Whiz Comics #124 is an issue of the series Whiz Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1950.
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and The Slow-Down Menace!"
Billy signs off quickly, since he’s got a dozen letters to type up, six interviews to make and a taxi to catch to do so. He is worn out when he arrives to see Prof. Cobb. He says that people live too fast in the modern day and so he invented a Slowness Gas that can make things move in slowed motion, then shows as much on a squirrel in a running wheel. Billy suddenly reveals to Prof. Cobb that his janitor is an ex-convict, the criminal known as “Slick” Harry! Prof. Cobb admits this is true, but that he’s giving Harry a chance at a better life. Unfortunately, Slick Harry is more than willing to spray Prof. Cobb in the face with his own slowness gas so he can leisurely walk to his own bed and take a nap and leaves with it and a gas mask in tow. Prof. Cobb figures out, but reasons it’ll take about an hour for him to reach his phone to call anyone about it. Meanwhile, Harry uses the Slowness Gas to rob a jewelry shop, stun a cop and slow down Billy Batson on his way around a corner. Billy manages to shout SHAZAM (over the course of five minutes) and Captain Marvel flies in to find Slick Harry.
Harry, back at Prof. Cobb’s lab, moves his phone off the table so he can’t call anyone with it and steals a whole drum of Slowness Gas to continue his robbery spree, but Captain Marvel flies in to stop him. He panics and shoves the drum into Prof. Cobb, only for Captain Marvel to let it shatter against him… drenching the entire city in Slowness Gas! All of New York City slows to a crawl as Captain Marvel manages to fly an ambulance caught in slow motion to the hospital, where people are safe due to its air-conditioned buildings. Captain Marvel soon assists a fire engine putting out a house fire and a plane slowing itself out of the sky and flies back to the WHIZ Building to pick up a gas mask and so Billy can warn people to everyone else to wear them. Slick Harry taunts a slow motion cop about how much he’s stolen, only to hear Billy reporting on the event and runs into the broadcast room to just pull the gas mask off his face, pushing him very slowly into the path of a similarly slow oncoming truck. Luckily, Billy finds that the truck driver is also trying to slow himself down on purpose, giving him the five minutes he needs to call SHAZAM and to summon Captain Marvel, who tears a propeller from a hangar to clear the whole city of Slowness Gas by fanning it out manually. Using the same propeller, Captain Marvel uses air pressure alone to pin Slick Harry into a wall and takes him to jail. Later, Billy tells Prof. Cobb that it wasn’t his fault that Slick Harry betrayed him and Slowness Gas was actually a good idea. Prof. Cobb says he turned over the formula for it to some doctors who may use it, but that this modern age is geared to live fast!
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and The Slow-Down Menace!"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- "Slick" Harry
Other Characters:
- Professor Cobb
Locations:
Items:
- Slowness Gas
Synopsis for Golden Arrow: "Golden Arrow, the Robin Hood of the West and The Great Reward Swindle"
Golden Arrow is in Dry Gulch and hears someone drowning in the town well. He ties off a rope to White Wind to drag the man out, but it breaks while trying to climb up. Golden Arrow ties a rope to an arrow and then uses that to drag him out. A man with a mustache, Jonathan Carr, says Golden Arrow deserves a real reward, which he declines. Carr says they should do it anyways and they do so. Nights later, they present it to him and he declines, saying to put it to the Community Welfare Fund. The next day, everyone is happy they did, since there's at least $1,000 or more in there, meaning Carr was skimming off of him and has also skipped town to nearby Twin Toads. Riding in, he finds a building is on fire, but when he runs in to save someone from the second floor, we find he's a conspirator of Carr's (Joe) since Carr knocks him out with a blackjack. They point out that Joe gets into trouble on purpose so Carr can drum up a reward collected and then run off after him. He fires an arrow out the window to a tree and uses it a zipline to kick the two swindlers off their horses. The outlaws are soon turned in to the Sheriff of Dry Gulch.
Appearing in Golden Arrow: "Golden Arrow, the Robin Hood of the West and The Great Reward Swindle"
Featured Characters:
- Golden Arrow "The Robin Hood of the West"
Animals:
Antagonists:
- Jonathan Carr, swindler
- Joe, accomplice
Other Characters:
- Townsmen / Swindlees
Locations:
- Earth-S
- American Old West
- Dry Gulch
- Dry Gulch Hotel
- Twin Toads
- Dry Gulch
- American Old West
Items
- The Community Welfare Fund
- Dry Gulch Well
Synopsis for Lance O'Casey: "The Death Warrants"
Lance and Mike are having dinner in the South Pacific and get a note for a job offer from Rex Hart, owner of a newspaper in Cape Utanka as a "sea reporter." Lance later tells him that he met him overseas when he was in "intelligence" and heads off to the Cape Utanka Islands and moor the Starfish. They are picked up by a quiet-sounding man who seems worried for Rex. They find that Rex is injured and he informs them that the Cape Utanka Islands just won their own democratic system after the War, but Marks Templarr, an "Un-American" agent who wants to seize the island to run submarine and air bases and are keying up to win (or cheat) at the new election tomorrow. Rex admits that he was injured by Marks and his goon, Louis Taga, a Native on his side, forcing him to get a Native bodyguard, Samu, and luckily think he's dead!
