Those Gremlins took all the cadmium control rods out of the atomic pile! It got so hot that it superheated the steam in the dynamo's boiler! It can't stand the strain! It'll explode any second! 
- — A Nuclear Technician
The Marvel Family #76 is an issue of the series The Marvel Family (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1952.
Synopsis for The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family Battles the Atomic Crimes"
While the Marvels are watching Operation Atom, an atomic plant in the desert, they come across Gremlins. The Marvels first think they want to damage the weapons, then the Gremlins say they want Operation Atom to succeed. Later, when the Marvels are in their civilian forms and riding a truck, Mary is first knocked out with a spanner, then so are the other Marvels. They are bound and gagged by the Gremlins, who reveal they are from another world and want to steal the Atomic weapons. They are thrown into the desert by the Gremlins, who hijack the truck. The Marvels first think they will die from the heat, but are caught in a sandstorm, but Billy removes his gag on a dead cactus, transforms, rescues the Marvels and the driver, and goes back to protect the atomic devices. The Marvels foil the first attempted robbery, but the Gremlins escape. In their ship, they bury the workers' homes with sand to lure the Marvels away, then steal the weapons and take the cadmium control rods from the atomic pile, meaning the Marvels have to let them escape to stop the Dynamo's boiler from exploding using cadmium rods to hold it together. They follow rocket smoke to the planet Zorkia, where it is revealed the mastermind is Glozzk, a former munitions maker of atomic bombs, who went bankrupt when atomic warfare was outlawed. He plans to use the inventions to win the Atomic Fair, then manufacture more of them, starting an atomic monopoly. The Marvels use the atomic inventions to win the Fair for Earth, saying they will send the blueprints later. Glozzk drops an atomic bomb toward the fair, but is found by Atomic Radar, the weapon is stopped, and he is presumably jailed.
Appearing in The Marvel Family: "The Marvel Family Battles the Atomic Crimes"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Glozzk of Zorkia
- The Gremlins of Zorkia
Other Characters:
- A Nuclear Engineer
- Other Nuclear Technicians
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- The Atomic Research Center
- Planet Zorkia
- An Atomic Fair
Items:
- An Atomic Pile
- Cadmium Rods
- An Atomic Dynamo
- Atomic Ovens
- Atomic Machines
- Atomic Robots
- Atomic Mail Rockets
Vehicles:
- Glozzk's Ship (Destroyed)
- A Zorkian Sphere Ship
- Atomic Trucks
- Atomic Planes
- Atomic Ships
- Atomic Motorboats
Notes
- This issue comes in three chapters:
- Chapter One: The Gremlin Mystery
- Chapter Two: The Atomic Robberies
- Chapter Three: The Payoff on Zorkia
Trivia
- Despite the cover that shows the Gremlins have a Caucasian skin tone, but they describe them as "Little Green Men," which they actually are entirely.
See Also