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"Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the United Criminals"": “Mastermind Mike,” the new kingpin of the underworld is addressing his criminal version of the UN, the United Criminals. He tells them they’ll all make history and promote crime and outlawing the law. Their first motion is a vote o

Holy Moley! This isn't ice at all! It's plastic! This is an artificial iceberg... and it must be their secret headquarters! Holy Moley!
Captain Marvel

Whiz Comics #128 is an issue of the series Whiz Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1950.

Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the United Criminals"

“Mastermind Mike,” the new kingpin of the underworld is addressing his criminal version of the UN, the United Criminals. He tells them they’ll all make history and promote crime and outlawing the law. Their first motion is a vote on Crime Coup No. 1: stealing a battleship to sell for scrap metal. One goon vetoes this, holding up the anti-democratic process, until an eyepatch-sporting goon slugs him with a blackjack and they accept this as the ayes having it. Later, Billy Batson is reporting from Station WHIZ that a battleship has gone missing off the coast of the small maritime nation of “Libania” while most of the crew was on shore leave. Once he finishes his process, she calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel to head to Libania. Thereof, he finds the military has little more than a bearing and finds a shiver of sharks, meaning that the battleship has come through there. He soon discovers Mastermind Mike aboard the ship and they quickly discover that even artillery shells fired from a battleship yield predictable results. Mastermind Mike manages to escape to his mustard yellow jet helicopter, which Captain Marvel loses track of in a dense fog. He soon returns to Libania with some of the United Criminals in tow and he tries to get them to talk from behind bars. The Sole Dissenter from the UC spills the tea on how the UC plan on robbing transoceanic planes, raid the Maharajah’s Jewel Cave and counterfeit all forms of currency. He goes to stop them and hears a shot, finding that the Sole Dissenter is dead, shot by a goon in an adjacent cell with a tiny secret gun hidden in his sleeve. Captain Marvel punches him against a wall, knocking him out and leaves.

The next day, a transoceanic airliner carrying 80 passengers and a freight of jewels soon has the jet helicopter landing on top of it for the UC to move in. Captain Marvel flies in quickly and punches out most of the goons, but Mike pitches the jewels out of a window, forcing Captain Marvel to go after it. Once again, due to heavy cloud cover, the United Criminals escape. To try to lure them out, he finds a nearby iceberg in a strangely tropical area of the ocean and finds that it’s made of plastic and is likely their secret HQ. To get in, he calls SHAZAM to return Billy, who pretends he’s been shipwrecked and starts shouting for help. A goon comes out from a secret door, but immediately brains Billy with a blackjack and he wakes up bound to a chair and gagged. Mastermind Mike decides to take a motion and the United Criminals order Billy to death for “treason” against crime. They remove his gag to hear his last words and he calls SHAZAM for Captain Marvel to punch the goons over, topple a UC flag on them and then drags the whole fake iceberg to somewhere they can be arrested.

Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Battles the United Criminals"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • "Mastermind" Mike"
    • The United Criminals
    • The Sole Dissenter (Dies)

Other Characters:


Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:

  • A Stolen American Battleship
  • A Jet Helicopter
  • A Gigantic Plastic Iceberg


Synopsis for Golden Arrow, the Robin Hood of the West: "Golden Arrow, the Robin Hood of the West, and the Stroke of Doom"

Golden Arrow is at the town of Elbow Creek, two days' ride from Dry Gulch, and finds a large explosion, using an arrow to stop a man from being crushed to death. He soon finds this man is Jenkins, the bank guard, and that someone has blown up the bank. Banker Sloan soon arrives and Golden Arrow says he saw two men leaving. The Sheriff tells Golden Arrow he could use his help and the Robin Hood of the West soon finds that the large fancy clock attached to the bank entrance looks like it was wired up to something, possibly the bomb that blew up their façade. Two days later, Golden Arrow hears that men are installing a new clock in the Dry Gulch Bank and becomes suspicious, asking the two men what they're up to, only for them to toss a hammer at his head, tie him up and throw him into their covered wagon. They set the bank clock to explode at 10:00pm and take off to the middle of nowhere where Golden Arrow wakes up. It's now 9:00pm as the two outlaws head off to go get the money from the exploded bank. Once they're gone, Golden Arrow rolls over into the wall, kicks open a window and uses the jagged glass to cut his bonds, then takes White Wind (who the outlaws brought with them) and stops the clock and the bomb by shooting at the minute hand before it can strike 10. He quickly punches out the two goons and they are turned over to the Sheriff.

