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129,856
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in: Comics Published by Fawcett Publications, Will Lieberson/Executive Editor, C.C. Beck/Cover Artist,
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The Marvel Family Vol 1 53

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"The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family Battles the Man Who Changed the World"": Prof. Martin Mason is an eminent atomic scientist who has found that the Earth is suffering from an imminent metal shortage and to solve this, he’s created an Expander Ray that just makes things grow. Similarly, he f

Quote1 "No! I can bring you bees! Here's what I need...." Quote2
— Mary Marvel

The Marvel Family #53 is an issue of the series The Marvel Family (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1950.

Synopsis for The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family Battles the Man Who Changed the World"

Prof. Martin Mason is an eminent atomic scientist who has found that the Earth is suffering from an imminent metal shortage and to solve this, he’s created an Expander Ray that just makes things grow. Similarly, he finds in a Census Report of the World that the population of the world has doubled since last century and wonders how to create a world that isn’t overcrowded, he decides to make an Enlarged Expander Ray that will just make the Earth itself bigger! Functionally, this makes every person on Earth seem to shrink, but actually has just made all inanimate objects large while people are now mouse-like in stature. Billy calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel when Miss Baker, an organist working for Station WHIZ, falls off the organ seat. Freddy Freeman soon finds that people are running into problems controlling gigantic cars and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to push the cars to a stop. Prof. Mason realizes that he’s made an error in design: he can’t reach the machine to turn it off anymore… Mary Batson soon finds her neighbor Mrs. Barstow about to be crushed by her own telephone receiver and calls SHAZAM so Mary Marvel can rescue her. The Marvel Family congregate and find that prisoners from the local jail are climbing out of their cells that no longer can hold them and quickly defeat them, dumping them in a drawer in the jailer’s desk. Prof. Mason reaches the switch on his Enlarged Expander Ray, but also finds he’s too weak to lift the gigantic handle now and uses his oversized transmitter radio to call the Marvel Family at Station WHIZ. Prof. Mason apologizes after the Marvel Family push the handle and return the Earth to its normal size.

However, when they leave, they soon find that things have over-corrected and now the world is too small, most people easily destroying their homes merely by standing inside them, running into buildings is easy as are stepping on cars. Prof. Mason admits that he created a Shrinking Ray to shrink the Earth, but now he’s far too big to reach it anymore. The Marvel Family manage to carefully excavate the entire cavern and carefully nudge the lever off and the world returns to normal once more. Though they are puzzled as to if there are any charges, they decide to take Prof. Mason to jail just in case to see if they feel like charging him with anything.

Appearing in The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family Battles the Man Who Changed the World"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Professor Martin Mason (An "eminent atomic scientist") (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Escaped convicts (Single appearance)
    • Slug (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Miss Baker (An organist employed at WHIZ Radio)
  • Mrs. Barstow (Mary Batson's neighbor)

Locations:

Items:

  • Professor Martin's Expander Ray (Single appearance)
    • Professor Martin's Enlarged Expander Ray
  • Professor Martin's Shrinking Ray

Vehicles:




Synopsis for Mary Marvel, the World's Mightiest Girl!: "Mary Marvel Battles the Evil Exterminator"

Mary Batson has picked up a part-time job with a florist, Mr. Henry Kirk, and is awaiting a big shipment of flowers in from Blossom Valley, a sheltered mountain town that is covered in amazing blooms. Mary soon visits the town and finds it to be old-fashioned in a nice way and that everyone dress like bucolic Quakers, then meets with her contact, Peter Van Doon, the Chief Flower Salesman for the town. Van Doon admits it’s a fine life out in Blossom Valley except for all the insects: biting mosquitoes are rampant and locusts and grasshoppers chew through much of their merchandise and seem resistant to even the most potent poisons. Suddenly, a man who thinks he can help clumsily drives his plane into a tailspin nearby and Mary calls SHAZAM to become Mary Marvel and rescue him, finding he’s Jed Paine, a scientific exterminator who promises he can get rid of the bugs using a large light that will somehow repel them and that he won’t even charge them for it, since he wants to do it as an experiment anyways. Mary Marvel is suspicious at his “generosity,” but thinks better of accusing him over nothing.

That night, Jed uses a light to draw in the insects and removes them all from the town and Mary Marvel heads home, deciding everything is fine. A month later, Mary is watering some flowers when she realizes that this has created a grave problem: it has also removed all the bees from Blossom Valley that are necessary for pollinating their flowers! What’s worse, Jed is charging them $100,000 to buy back the bees. Mary Marvel decides to get the bees back herself and collects a collection of hives to hand-pick all the bees and flies them back to Blossom Valley. Van Doon is overjoyed to be stung directly on his nose by a bee if it restores his town’s economy. Jed decides to get his revenge by using his plane with the special lamp to scour the mountain valley with the locust, mosquito and grasshopper mass he can now control. Mary Marvel tries to kill them, but finds this time-consuming and instead borrows the large windmill sheets from their Station and blows the biting insects away and sends Jed Paine’s plane into a tailspin again where he’ll no doubt land and get arrested at a nearby city. Later, Van Doon shows a friend that they’ve named a lily in honor of Mary Marvel!

