It's pitiful! Men, women and children forced to trudge on, starving and miserable! But all this stuff about a curse and genie... Rubbish! They must be suffering from an illusion! I'm going to help them settle down! Follow me folks! I'll lead you to the nearest town and see that you settle down in comfort and safety!
Whiz Comics #147 is an issue of the series Whiz Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of July, 1952.
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and The Curse of the Nomads!"
Billy Batson is interviewing a Park Ranger on fire watch for Station WHIZ when a fire suddenly begins on a nearby hill. He calls the fire crew while Billy calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel. The World’s Mightiest Mortal soon finds a camp of Roma people in the heart of the blaze and tears up some trees to stop the fire from spreading and dumps them in a nearby lake, then goes to help work with the Roma. Their leader says they are moving on anyways and that they “caused” the fire. Captain Marvel becomes worried about how litigious this may become, but the man makes it clearer: due to a witch’s curse of his band, if they stay anywhere for more than a few hours at a time, disasters will plague whatever place they camp at. For centuries, they’ve been harassed by the Witch who released an Evil Genie from his bottle and the Genie caused the fire he saw before to drive them away. Captain Marvel decides they’re deluded and that Genies aren’t real, but instead leads them to a nearby town and makes arrangement for them to just let them live at Town Hall until they build some houses for them to live in. The Roma Leader tells Captain Marvel that the Genie will just attack them anyways and he will believe soon enough. That night, Captain Marvel does a light patrol of the ara and finds a giant hurricane wind and thunder appera from a giant Evil Genie. However, Captain Marvel finds that Genies are made of smoke and subtle fire and have no physical being to be harmed with. The Genie gloats that only the one who released him can seal him back in the bottle. Captain Marvel picks up a discarded bottle and pushes it against the Genie’s shoe and finds he cannot merely shove the Genie into it.
Soon enough, he finds the Roma have left town and spends the rest of the night assembling them their own town to live in and then flies off, ignoring the Roma Leader saying the town will just get destroyed by the Genie. The Genie soon starts a deadly mudslide, but Captain Marvel blocks it up with an instant stone dyke that blocks it out. The Genie summons vicious eagles to attack people, but Captain Marvel flies around them so swiftly that they’re each knocked for a loop and cannot fly straight. The Genie finally tries to crush the new town with a giant solid ball of ice, but Captain Marvel punches it into pieces easily. He quickly calls SHAZAM to return Billy, who makes faces and taunts the Genie, then legs it past a tree that the Genie knocks over. To escape it, he dives into a strangely circular cave that is just barely his size, but the Genie follows by turning into smoke. Once inside, Billy calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel, who reveals that this is no cave… but a giant bottle that he created overnight and hid in the hills for this exact scheme! The Genie demands to be freed, but Captain Marvel dumps him into the ocean to remain there forever. Days later, the Roma have decided to stop wandering because Captain Marvel built them a home, which they named Marvelville. Billy signs off interviewing the Roma Leader, who is now the Mayor of Marvelville.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel and The Curse of the Nomads!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- A Band of Roma
Antagonists:
- An Evil Genie
- Eagles
Other Characters:
- A Park Ranger
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City
- Station WHIZ (Mentioned only)
- Marvelville
- New York City
Items:
- A Giant Bottle
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Golden Arrow: "Buffalo Stampede"
Chief Tall Oak of the Mowani Tribe finds that he can't keep paying gold to shifty men Fry and Wagner and will have to sell the valley to them unless they can successfully hunt a herd of buffalo in nearby Mescla Range. Golden Arrow figures out they're responsible due to their specific wheel wagon tracks, but the outlaws turn on him with guns and stake him and Chief Tall Oak in a field to stampede buffalo over them. Golden Arrow manages to free himself and fires arrows in a V shape to divert the buffalo from trampling them, then defeats the two outlaws in a quick fistfight and arrests them.
Appearing in Golden Arrow: "Buffalo Stampede"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Chief Tall Oak of the Mowani Tribe
Antagonists:
- Fry
- Wagner
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- American Old West
- Mowani Native Village
- Mescla Range
- American Old West
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Lance O'Casey: "Troubled Waters!" or "Watery Grave!"
