The Marvel Family #59 is an issue of the series The Marvel Family (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 1951.
Synopsis for The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family Battles the Sneaking Doom!"
Billy Batson is enjoying the last part of his lunch, a bottle of milk… only to find that it’s green! He dashes out to tell their milkman, Pete, that all the milk is green now. Heading down to his truck, Pete finds that all his milk is green and Billy calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel and the World’s Mightiest Mortal finds the milk plant is producing green milk. Meanwhile, Freddy Freeman finds that the papers being delivered are incredibly heavy and cannot be lifted until he calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. and lift all those papers. Elsewhere still, Mary Batson finds that a flower shop she’s working at smells horrible like the severest garlic odor until she calls SHAZAM to become Mary Marvel… and still flies away anyways. Regrouping together, they wonder why this is all happening. Above the Earth, the “Managers of Earth” million-year old balding men in purple robes who control respectively: Land and Solids, Sea and Liquids, and Air and Gases. The three of them continue to complain about who is “most important” among them. Liquids Manager changes their Central Control (a series of paper calendars that let them change the physics of anything) and makes all water run uphill instead of downhill. On Earth, the Marvel Family help save a riverboat from the reversing current and soon finds a nearby volcano about to erupt, which is an apparent effect of water flowing uphill. The Liquids Manager points out that these things only last an hour. Captain Marvel mentions a legend he’s heard about three “Fates” who control the Land, Sea and Air together in their Mountaintop Castle. They quickly find it and ask why they’re messing around with the very nature of the Earth itself and they admit they need to know who’s the “most important” among them. Captain Marvel says they’re equally important, but they decide this isn’t a good enough answer and go back to arguing about who’s best and that they only do these outlandish things one hour at a time, but Captain Marvel points out they’re causing untold human misery. In response, the Gases Manager alters magic lightning so they turn back into kids and quickly capture them (the air is too thin there for them to call their magic words again,) and throw them off their cliff!
After they reach a normal elevation to breathe normally, the three call SHAZAM and CAPTAIN MARVEL to become the Marvel Family again. The Managers point out that they’re not evil and they’re not going to ruin the Earth, but they also cannot be stopped even by them. The Marvel Family realize this is the case and take off, deciding to mitigate their nonsense. The Solids Manager makes rocks move, forcing Mary Marvel to stop raining boulders, a whirlwind that forces Captain Marvel, Jr. to retrieve a house from flying off and Captain Marvel stops an earthquake in a jungle area, rescuing a hermit. The Managers realize the earthquake wasn’t one of theirs, but those do happen from time to time. The Marvel Family soon find at Station WHIZ’s teletype that an Atlantic island is sinking, part of the Pacific coastline has collapsed and an Antarctic tidal wave is on its way, forcing them to split up again. Mary Marvel saves the singular lighthouse keeper and says the Fates are really ruining things, though the Liquids Manager thinks on how he didn’t cause this one… Captain Marvel, Jr. constructs a gigantic raft for people on the Pacific coast so they don’t drown and Captain Marvel, finding there’s no one there to save… but this does prove something horrible! He figures out that water flowing uphill and a whirlwind together has made the initial volcanic eruption even worse. The Marvel Family get back together and find that, according to Captain Marvel’s calculations, all of these factors together are going to alter the tilt of the Earth’s axis and will ultimately destroy the Earth!
Captain Marvel explains further that the Earth is going to literally crack in half due to gravitational stresses due to axis drift and it’s too late for them to stop it! They fly out to try their best to talk to the Manager Fates to expose their foolishness. They try to tell the Managers about what they’ve done and how the Earth will be destroyed, but the Managers unleash the magic lightning again, returning the Marvel kids into a light-air environment and the Mountaintop Castle suddenly starts to fall off its perch. A corner of their castle breaks into pieces and the Marvel kids fall out and call their magic words when they’re farther down and explain that the Earth is coming to an end! With their Mountaintop Castle falling apart, their Central Control Cards are now in complete disarray. The Managers are upset that they’ll be banished to the end of the Universe by the Superintendent of Planets and promptly start panicking. The Marvel Family decide to fix things together and push the Antarctic polar ice cap back into place, which fixes things until the Managers get their Control Cards in order. Captain Marvel has them swear to not pull this kind of thing ever again and they agree to work in friendly harmony. Later, the three broadcast on WHIZ-TV saying that cooperation is the real thing that holds the world together.
Appearing in The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family Battles the Sneaking Doom!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- The Fates / Managers of Earth
Other Characters:
- A Hermit
- A Lighthouse Keeper
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- The Pacific Coastline
- The Mountaintop Castle of the Managers of Earth
- Antarctica
Items:
- The Control Cards
- Green Milk
- Garlic Stench Flowers
- Superheavy Newspapers
Vehicles:
- Giant Raft
Trivia
- This issue's story comes in three chapters:
- Chapter 1: The Land, Sea and Air Mystery
- Chapter 2: The Creeping Horror
- Chapter 3: The End of the World!
See Also