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The Marvel Family (1945) #54

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"The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family and the Menace of the Rings Around Earth"": An astronomer misleads the Marvels when they hear an asteroid's approaching Earth, knowing it will shatter and form rings around the planet. He tries to play this as something he let happen because of the astronom

The Marvel Family #54 is an issue of the series The Marvel Family (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1950.

Synopsis for The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family and the Menace of the Rings Around Earth"

An astronomer misleads the Marvels when they hear an asteroid's approaching Earth, knowing it will shatter and form rings around the planet. He tries to play this as something he let happen because of the astronomical history it will make, but soon bits start falling to Earth, prompting the Marvels to return and throw the rocks off into space. In the process they find numerous specimens of valuable metals which they bring down to donate to the observatory. Some crooks come at the behest of the astronomer, who's caught by the Marvels and confesses that stealing anything valuable they found in the rings was the real reason he wanted the rings to be formed.

Appearing in The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family and the Menace of the Rings Around Earth"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • Professor M Dunkel

Other Characters:

  • Professor C Colt

Locations:

Items:

  • The Astronomical Observatory Telescope

Vehicles:




Synopsis for Mary Marvel: "Mary Marvel Battles the Predatory Plants"

Late one night, an elderly rich couple, the Armbrewsters, put away their expensive jewels and finds himself being held up by… living plants! The talking plants demand that he turn over his jewelry to the Plant Crooks and attack his butler when he tries to leg it. Mr. Armbrewster goes for the phone to call the police and the Living Cactus slaps him on the rear for betraying them. Mary Batson soon shows up to return an earring Mrs. Armbrewster dropped at the party she was at with them and spots criminal plants in the window, calling SHAZAM to become Mary Marvel. The Plant Crooks find she's not so easy to lean on and hit the lights before they scarper into the yard and hide among the other plants, blending in well enough that Mary Marvel doesn't spot them in the night. She wonders how this could happen as the Plant Crooks return to their hideout, the greenhouse of evil bald florist Jake “Jack” Joddy. Joddy talks to some length about how he's managed to develop the Plant Crooks using animal hormones on plants because being a florist didn't pay. He retrieves the jewels from the Plant Crooks and smirks to himself how he can open his store tomorrow easily.

Tomorrow, Mary Batson goes to see Joddy and finds one of the cacti seems to be moving and gets suspicious. She returns that night and sees the plants getting up and moving around and goes to call SHAZAM before the ivy snaps around her throat, choking her quiet for Joddy to capture her. He leaves her bound and gagged in a tiger plant (from the tropics) that will close around her and stab her with its steel-like spines, but instead she manages to hook her gag on one of them and calls SHAZAM to escape easily as Mary Marvel, who punches the Plant Crooks to pieces and gives Joddy a black eye and drags him to jail, making plant puns about it while she does.

Appearing in Mary Marvel: "Mary Marvel Battles the Predatory Plants"

Featured Characters

Supporting Characters


Villains

  • Jake "Jack" Joddy
    • His Plant Crooks (Destroyed)

Other Characters

  • Mr. Armbrewster
  • Mrs. Armbrewster

Locations:

Items


Vehicles



Synopsis for Capt. Marvel Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Radioactive Air"

Freddy Freeman tells his friend, Mr. Spencer Poore, about the theory of Prof. Zweis, who has worried that if atomic bombs explode too much, it could contaminate the entirety of Earth's atmosphere and make it radioactive, killing all life on Earth. Freddy hears a report on the radio about nearby Helsam Bay being evacuated due to gas buildup from a uranium mine and Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. to look into things. He soon helps evacuate the entire town and drags an elevator of men out of the mine before it explodes like a mushroom cloud. Later, Freddy returns to his corner and hears a worry from Spencer about radioactivity in the air near Helsam Bay and Freddy takes off to look into it, finding a sickened cow lying on the ground. A farmer explains she just did that before he crumples and falls over himself, so Freddy calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to look into the radioactivity. He finds a rural windmill and spins it at top speed to hopefully disperse the poison gas, but finds the plants nearby are withering. Junior warns people that the area is unsafe and heads off to find the city proper is just about as poor-looking, with a bird suddenly dying and people panicking to get out of town. Some goons don domino masks to loot houses being abandoned by the people and Junior toe-kicks them both in the rear, since he doesn't have time to arrest them and put them in the irradiated prison. He soon finds that Spencer Poore is buying up properties for a small medley of songs from the citizens of Helsam Bay and Junior gets suspicious of his motives, following him to the city. He overhears him telling some men about this and they mention how their “science” worked and then openly discuss how they faked this whole thing by just sprinkling radium all over Helsam Bay, creating all the signs of radioactivity, but they'll soon own billions in real estate. Junior punches in, overturns their table to pin them to the floor and points out that radium dust is radioactive too and anyone who touched the jar will likely get radiation poisoning too. Later, Poore and his men are sent to a prison hospital where they are due for a long recovery and a longer term in jail as the people of Helsam Bay soon return to their town.

Appearing in Capt. Marvel Jr.: "Capt. Marvel, Jr. and The Radioactive Air"

Featured Characters

Supporting Characters


Villains

  • Spencer Poore
    • Helsam Bay Looters

Other Characters


Locations:

Items

  • A Jar of Radioactive Radium Dust

Vehicles



Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles Sivana's Marvel Disintegrator"

Sivana falls asleep and has a dream where he creates a formula even powerful enough to destroy Captain Marvel, but wakes up before he can remember all the details. He keeps trying to go back to sleep to complete the dream and get the formula for his ultimate weapon, but finds out he only dreamed up the formula for soap.

Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles Sivana's Marvel Disintegrator"

Featured Characters

Supporting Characters


Villains

Other Characters


Locations:

Items

  • Flash Flood Dry Ice
  • Exploding Prison Food
  • A Jar of Benzidrine

Vehicles

  • Sivana's Rocket-Ship
    • Sivana's Life Rocket-Ship

Notes

  • This issue, an early note for its time, depicts the improper use of benzedrine (or the Earth-S equivalent, Benzidrine,) an amphetamine marketed as "pep pills" that would later be classified as a Schedule III controlled substance. A common side-effect of this happens to be restless sleep as well.



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