At last... the Youth Magnet is in our hands! First, I'll turn those babies into adults, by "stealing" youth from them! Finally, the afflicted city will be restored to normal! 
The Marvel Family #69 is an issue of the series The Marvel Family (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1952.
Synopsis for The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family battles The Menace of Old Age"
Billy Batson, Mary Batson and Freddy Freeman are out climbing mountains where Mary shows off her yodeling skills. She mentions the legend of the “Old Man of the Mountains” who’s lived there for centuries, but Billy Batson says that legends are fake and made-up and it would be just as likely they run into random buried treasure. They soon run into a sign leading them to buried treasure. However, much to Billy’s chagrin as he runs ahead, these signs instead lead them a cliffside that topples over when the three children step on it and then slide down an icy slope to a hidden castle! They instead decide to at least look into the castle, despite the huge sign reading “ALL YE WHO ENTER, ABANDON YOUTH” they plod in and are attacked by a knight wielding a pike, but when he steps close enough to them, he suddenly becomes horribly ages and his pike falls apart in his hands. His armor soon dissolves into disused bits and his legs start failing him. They head in further and find an elderly man in a purple ermine cloak awoken by his elderly guard. This is Baron Krumble, who says both the castle and him are 300 years old, which Billy thinks is impossible. The castle starts to rumble and crack, so they call SHAZAM and CAPTAIN MARVEL to become the Marvel Family.
They quickly save Baron Krumble from being crushed by a large block and Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Junior hold up the ceiling. Captain Marvel tries to find some furniture they can brace themselves under, but each piece collapses at a touch. Captain Marvel is able to use a strong stone pillar to prop up the ceiling. He offers that Baron Krumble move somewhere else like an elderly home. However, a shrieking housekeeper, Matilda, protests that she’s twenty-four and they both together insist that they’ll become young again. Captain Marvel presumes they’re just crazy as a huge hole break in the kitchen floor, forcing them to catch the cook. Despite this, nobody wants to leave and thus, the Marvel Family decide to do their best to fix the castle up as much as they can with what resources are at hand, though Baron Krumble continues to now assertively state they’re wasting their time fixing things that will become sturdy and new. They go to leave, but Baron Krumble asks that the kids return (wherever they are) and bring up the offer of buried treasure. They try to humor them, but are immediately knocked out by Baron Krumble and Matilda and wake up bound and gagged in a stony corner. Using a magical Youth Magnet to drain their youth, making them become adults, elderly people and then centenarians!
The elderly kids find that their bonds and gags are also falling apart, but find they have to strain to actually say their magic words, calling SHAZAM and CAPTAIN MARVEL. They find that the Youth Magnet has a reversible switch, which they use on each other, then call their magic words again to stop them. Matilda threatens them to slap an old woman when she slaps them herself and tells the Baron to leg it with the Youth Magnet, pointing out that if they basically do anything to them, they’ll probably die from it, so they fly off. They find that the Baron has seemingly fallen into a giant chasm on his front lawn, but Matilda soon calls him out from behind a tree once the Marvel Family leave. They decide that their buried treasure trail high in the mountains. Meanwhile, Billy Batson finishes a broadcast telling people about Baron Krumble and his insidious Youth Magnet, but when he goes to Mr. Morris’ room, he finds that Mr. Morris has become aged into a jowly and trembling centenarian and Billy quickly figures that Baron Krumble must still be alive. Billy goes to tell the Big Apple, but finds his microphone has been aged and so has the ceiling above him! He calls SHAZAM quickly to summon Captain Marvel and goes off to fix the Station WHIZ Aerial.
Freddy finds his newsstand has been aged and falls apart, calling CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel, Jr. and finding a man’s car fall apart around him. Mary Marvel finds a dress she’s going to show off to a woman at her part-time dress store job has also aged, so she calls SHAZAM to become Mary Marvel and finds that the old dresses have managed to light on fire. The Marvel Family regroup and figure out that New York is falling apart and there are now tons of prematurely matured peoples!
The Marvel Family split up to take down Baron Krumble in a pincer movement. Matilda hears Mary Marvel sneeze in a bush when sneaking up behind her and shoves the Baron, stealing the Youth Magnet for herself. The Marvel Family find him and get the word that she’s going to another city. They spot a youthful woman wearing a snood with a green puff and slash dress, who points them in the wrong direction into general farmland. They soon figure out that the woman was Matilda herself, while she hitchhikes to town. They look around the nearest town while Mary Marvel, upset at having ruined their plan before, goes back to the Castle to get a portrait of her. They find her turning people into babies in front of a truck, but the Marvels shove the traffic into each other, literally bumper-to-bumper and Mary Marvel punches her out. Reversing the Youth Magnet, the Marvel Family return to find the castle has disintegrated and take the now elderly Baron and his elderly servants to an elderly home. Billy figures that the ruins of his castle are all that’s left of this vampire of the youth and they go back to hiking.
Appearing in The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family battles The Menace of Old Age"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Baron Krumble
- Matilda
Other Characters:
- A Cook
- A Guard
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Station WHIZ
- The Ancient Castle (Destroyed)
- New York City
Items:
- The Youth Magnet (Destroyed)
Vehicles:
Notes
- This issue's story comes in three chapters:
- Chapter One - The Secret of the Castle
- chapter ~two~ - The Doddering Doom
- chapter ~THREE~ - The Hoary Horror
See Also