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"Captain Marvel's Dilemma": Sivana is watching a stage show called Road to Madness (which is basically just Gaslight) and decides he'll just pull a Gaslight on Captain Marvel! That night, near Billy's Apartment, he hears someone weakly moaning for help and calls SHAZAM to summon

The Marvel Family #28 is an issue of the series The Marvel Family (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1948.

Synopsis for "Captain Marvel's Dilemma"

Sivana is watching a stage show called Road to Madness (which is basically just Gaslight) and decides he'll just pull a Gaslight on Captain Marvel! That night, near Billy's Apartment, he hears someone weakly moaning for help and calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel, who flies out and finds a man who is clearly Sivana, who claims to be deaf, and a cat, which claims it was the one who spoke telling him that he's very very hungry until this old men fed him a saucer of milk. Captain Marvel seems to accept that this is the case, trying to explain it to the deaf man, who both doesn't hear him, then when he does, says he's crazy and leaves, thinking to himself that he's just fucking with him. Captain Marvel flies back into his apartment to find a pig reading a book, wearing reading glasses and seemingly trying to speak to him. Captain Marvel decides to contact the rest of the Marvel Family to look into this and Sivana reveals that this was a trained pig from a circus who can do this, preparing for his next jape.

Early the next morning, Captain Marvel worries at Station WHIZ that Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. haven't shown up yet and soon finds out that Sivana is stealing the Crown Jewels of Moldavia from the Museum and flies out to look into it. However, Captain Marvel finds a second Captain Marvel there that has already defeated Sivana. The World's Mightiest Mortal sits outside very confusedly. Meanwhile, the rest of the Marvel Family read their leader's note and look into this as we see the Other Captain Marvel was a Robot created by Sivana to help him steal the Moldavian Crown Jewels. Luckily, Junior flies in in time to punch Sivana into the bed of his truck, only to wrench the E-brake off and letting the truck full of nitroglycerin to crash into the Museum wall. Mary Marvel and Junior block the blast and are mildly dazed, but are more upset that Sivana disappeared in the meantime. We see he's hiding in a trash can and mocks how all the evidence of his robbery went up in the explosion and thinks on how he'll have to arrange a better escape next time if he can't drive Captain Marvel mad this time! Meanwhile, Captain Marvel tries to explain this all to his other Family members to no avail, since he's now doubting his own sense of self. The next day, nothing has changed and he gets a telegram from Miss Jameson from Freddy, telling Captain Marvel to come meet him at Room 417 of the Hotel Northern where he has Sivana trapped. Arriving, he hears two gunshots and sees what he believes to be a dead Freddy Freeman, finds Sivana legging it into the next room and gives chase. However, he finds Sivana gone and the window open, flying out to follow him as we find that Sivana just had a door that blends into the wall that Captain Marvel couldn't be fast enough to see him enter (the Speed of Mercury!) Junior and Mary Marvel arrive again, much to Captain Marvel's confusion when Junior turns back into Freddy. Thus, they come up with a plan and the next day, a headline in the Morning Star says Captain Marvel is going to a sanitarium. We see Captain Marvel about to enter an ambulance to head there and we see Sivana watching in the crowd wearing a fake beard. However, his trademark laugh gives him away and Mary Marvel and Junior punch him over, demanding he confess his crimes, but Sivana says it wouldn't hold up in court a bit. Instead, they put him in the back of the ambulance with Captain Marvel, who has unkempt hair and giggles before violently threatening to kill him, but Sivana admits that he made it all up, confirming everything as the Marvel Family flies him to prison, saying that he failed because he thought he succeeded too well! Sivana says he must be crazy to keep trying schemes like these!

Appearing in "Captain Marvel's Dilemma"

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Synopsis for "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and the Great Ox Pull"