Appearing in Golden Arrow, the Robin Hood of the West: "Golden Arrow, the Robin Hood of the West, and the Stroke of Doom"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • Jud
  • Clem

Other Characters:

  • The Sheriff of Dry Gulch
  • The Sheriff of Elbow Creek

Locations:

Items:

  • Two Clock-Based Time-Bombs

Vehicles:

Synopsis for Lance O'Casey: "The Poisoned Sea Mystery"

Off the coast of a South Sea island, Lance and Mike find that there's no food left on the Starfish! Lance points out they can catch fish to eat and they get to it in an area near Mingo Island, known for its plentiful fish. They soon find that there's no fish out and dead fish floating on the surface. They soon find natives leaving Mingo too, since there's nothing to fish. Lance is sad to see this, knowing they may not reach the next island hundreds of miles away. Marine investigators led by Captain Cobb, who says that there's a strange "fish blight" and they've been trying to counteract it with barrels of chemicals. Lance offers to help test these too and Cobb is willing to share food with them, so they start working together. However, once they're aside, Cobb tells his men to put some knockout drugs in his food. Once they're gone, Lance smacks the food from Mike's hand, showing that one of the barrels they had contains poison. He manages to sneak aboard their ship and listen in, finding that they're doing something on Mingo Island they don't want the natives around for and that's why they've poisoned the fish. He's suddenly knocked out by one of Cobb's men and they dump him into a barrel to smash against the rocks. Meanwhile, Mike has gone to Mingo Island to dig for clams, but is weak from hunger. He finds the barrel and breaks it open, hoping there's food, but only finds Lance. They soon find and defeat Cobb and his goons while they're digging up "fossil pearls" buried on the island and call back the natives to get them to watch the prisoners. The two sailors enjoy a fine feast prepared by the natives, ensuring them that the poison will dilute over time. Mike ends up eating too much.

Appearing in Lance O'Casey: "The Poisoned Sea Mystery"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Captain Cobb

Other Characters:

  • Mingo Island Natives

Locations:

Items:

  • Fish Blight Poison

Vehicles:

  • The Starfish

Synopsis for Ibis the Invincible: "Ibis the Invincible Battles the Moon Menace"

Princess Taia finds that it’s a bad day when her cake she’s baking is deflated by a sudden doorbell, consternation filling her due to this being the 20th man trying to come to her door today selling something. She soon finds it’s raining on her laundry and decides to get a job because housework generally sucks. She soon meets with the City Editor of the Daily Clarion who decides to send her on a wild goose chase covering a crackpot, Professor Letter, who thinks he can travel to the Moon. Princess Taia soon heads out to see him and Prof. Letter reveals that another race of being once lived on the Moon, surmising that they were exiled from the Earth itself somehow and he wants to learn about this race of Moon Men and a giant green spaceship to go look into things with them. Meanwhile, Prince Ibis finds Princess Taia isn’t at home and finds she’s leaving escape velocity when he wishes on the Ibistick to find out where she is displayed on TV and then wishes himself instantaneously at the rocket’s side while able to survive in the cold vacuum of space. Arriving, he quickly has to wish a meteor split in half before it strikes Letter’s rocket and they soon land on the Moon and Taia emerges (wearing a translucent space-suit over her clothes.) Taia tries to say she won’t be frightened by the barren Moon, only to misjudge how much one can step on the Moon and ends up launching herself into a large open crater. Within the cavern at the bottom, they find a series of large white statuesque figures that Prof. Letter says are the last of the Moon Men. Ibis finds the Ibistick is vibrating, meaning that evil is near. Ibis warns Prof. Letter that something’s going on here, but he insists that he has to take the statues with him, since this is his life’s work. Taia back him up and states that they are likely petrified from millennia of stillness. Ibis insists that something evil must be up, since the Ibistick is never wrong. Taia starts taking interview facts down from Prof. Letter as they return to Earth, only for the Moon Men… to start moving in their storage, reawakened by the warmth of entering Earth’s atmosphere after having been frozen solid for eons on the Moon. They immediately storm the cockpit and smash Ibis in the arm when he tries to reach for the Ibistick and he soon finds they’re as hard as the stone they resemble. He is forced to stop fighting them to slow the ship before it can burn up on reentry. Crashing, Prof. Letter is tragically killed and Ibis and Taia only escape by finding the Ibistick and wishing a corridor free of the burning flames. Taia decides to write up the story anyways and later, tells Ibis that the Editor didn’t fire her, but said “anyone with an imagination like mine deserved a job on the newspaper!”

Appearing in Ibis the Invincible: "Ibis the Invincible Battles the Moon Menace"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • The Moon Men (Dies)

Other Characters:

  • City Editor of the Daily Clarion
  • A Fuller Brush Salesman

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

  • Prof. Letter's Spaceship (Destroyed)

Notes

  • Despite the cover, Captain Marvel never destroys the United Criminals' Jet Helicopter (which is also yellow.) Instead, he finds their artificial iceberg HQ and drags it to the appropriate authorities



See Also


Links and References