The Marvel Family #50 is an issue of the series The Marvel Family (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1950.
Synopsis for The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family and the Theft of Speech"
Language professor Gilbert Thorne teaches his class (including the Marvels in their secret identities) that communication is man's most vital tool, because that's the base for everything else they do. He concludes that this was his final lesson, and the three kids secretly agree that his announcement was rather ominous. Later Billy receives a warning of a powerful hurricane, but can't announce it on his broadcast because suddenly everyone's words come out as gibberish. As a result it takes him several tries to say "Shazam". Thorne announces to the world this is his doing because of his Speech Scrambler machine. He and his "Communication Cartel" wear special helmets that protect them from the effect, and by robbing of the human race of communication he'll let civilization collapse then sweep in and take over. His apparatus is so powerful it even garbles the creation of printed words. Eventually the Marvels find Thorne because he left behind a handkerchief and they use bloodhounds to follow his scent.
Appearing in The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family and the Theft of Speech"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Professor Thorne (First appearance)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
- Speech Scrambler
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Mary Marvel, the World's Mightiest Girl!: "Mary Marvel Battles the Melody of Crime!"
Women across New York City are distracted by the impressive operatic voice of “Basso” Bartin, a known gangster with a powerful set of lungs for singing during robberies. This gets Mary Marvel involved, who punches him over and tells him he should reform, since even an honest man can come out of jail. Barton refuses and is sentenced to life in prison, but Mary Marvel still offers that he could earn parole with good behavior. Mary Marvel is adamant that a man can change his stripes, but a few days later, she hears on the radio that Barton has broken out of prison and is driving to the airport, calling SHAZAM to become Mary Marvel once more. She manages to arrive just too late, finding Barton has stolen a plane and escaped into a fog to hide out in a small mountain country named Kordania, which has no extradition treaties. Despite Mary Marvel having already arrived and caught him, she finds she is forced to abide by international law, but still hopes that Barton might reform now that he is, in some ways, a free man again.
Barton tries to mug a rich man after luring him from his estate with his beautiful voice, only for Mary Marvel to appear in front of him, taking a blow from a club that smashes it to flinders and reveals her new plan: to constantly badger him and watch him to make sure that he doesn’t commit crimes. Barton tries to lose her in a crowd and tries to start a fire in an alleyway next to the bank with some scrap paper, only for Mary Marvel to admit she didn’t actually lose him and demands once more that he could just retire and become a professional opera star in Kordania. Barton refuses and shoves a child into a river to escape instead, only to find that the child can swim. While she’s distracted, Barton rushes into a theater showing Tristan and Isolde and snatches their cash-box, but Mary Marvel punches him in the jaw, making him drop it again. While she’s returning it to the woman at the nearby lectern, Barton legs it backstage and changes into an operatic Viking costume and ends up having to do some pretty good opera to hide out. After the opera, she calls him out on his beautiful voice and a producer dashes in to say he’ll pay Barton for a big contract, but a changed Barton decides to willingly return to America to serve out his sentence, but promises he’ll return to Kordania once he’s free and that he’ll reform over his time in prison while practicing opera.
Appearing in Mary Marvel, the World's Mightiest Girl!: "Mary Marvel Battles the Melody of Crime!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- "Basso" Barton
Other Characters:
- A Theater Director
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- The Kingdom of Kordania
Items:
Vehicles:
- A Stolen Plane
Synopsis for Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Battles the Trublins"
Freddy repeatedly slips on a banana peel, on the last instance falling into a construction site where he's almost crushed by a scoop. He transforms and escapes, and soon encounters the sheriff of Trublin Land. He's come to collect some trouble-making Trublins, unseen imps who play pranks on people. Finding the escaped imps helping some crooks rob a bank, the sheriff manages to collect them and takes them home. All on his own, however, Junior slips and falls down a manhole.
Appearing in Capt. Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. Battles the Trublins"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- The Sheriff of Trublin Land
Antagonists:
- The Trublins
Other Characters:
- A Painter
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and Sivana's Good Inventions"
Dr. Sivana has created a death ray that is sure to kill millions of people, but finds it won’t work yet on monkeys, but will kill rats very easily. He finds that this means that he’s made something beneficial to society and therefore meaningless to him and goes to work at another plan that make humanity miserable again, finishing an Ice Bomb that seeds clouds with severe hail. However, he doesn’t realize that at that moment, New York City is under severe heat warnings and the reservoir is drying up, meaning that there is heavy water conservation needed. To check on the damage, Billy calls SHAZAM and summons Captain Marvel to find that the hail has stopped some traffic, but is easily cleared by the World’s Mightiest Mortal and now can do well to solve the water shortage! Dr. Sivana is horribly embarrassed at having done so and takes off as Captain Marvel flies behind his rocket-ship, asking for him to try doing good by providing them more water with his inventions, but he escapes into a cloud and returns to his secret hideout. Captain Marvel manages to slip in at the last moment as the doors close and demands to see Sivana’s failed inventions and says he’s more than willing to just wreck everything anyways, breaking through to a room that even Sivana demands must never be seen!
Within, Captain Marvel tears down the door to find Sivana’s Top Secret Good Inventions: an air purifier that can filter for a whole city, a criminal detector, a cold light and a machine that turns rocks into edible food. Sivana admits his secret guilt and throws a bomb into the room to destroy his “good inventions,” only for Captain Marvel to dive on the explosive, protecting them all while Sivana escapes in his rocket-ship and tries to push a large boulder on to his lab (which Captain Marvel shatters) and an Earthquake Bomb that Captain Marvel is able to brace the building against with his Stamina of Atlas. Captain Marvel soon flies out with the inventions in his arms, only for Sivana to melt them all with a Flame Ray from his ship and lands, relieved that he stopped his “horrible” good inventions from being released even when Captain Marvel punches him over. However, he reveals that those weren’t the inventions he was carrying, he stowed them and carried out a bunch of junk knowing that he’d melt it! Sivana blacks out and wakes up in prison. Later, Captain Marvel tells him that his good inventions will do a very small amount to make up for the constant evils he commits against the whole Earth. Billy signs off saying that Sivana has gone mad and that Captain Marvel thought the whole affair was rather funny.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and Sivana's Good Inventions"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
- Sivana's Rat Death Ray
- Sivana's Ice Bomb
- Sivana's Cheap Food Machine
- Sivana's Criminal Detector
- Sivana's Air Purifier
- Sivana's Cold Light
- Sivana's Flame Ray
Vehicles:
- Sivana's Rocket-Ship
See Also