In bucolic Fairfield County, Farmer Teakwood meets Farmer Jones about how Teakwood intends to sell his house and land for likely around $2,000 to move to the city (Over $61K today!) and offers that he'll see to Farmer Jones first, since his other option is his less agreeable neighbor, Farmer Fangbone. Farmer Jones is worried he can't afford it, but Teakwood says he could likely try to borrow the money and gives him until that night to bring it over to him to sell, which Jones decides to go make some calls about. Freddy soon arrives at the Fairfield Depot to visit his old friend Farmer Jones and to see the local county fair, something he's somehow never gone to before. Jones meets him there and Freddy offers that he could win the $2,000 he needs at the Fairfield County Fair's 2pm Ox Pulling Contest with his prized oxen. They decide to try that and go about doing so. However, after five failures to move the boulder from its mark, Farmer Jones manages to move it and passes the finish line, only for the platform its on to break, threatening to drop into the crowd somehow! Freddy quickly calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Junior and flies over to pick it up. Jones is elated and they head to Teakwood's to discuss payment. However, at that moment, Fangbone says he wants to buy and that there's no way that Jones could really raise the money… seconds before Jones runs up to say that they have the money. Hiram Fangbone leaves, swearing unspoken vengeance to himself. Soon after, Fangbone demands he sell him the land, proffering a document from the County Recorder's Office that shows that “part” of his farmhouse is on his land, something that the County seemingly approved of if they let him build it there and mapped it out. Fangbone threatens he'll just tear down any of the house that's on “his land” and Freddy stops Farmer Jones from solving this the country way. Freddy later just says that he could use his team of oxen to somehow just pull the entire farmhouse over the line, not once suggesting that he could just move it himself. That night, this is further put to question when Fangbone sneaks into the barn where Jones' Oxen are and puts knockout drops in their water.
The next morning, Jones is furious to find his oxen have been drugged (since Hiram just left that entire test tube full of sleeping chemicals there that he touched with his hands, but they just reason they don't have any way at all they could prove it was him. Meanwhile, instead of getting literally any kind of court order or calling the police, Jones finds Fangbone just brought three burly men with sledgehammers and Freddy merely calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Junior again, but Fangbone holds strong, saying that Junior is a law-abiding citizen. Junior points out that he understands as much, but this also means Fangbone is tearing apart Jones' new house entirely out of spite, only for Fangbone to say he doesn't really give a shit if that's what he thinks, prompting Junior to just move the house himself, solving the problem he could have done immediately. Despite Fangbone actively trying to sic goons on the house while it's in motion, Fangbone basically just leaves in a huff and Freddy later goes back to the city, saying he always has an enchanting time when he visits!

Appearing in "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and the Great Ox Pull"

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Supporting Characters:

  • Farmer Jones

Antagonists:

  • Hiram Fangbone

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  • Farmer Teakwood

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Synopsis for "Mary Marvel and the Asteroid Adventure"

Mary Batson gets a phone call from Creighton Tinkerman, a discount version of Percy Pill or Syl Jones, who wants to show Mary his new telescope and soon shows it off, saying it's quite superior to any other telescopes in use at all, due to his newly invented “electronic-eye principle.” She happens to look through at the Asteroid Belt and happens to just find dwarf planet Ceres has been struck by a large asteroid and is now hurtling directly towards the Earth. Creighton offers that likely only Mary Marvel could solve this, but seems to imply he literally knows her secret identity, as she calls SHAZAM to become Mary Marvel in front of him. Creighton gives her highly simplistic directions to get there and casually shouts out his observatory roof that there is intelligent life in the Asteroid Belt and it is warlike and dangerous. Soon, Creighton calls up Billy and offers that he come on over to make an awesome radio show about it, which he does. Arriving in the Asteroid Belt, Mary quickly realizes that he didn't really tell her how to find Ceres especially and finds a sign that seems to merely read “PFFFTTT! SPIT, SPIT, PFFT! MEOWWW! MEW! MEW, PFT, PFFTTT!” She soon discovers she's an a farm of a bipedal tiger that speaks the language seen in the sign and takes a few moments to use her Wisdom of Minerva to learn his language. Despite this, he still speaks with a country accent in doing so and says this is the Asteroid Vesta and that his name is Jest. He gives her direction, but Jest tells her to be careful, since there's a war going on and Billy somehow finds out that this asteroid is called Vesta as the bombs fall on Jest's house… revealing they only release water! However, Mary Marvel soon figures that cat-people would hate water a lot anyway. She soon meets with the standing Cat Army to invade and we find that the invading force is from the nearby asteroid of Juno which is populated by dog-people. The Vestans fire guns that unleash fleas on them. Mary finds for the most part, this is funny, especially since they can't seem to meaningfully harm each other and shakes one fighting duo apart. A Junoan tries to snarl at her, but Mary Marvel slaps him easily and Billy manages to punch over his mic stand while rooting for his sister.
Mary Marvel looks over to the telescope and mouths for Billy to do something, which we find out is “Send Marvel Bunny to Vesta” to do so, wherein Billy just goes to the city of Animalville to find Marvel Bunny, soon finding normal rabbit Hoppy, that calls SHAZAM! To become Marvel Bunny. Doing so, he soon arrives on Vesta and he manages to route the Dog Army into the desert, then just punches out most of the Dog Army. An officer of the Dog Army points her the way to Ceres, which she adjusts so it won't hit the Earth, returning to its normal orbit. Arriving back on Earth, Mary Marvel and Billy thank Marvel Bunny for his help, but he modestly says they were the ones who saved the Earth, really! Billy is openly proud of his own sister, making her blush a little bit.

