Whiz Comics #118 is an issue of the series Whiz Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of February, 1950.
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and The World's Mightiest Ship"
Billy Batson is watching a movie while “Sharky” Snell and his mariner goons decide to rob the box office at gunpoint. Walking out of the finishing film,, Billy spots them and calls SHAZAM and summons Captain Marvel to punch over the apparently notorious waterfront goons. Sharky panics and throws the lockbox full of money into Captain Marvel’s face and legs it to a nearby dance hall and loses himself in the crowd before trying to fire at Captain Marvel (to predictable results) and escapes out a window, through an apartment building and finally out to a gigantic ship the SS Cosmopolitan, where Captain Marvel loses them amid the sheer size of the ship. Captain Marvel recalls how Billy was a guest of honor for the ship’s christening the day before and how it’s large enough that it’s a metropolis on the ocean with streets and motorcars. The goons hide out in a highly specific part of the ship while Captain Marvel consults with the ship’s Captain to see some blueprints and finds that the ship is essentially the size of a small city.
Looking down from above, Captain Marvel finds that they’re having an entire baseball game on the highest deck, the Cosmopolitan Beach, their cycle racing rink and their golf course, but doesn’t find Sharky at any of them, instead working on a hunch and finding Sharky while he’s deciding to rob a jewelry store with his goons. However, once Captain Marvel rounds a corner, he finds that they’ve abandoned the car, taken an elevator into the hold and are somewhere in the vast area below deck. To stop him, Captain Marvel instead rams his head hard into the wall, making a horrible crashing noise and then sprays around tons of water, shouting about how they’ve struck an iceberg! When Sharky and his goons dash out, pleading to be saved, Captain Marvel merely sprays them with the hose he has and they’re quickly arrested and sent to the brig. The Captain of the SS Cosmopolitan thanks Captain Marvel and, later, Billy signs off from the ship’s own radio station, revealing that they also have their own airfield for short plane rides!
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and The World's Mightiest Ship"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Captain of the SS Cosmopolitan
Antagonists:
- "Sharky" Snell
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- The SS Cosmopolitan
- The Cosmopolitan Beach
- The Cosmopolitan Baseball Field
- The Cosmopolitan Bicycle Track
- The Cosmopolitan Golf Courses
- A Jewelry Store
Items:
- A Fire Hose
Vehicles:
- The SS Cosmopolitan
Synopsis for Freshman Freddy: "Spare the Rod"
Ace, Stooge and their plain friend Dinky are hanging out in the Handicraft Society’s Workshop during a rainstorm thanks to the president of the club letting them in. Ace tells them to instead focus on how they can make enough money so they can buy fishing poles and go fishing on the weekend and, when Freshman Freddy shows up dripping wet and offers to join the Handicraft Society, Ace weasels his way over and claims that he’s in charge and will let him join if he can make him a fishing rod by tomorrow and to bring it to his room too. Stooge and Dinky are skeptical of this plan, since it seems to only give Ace a fishing pole. Later, Freddy is alack to tell his new girlfriend Jean that he can’t go on a date since he has to make this fishing rod for Ace, so she decides to go out with Dinky instead. Freddy thinks remorsefully of his dedication, but decides he could just go out with Mabel or Harriet instead. The next day, Ace claims that the fishing rod is “all right, but it’s a sloppy job!” and demands he make another one, ruining Freddy’s date with Mabel, so she decides to go out with Stooge instead. The next morning after, Ace says that the second rod is better, but he wants a third one that will work. Freddy ends up spending all night making a third one as Harriet threatens to leave him for Ace and the morning after that, Ace pretends to accept Freddy’s work and offers he’ll talk to the President of the Handicraft Society for him while Freddy decides to pass out from exhaustion. After he leaves, he overhears through the door that they tricked him into making the poles for free and becomes angry as the guys head out to Podunk Lake to do some fishing.
Later, the three boys are arrested by a Fish and Wildlife Game Warden for fishing at an unapproved lake and accuses them of also removing the sign that says there’s no fishing in the lake while back on campus, Harriet and Mabel and Jean all see Freddy carrying a “NO FISHING ALLOWED” sign who note that he should probably return it, but he instead dumps it in a bush rather than get in trouble about stealing it. The girls say they’re waiting for their mutual dates (who’ve been arrested) and decide to instead let Freddy take all three of them out!