Appearing in Mary Marvel, the World's Mightiest Girl!: "Mary Marvel Battles the Evil Exterminator"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • Jed Paine ("Scientific insect exterminator" and extortionist) (Single appearance)
    • Mosquitoes
    • Locusts
    • Grasshoppers

Other Characters:

  • Henry Kirk (Mary's boss, a florist) (Single appearance)
  • Peter Van Doon (A flower saleman in Blossom Valley) (Single appearance)

Locations:

Items:

  • Jed Paine's Insect Lamp

Vehicles:

  • Jed Paine's Insect Lamp Plane

Synopsis for Captain Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and the Good Rumor Factory"

Freddy Freeman finds out that mild-mannered businessman John Brown managed to get a raise due to an odd rumor around the office that another firm was offering him a big salary. John qualifies that wasn’t the case, but that he likes that he got a raise. Freddy thinks on how John is too timid to ask for a raise on his own and that sometimes rumors can help people. In another realm where all rumors originate, bearded men in tunics and Ultraman helmets read through every rumor that exists from their Good Rumor Machine. Luckily, though the Good Rumor Machine sometimes doesn’t work quickly, it puts the ideas in everyone’s head, so they tend to solve themselves by word of mouth. Soon enough, the rumor that Dorothy Roberts, age 14, doesn’t have any friends or visitors starts going around and the stranger rumor that Captain Marvel, Junior is going to show up. However, when Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Junior and show up anyways, it works out all the same and he decides to allow this, since it helped lonely Dorothy make new friends. Back at the Good Rumor Machine, a foolish worker named Dunce admits he’s been falling asleep at his job and loaded up too many problems into the Good Rumor Machine at once, making it turn green and spit out bad rumors and will take some time to repair.

This creates a hysterical panic where people see smoke from an incoming ship and believe it to be exploding TNT arriving in the harbor only for Junior to find it’s just many sailors all smoking their pipes together. Similarly, rumors of an “escaped lion” from the zoo lead normal citizens to start freaking out hearing alley cats. Things go worse when rumors of a crazed killed in a blue suit lead them to start attacking Captain Marvel, Jr. and he calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to return to being Freddy. Unfortunately, the mob decides that he’s in cahoots with the World’s Mightiest Boy and gag him, deciding to hang him from a streetlight. The Rumor Men soon find that they need to load up the problem of Freddy Freeman being lynched by an insane mob and the Good Rumor Machine balances out society by creating a rumor of free money on 44 Center St and they all run off to go seize imaginary money. Freddy manages to slip his gag and call CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Junior once more and flies over to find that people are blocking traffic and trampling each other to find that 44 Center St does have a large amount of money there… because it’s the Treasury Building! Nobody is allowed to just have it for free and they soon all go home. Junior notes that a rumor this crazy happened to save Freddy’s life and later, Freddy wonders just why all these strange rumors popped up...

Appearing in Captain Marvel, Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and the Good Rumor Factory"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • The Dunce
  • Violent New Yorkers

Other Characters:

  • Dorothy Roberts (A lonely fourteen-year-old girl) (Single appearance)
  • John Brown (Freddy's friend) (Single appearance)
  • The workers at the Good Rumor Factory (Single appearance)

Locations:

  • Earth-S
    • New York City
      • The Good Rumor Factory (The place where rumors are made) (Single appearance)
      • NY Treasury Building

Items:

  • The Good Rumor Machine (Single appearance)

Vehicles:



Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the World Hater"

An evil bald man flies his plane over New York City to drop a flock of hungry vultures on New York City that begin harassing people, even getting into the studio at Station WHIZ, prompting Billy Batson to call SHAZAM and have Captain Marvel get rid of all these buzzards! He figures out that these are not animals common to New York City and flies them off to the zoo where they end up creating a new exhibit. Attached to one of their legs, Captain Marvel finds a note from the man who planned this: the World Hater, Ezra Bitterstone, a hermit who has decided that not only decided to separate from society, but has grown a deep hatred of it! Bitterstone himself lands out at a spot in the middle of the desert where he won’t have to deal with any other people. Ten years ago, Bitterstone was arrested for violently beating a man with his cane for obstructing his path, was rejected when he voices unrealistic expectations to women and is finally kicked out of town for trying to rob from widows, orphans and cripples. That day, Ezra Bitterstone turned his back on humanity and now lives in a small adobe house in the middle of nowhere and remarks how he plans on torturing everyone on Earth and has wasted his giant fortune to set off ridiculous weapons, firing off a rocket full of itching powder. Captain Marvel witnesses firsthand the strike of the irritating weapon, but finds everyone is too busy scratching to tell him much other than it came from west. Meanwhile, Bitterstone fires a soot bomb that cracks into Captain Marvel (he washes it off) and then a Tornado Bomb. Captain Marvel defuses the tornado by flying around it in reverse and soon finds Bitterstone’s compound. In order to sneak in, he calls SHAZAM to return Billy, who feigns thirstiness and begs for water, only for Bitterstone to cruelly shove him into a well to let him drown. Billy struggles to not drown while Bitterstone decides to set off his final rocket, which will poison the entire atmosphere of Earth as Billy manages to call SHAZAM and summons Captain Marvel. Bitterstone scarpers to a rocket-ship to leave the hated Earth, only for Captain Marvel to throw the rocket of his into space and tears his private rocket-ship in half. Later, Captain Marvel offers that he can enjoy being alone in solitary confinement during his life sentence.

Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the World Hater"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • Ezra Bitterstone (A world-hating hermit) (Flashback and main story) (Single appearance)
    • Hungry Buzzards

Other Characters:


Locations:

Items:

  • Bitterstone's weaponized rockets (Single appearance)

Vehicles:

  • Bitterstone's rocketship (Single appearance)

Notes

  • The first half of "The Marvel Family Battles the Man Who Changed the World" was reprinted in Shazam! #6. The second half was reprinted in Shazam! #7.
  • "Captain Marvel Battles the World Hater" was reprinted in Shazam! #16.

Trivia

  • Despite the cover, the Marvel Family never need to save Prof. Mason from being trapped inside his own home. Instead, the exact opposite occurs where they instead need to excavate a mountainside to enter a basement laboratory distinctly not connected to his house.


See Also

Recommended Reading

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