Taga suddenly bursts in the door with a gun pointed at them and a donnybrook breaks out. Lance jumps out a window to go after Taga and gets both legs caught in a beartrap on his motorboat. Taga brings him to Templarr, who tells him this isn't Rex Hart and they instead find it's Lance O'Casey. When he wakes up, Templarr decided he was going to have Taga just cut his head off with a big ax, only for him to twist his body and lifts his ankles, cutting the bonds on his ankles by shoving them into the ax, kicks Taga in the face and then frees his arms with the axe now on the ground. Templarr pulls a gun on him, only for Lance to throw the ax into Templarr's chandelier, making Templarr accidentally shoot Taga in the solar plexus. They are both knocked out by the falling chandelier. The next day, Rex publishes as the headline of The Globe: DEMOCRACY WINS AT THE POLLS! WOULD-BE DICTATOR ARRESTED!
Appearing in Lance O'Casey: "The Death Warrants"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Marks Templarr, revolutionary, U.S. expatriate
- his rebels
- Louis Taga, native cutthroat
Other Characters:
- Rex Hart, newspaper publisher
- Samu, messenger
- Cape Utanka Natives
Locations:
- Earth-S
- South Pacific Ocean
- Cape Utanka Islands
- Cape Utanka
- Cape Utanka Islands
- South Pacific Ocean
Vehicles:
- The Starfish
Synopsis for Freshman Freddy: "Swap Your Partner"
Freshman Freddy finds that the big dance in the gym has been a “Swap Your Partner” Dance, wherein you swap your partner with the first boy who asks you to. Ace finds out that Freddy is bringing Harriet, so he offers to take Harriet for him and gives him the info for a girl that will be “his” date. Stooge finds out when he leaves that Ace has given Freddy the address to pick up an ugly girl he met with a green coat with a white flower. Stooge to decides to hang around the depot for her to show up on the train, finding that the woman that Ace described looks beautiful! Freddy tries to pick the girl up, then explains himself poorly enough that the police start to get involved. The woman points out a different woman that fits the description and Freddy finds her to be a girl with freckles, glasses and large teeth. Ace hears the word that Freddy supposedly has brought an attractive woman by accident and demands that Freddy switch back with Stooge demanding Freddy do as he’s told. Freddy gets to dance with Harriet, Ace ends up dancing with the “ugly” girl and Stooge is left with Ace staring daggers at him for not realizing there were two girls in green coats with white flowers...
Appearing in Freshman Freddy: "Swap Your Partner"
Featured Characters:
- Freshman Freddie
Supporting Characters
- Harriet
Antagonists:
- Ace
- Stooge
Locations
- Earth-S
- Podunk
- A Train Depot
- Podunk
Other Characters:
- "Ugly" Girl
- Other Girl in a Green Dress
Synopsis for Ibis the Invincible: "Ibis the Invincible and The Masquerade of Death!"
Ibis defeats the Black Mask, Leader of the Society of the Black Mask, who is accidentally killed when trying to escape by car after his group is captured and sent to Hell. Satan is angry at Ibis foiling his evil and releases the Spanish Torturer Tomás de Torquemada to kill Ibis, threatening him with horrible punishment if he fails. He holds a costume party in his old castle, and attends, dressed as himself. Ibis and Taia come dressed as pirates. After a guest nearly falls into a lion pit but is saved by Ibis, suspicions are aroused. However Taia is captured by a chandelier dropping from the ceiling and becoming a cage, lifting her up. Ibis can't find her so tells the stones to tell him what happened to her, and finds out that the host is the real Torquemada. He uses the Ibistick to point the way to Taia. He finds her bound and gagged in an iron maiden, with Torquemada threatening to close it if Ibis uses the Ibistick. He asks for the Ibistick, planning to destroy Ibis when he gets it. Ibis throws the Ibistick at him, then turns it into a sword and fights him. However Torquemada gets the sword and tries to destroy Ibis and all traces of his existence, but is instead destroyed by the Ibistick. Taia has been freed while this is happening. Satan can't even find Tomas to punish him, his backfired attack on Ibis having completely expunged him.
Appearing in Ibis the Invincible: "Ibis the Invincible and The Masquerade of Death!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Black Mask II (Dies)
- The Society of the Black Mask (Disbanded)
- Satan
- Inquisitor Generalis Tomás de Torquemada, OP
Locations:
Items:
Notes
- Captain Marvel: Professor Cobb's Slowness Gas was turned over to the medical authorities.
- The Golden Arrow story, as usual, provides no clues as to whether it's set in the 1870s or the 1940s.
- Golden Arrow gets knocked unconscious with a blackjack.
- This issue Lance O'Casey gets hired as a newspaper correspondent.
- He also gets both legs caught in a bear trap.
Trivia
- Also appearing in this issue of Whiz Comics were:
- Wicky & O'Shawnessy: "Wicky's Battle" (text story) by Rod Reed
- Wilbur the Waiter: "Grounds for Complaint!"
- "Always The Best!" (full page ad for current issues of eighteen Fawcett titles)
See Also
Links and References