Appearing in Freshman Freddy: "Spare the Rod"
Featured Characters:
- Freshman Freddy
Supporting Characters:
- Harriet
- Mabel
- Jean
Antagonists:
- Ace
- Stooge
- Dinky
Other Characters:
- A Fish and Wildlife Game Warden
Locations:
- Earth-S
- Podunk University
- The Handicraft Society
- Podunk Lake
- Podunk University
Items:
- A "NO FISHING ALLOWED" Sign
- Three Handmade Fishing Poles
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Golden Arrow: "Golden Arrow and The Cold-Blooded Killer"
Randy Black is an orphaned boy living with his sister who plans on becoming an outlaw, despite his sister's warnings. Meanwhile, "Bat" Hawley is a violent outlaw in Dry Gulch, tearing down his wanted poster, shooting the Sheriff in the arm, firing wildly into the sky, demanding valuables from people and shooting a store owner when he tries to shoot him from a window for doing so. Randy runs up and offers to join him, which he's fine with. When someone tells Bat that Golden Arrow is coming after him, Bat shoots him in cold blood. Later, Golden Arrow hears from Randy's Sister that he's just a mixed-up kid who doesn't know what he's doing and Golden Arrow promises he'll try not to harm him. Heading north, he's ambushed by Bat, who ties him up and walks him to camp, leaving Randy to watch him and start a fire. Golden Arrow tries to appeal to the kid, but he insists he's an outlaw. Golden Arrow asks to say goodbye to White Wind, which Randy allows, but tells him to make it fast. Instead, Golden Arrow has White Wind bite through his ropes, waits for Bat to take his guns off and has Randy start cooking some food and confronts him. Finding he can't just shoot this problem to death, Bat just throws Randy off a cliff to distract him, but Golden Arrow manages to use an arrow to pin Randy to a tree by his pants so he doesn't smash into the rocks, then beats the tar out of Bat the second he manages to pick his guns up and has his back turned. He soon rescues Randy, turns in Bat to jail and Randy is released into his sister's custody, pending he keep up good behavior. Randy admits that he never realized outlaws were cold-blooded killers and now he'll be more like Golden Arrow!
Appearing in Golden Arrow: "Golden Arrow and The Cold-Blooded Killer"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- The Sheriff of Dry Gulch
- Randy Black
Antagonists:
- "Bat" Hawley
Other Characters:
- Randy Black's Sister
Locations:
- Earth-S
- American Old West
- Dry Gulch
- American Old West
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Ibis the Invincible: "Ibis the Invincible and the Land of the Walking Skeletons!"
The year is 1108 BCE and a volcano has struck the ancient Thyrsis, City of Wizards, sending pyroclastic flow spilling into the streets, burying it forever under lava like Pompeii… In the modern day 3,000 years later, Harry Thompson and his assistants, Verne Dugree and John Irvin, watch in anticipation while unearthing the ruins of Thyrsis, which is apparently somewhere in the South Pacific. Their native laborers soon unearth a large columned building with skeletons sitting just where they were when the volcano struck, amazed by it all. Word soon spreads of this discovery as Prince Ibis and Princess Taia read about Thyrsis in the paper. Knowing it is a “City of Wizards,” Ibis decides to look into things and wishes him and Taia there as they are carried off on the wind. When they land though, they find things are too quiet until they’re not and the natives are screaming madly about seemingly walking skeletons! Ibis tries to wish the living skeletons into dust, but finds it doesn’t seem to work on them as they run off to the ruins. Ibis wishes for the Ibistick to create a path of harmless fire to guide them to where they went, but finds when he enters the Thyrsis building, the skeletons have stopped and are sitting lifelessly as before. Ibis decides that since the Ibistick isn’t vibrating, the threat is gone for now, but that he and Taia will hang around to see if it comes up again.
The next day, Dugree tells Thompson that the natives have abandoned them amid worries of being killed by walking skeletons. Dugree and Irvin offer Thompson go drum up more men in the week, but Ibis offers he can literally wish for new autonomous equipment to start doing all the unearthing without them, uncovering almost all of it over the course of a single day! As night falls on the City of Wizards, Taia is attacked in the night by the Walking Skeletons and faints when they reveal they are intending to kidnap her. When Ibis hears them coming in, one of the Walking Skeletons knocks him out with a candlestick. When the Egyptian Royals awaken, they find they’re bound to stakes next to two large stones, no doubt for a sacrifice and worry that the City of Wizards might’ve been interested in human sacrfice and that they can’t find the Ibistick. Prince Ibis is shocked to find that these supposedly “Walking Skeletons,” now under decent lighting are clearly people in costumes, explaining why he couldn’t wish for them as “living skeletons” to be harmed (since they were no living skeletons) and they mock that they will use the Ibistick to kill him. Ibis tries to warn one of them not to, but when one wishes for Ibis to be destroyed by lightning, he does not realize that the Ibistick will not harm the True Owner of the Ibistick, killing him instantly when he’s struck by lightning. Ibis catches the Ibistick falling out of the Walking Skeleton’s charred hand and wishes himself and his wife free, then wishes the actual skeletons of Thyrsis to come alive to stop him, terrifying the villain. Ibis removes his mask to find it was Prof. Verne Dugree (and the other was John Irvin) and they were doing this to cut Thompson out of their discovery and Dugree is arrested. Some time later, Ibis and Taia see one of the formerly living skeletons of Thyrsis on display at a museum, disturbing Taia, though Ibis notes the irony that they were the only ones who made the skeletons alive!
Appearing in Ibis the Invincible: "Ibis the Invincible and the Land of the Walking Skeletons!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Prof. Verne Dugree
- John Irvin (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Henry Thompson
- The Skeletons of Thyrsis
Locations:
- Earth-S
- The South Pacific
- The Ancient City of Thyrsis, City of Wizards (Destroyed)
- The South Pacific
Items:
Trivia
- Lance O'Casey is on hiatus this issue, but will return next issue
- At no point is it made clear why Thyrsis is called "The City of Wizards," especially since the Walking Skeletons are revealed to be men in costumes.
See Also