Appearing in "Mary Marvel and the Asteroid Adventure"

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  • The Dog-People of Juno

Other Characters:

  • Creighton Tinkerman

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Synopsis for "Captain Marvel and Vulcan's Visitation"

We see at the Todd Steel Mill, the owner Thomas Todd is pleased at business doing well with both high quality and low prices! His opponent and rival Pierpont Pearson, owner of the nearby Vulcan Steel Mill, who is furious that fair prices mean he's losing out on night shifts and can't gouge prices! Thus, he decides to just summon the Roman God Vulcan with Black Magic to attack Todd Steel Mill, mixing up a red-hot pot of slag and speaks the ridiculously common magic words of “Come Forth, O Vulcan, Master of Metal and Fire” and finds that he's also more than fine granting wishes! Pearson orders him to destroy Todd Steel Mill and he goes off to do so. We soon find that Billy is already there, interviewing Mr. Todd and calls SHAZAM as he sees the “new workman” Vulcan just jump directly into a hanging slag-pot. Captain Marvel is summoned and swoops the workers out of the way of the splashing slag and notes that clearly he's not mortal and punches the god of fire out of the pot. He orders him to leave, only for Vulcan to blow fire into his face, earning him a punch to the face, sending the god flying out of the open window. He flies out after him as picks up a girder to knock a girder out of Vulcan's hand and the god of the forge realizes that he's likely outmatched and lights a coal pile on fire to distract him. Captain Marvel, while hosing off the coal, wonders who was trying to wreck the Todd Steel Mill…
Returning to say that he couldn't beat the World's Mightiest Mortal, only for Vulcan to say that he won't give up, starting to mold something with his bare hands overnight to destroy the Todd Steel Mill the next day! The next morning, we see Captain Marvel is now working in secret at the Todd Steel Mill to keep an eye on them, only to hear a loud booming noise. Soon, we see that Vulcan created an entire robot overnight and Captain Marvel flies to go after him, finding that the Robot is nigh indestructible even for him, being made of a powerful metal beyond the ken of man. Luckily, he didn't design the Robot to be self-correcting, since Captain Marvel just smashes a girder into the Robot's foot, making it trip forward and fall apart hitting the ground. Vulcan leaves to return to Pearson, only for Captain Marvel to follow him this time. He enters the Vulcan Steel Mill, only for Captain Marvel to lose him and leave. We find that Vulcan was wearing a welding mask like everyone else there and that night just reveals he's going to make a small model of the Todd Steel Mill that he'll crush with his own hammer like a form of mechanical hoodoo that utilizes his “power of metals,” only for Captain Marvel to reveal that he was always there, waiting for them to do something he could catch them doing and starts just violently destroying Vulcan Steel Mill in their fight, prompting Pearson to call the magic words to return Vulcan: “Nether World! Call him back!” and it does so, turning him into a puddle of slag before Captain Marvel destroys Pearson's spell-book so Vulcan won't return and arrests Pearson for his crimes, saying working with Vulcan only got him burned!

Appearing in "Captain Marvel and Vulcan's Visitation"

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Antagonists:

  • Pierpont Pearson (Single appearance)
  • Vulcan

Other Characters:

  • Thomas Todd (Single appearance)

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Trivia

  • The first story of this issue is highly inspired by the play (and subsequent film versions) Gas Light: A Victorian Thriller in Three Acts by Patrick Hamilton, wherein a villainous tries to make his wife begin doubting her sanity to steal jewels hidden in her home.
  • The third story features the first appearance of Hoppy the Marvel Bunny in a mainstream Marvel Family story.
  • Despite the cover, the Marvel Family doesn't in any way fight a team of missiles, planes or combination of the two. They don't encounter any kind of competent military force at all!


See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References

Superboy Vol 4 69
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