up until wedding day morning.

At the broadcasting studio, Mr. Morris is directing the caterers and florists and musicians and staff to set up the big and splendid wedding, and wondering where Captain Marvel is. Marvel simply stays away until shortly before the next midnight, and times his arrival so that halfway thru the wedding ceremony, lovely young Theo pops back into her hideous old witch form, in front of lots of witnesses. Thus Captain Marvel can back out of the wedding and not be a heel.

Soon the scheming witch has been taken away by police, and Billy explains to his radio audience what she really was up to.

Appearing in "Captain Marvel's Wedding"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Theo Hagge

Other Characters:

  • Tom Evans
  • Herman

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Flying Broom

Synopsis for "Captain Marvel and the Haunted Girl!"

reprinted from Captain Marvel Adventures #57

Appearing in "Captain Marvel and the Haunted Girl!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Mrs. Grogan

Other Characters:

  • Thomas Dekker (Ghost)
  • Linda Dekker
  • John Dennis
  • God (The Hand) (Cameo)

Locations:

Notes

Trivia

  • This is the last 100 Page Giant in the series.


See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References
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