Lance and Mike escape a dangerous and strange whirlpool and land at nearby Whitehaven to find that the whirlpool and accompanying deadly gasses are being released from nearby Rock Craven Island. They head there and fake wrecking their boat so they can get sucked in and crash on Rock Craven Island, finding it's run by two scientists, Prof. Grabbe and Dr. Spink, who are using a large machine to filter gold out of the sea and don't want any competition and pull guns on them. The whirlpool is caused by their intake system and the poison gas is a by-product of their machinery. The scientists order them to another part of the cave where they push a windlass that powers the station via a "giant lightning rod" to charge it. When Lance and Mike fight back suddenly, the cables loop around the wrong way and suddenly destroy the entire machine when it overloads and the scientists laugh in madness. Days later, Lance and Mike are thanked by local seamen who say that the scientists were arrested. Lance says that conquering evil and peace reigning is its own reward.
Appearing in Lance O'Casey: "Troubled Waters!" or "Watery Grave!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Prof. Grabbe
- Dr. Spink
Other Characters:
- Seaman Tom
Locations:
- Earth-S
- Whitehaven
- Rock Craven Island
- Whitehaven
Items:
- Grabbe's Gold-Filtering Machine (Destroyed)
Vehicles:
- The Starfish
Synopsis for Ibis the Invincible: "Ibis the Invincible on the Isle of Forbidden Fruit!"
Prince Ibis, Princess Taia and their good friend Lord Marnley are out boating on the Caribbean where they spot a new and mysterious little island. They head to shore with Lord Marnley sending his 1st Mate, Hawkins, to collect fruit there, but Ibis is unnerved to find the Ibistick is vibrating, meaning danger and evil are close at hand. 1st Mate Hawkins tries some of the fruit, but a mysterious voice says that this is the Forbidden Fruit, then demands that Hawkins bring Lord Marnley’s family jewels to the island or he will die. Hawkins is disturbed and orders his men back to the boat with the fruits. Ibis finds that the fruit is a source of evil and wishes on the Ibistick that no one be able to reach them, making the baskets all run off into the ocean. That night, Prince Ibis and Princess Taia stay over at Lord Marnley’s Mansion and hear motion in his study. Since Lord Marnley has already gone to bed, they investigate who it is and find what seems to be a burglar, but when the lights come on, they find it’s 1st Mate Hawkins, though he’s now rapidly aging from eating the cursed fruit and is now almost 40 years older. Desperate, he decided he’d try to steal the Marnley Jewels to undo the curse, but even then he found he didn’t have the guts to rob his friend. Taia confirms the safe wasn’t opened and Ibis points out they’ve definitely heard of stranger things happening before. To investigate further, Ibis wishes the rug they’re on to be a Flying Carpet that takes them back to the island.
On the island, an Evil Sorcerer watches out for Ibis by spyglass and figures that he can use someone else to help him defeat Ibis. Hawkins collapses from weakness and Ibis has Taia stay with him while he treks ahead, but soon hears her scream and finds that the Evil Sorcerer has poisoned her by forcing her to eat one of the Forbidden Fruits. However, she has eaten more than Hawkins did and so she is dying faster. The Sorcerer demands to have the Ibistick and that he never return to the island, which Ibis accepts. Foolishly though, the Sorcerer tries to wish for Ibis to age 1,000 years himself, not knowing that the Ibistick cannot harm the True Owner of the Ibistick and promptly turns into bones that turns into dust. Prince Ibis picks up the Ibistick and finds the whole island was created by the Sorcerer and has disappeared now that he’s dead, flying back on their Flying Carpet.
Appearing in Ibis the Invincible: "Ibis the Invincible on the Isle of Forbidden Fruit!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Princess Taia
- 1st Mate Hawkins
Antagonists:
- An Unnamed Evil Sorcerer (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Lord Marnley
Locations:
- Earth-S
- The Isle of Forbidden Fruit (Destroyed)
- Lord Marnley's Mansion
Items:
- Ibistick
- The Forbidden Fruit (Destroyed)
- Baskets (Destroyed)
- The Marnley Jewels (Mentioned only)
Vehicles:
- Lord Marnley's Ship
- A Flying Carpet
Trivia
- Despite the cover, this issue has nothing to do with Captain Marvel assisting or preventing children from starting their own space program, instead he helps Roma people cursed by the wrath of an Evil Genie.
- Mescla is remarkably close to "Mezcla" the Spanish word for "Mixed"
See Also