Whiz Comics #148 is an issue of the series Whiz Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1952.
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Fights the Strange Copper Catastrophe!"
A spaceship is coming to Earth and Billy Batson is there to report on it! Billy watches from his binoculars and calls SHAZAM as he finds the incoming ship is about to annihilate a nearby passenger plane trying to get a better look at it. Captain Marvel quickly flies over and spins the propeller extra fast to speed them out of the way. Captain Marvel decides to oversee this alien landing and finds there are not many of these tall, wide people with four arms each, dressed with hoplite helmets and frock jackets. They announce that they are trying to buy rare copper and willing to pay gold for it, paying up to a big handful of gold coins in exchange for pennies. Things soon devolve into a Modern Gold Rush as people try to scrape up as much offhand or scrap copper. Captain Marvel finds that people are carrying double armfuls of copper appliances and a junkman nearly topples his cart trying to turn in all the junk copper he has. He returns Billy to report about the copper catastrophe, but finds that Studio WHIZ is down and phone lines are down too! He figures out quickly what has happened and calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel again. He soon finds that presumably unscrupulous linemen have been just cutting down copper wires, but what’s worse, the electric company has ordered them to do so so they can line their pockets. They point out this isn’t illegal either, but Captain Marvel starts to worry that, without copper, electricity can’t be easily conducted, since copper is used in basically every kind of cord or wire that channels electricity to anything you own and, without copper, civilization would collapse.
Captain Marvel punches the aliens in the face, but they point out they didn’t do anything wrong and Captain Marvel leaves, apologetic and ashamed and finds that the UN is also treating this as a business matter. However, come nightfall, they find that there aren’t any electric lights, leading to a rash of muggings in the darkness. To solve this issue, Captain Marvel flies off into space. A burglar robbing a jewelry store gets away from the cops, only to get punched into the wall by Captain Marvel. He offers the aliens a huge hunk of copper and promises to lead them to a large deposit of it if they leave Earth, so they do. Later, Billy signs off saying that a copper penny is worth more to society than all the gold in the world.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Fights the Strange Copper Catastrophe!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- The Copper Aliens
Antagonists:
- An Opportunistic Electric Company Board
- Muggers
- A Jewelry Store Robber
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
- Copper Wire
- Huge Bags of Gold
Vehicles:
- The Aliens' Spaceship
- A Passenger Airplane
Synopsis for Golden Arrow: "Map of Treachery!"
A man, Frank Benton, waits in the hills outside Dry Gulch with a bandana, trying to hold up a stagecoach, but Golden Arrow, riding with it, shoots it out of his hand. The man explains that on that stagecoach is a half of a map to his father's hidden gold mine, half of which should belong to him, but has been stolen by his father's lawyer, Jeb Dailey. Benton explains that when he was young, Black Falcon of the Arporkee Tribe struck gold, but being unable to mine it himself with his father due to tiredness and instead gave half the map to him and tattooed the other half of the map on the back of his son, Gray Falcon. Now, Jeb has stolen the map and is going to find the other half to steal his fortune from him. Golden Arrow takes him in to wait in jail, but promises to look into this, finding out at the Stage Depot that Jeb was on that coach and ran off towards the Arporkee Village. Arriving there, Golden Arrow spots and calls out Jeb, who offers to "show him" the evidence that he is the rightful owner of the map... only to pistol-whip Golden Arrow when his back is turned. Leaving him bound and gagged in a nearby tipi, and rides off with Gray Falcon, who just wants to find his own late father's treasure. Golden Arrow manages to roll out into a more public area and is untied, then rides off to find that Jeb has decided to shoot Gray Falcon now that he's outlived his usefulness. Golden Arrow tries to get the drop on him, but Jeb manages to shoot his bow, cracking it. He orders the two into a shaft they can't climb out of, until Golden Arrow gets the idea to use arrows to do it. He soon tackles Jeb from behind and defeats him in a quick fistfight. After, Golden Arrow takes Gray Falcon to town to get his arm fixed and Frank Benton and him reunite, having been close friends as children.
Appearing in Golden Arrow: "Map of Treachery!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Frank Benton
- Gray Falcon
Antagonists:
- Jeb Daily, Esq.
Other Characters:
- Black Falcon (Flashback only)
- Mr. Benton (Flashback only)
Locations:
- Earth-S
- American Old West
- Dry Gulch
- Dry Gulch Stage Depot
- Dry Gulch Sheriff's Office
- Arporkee Village
- Dry Gulch
- American Old West
Items:
- Half of a Map
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Lance O'Casey: "Lance O'Casey and the Pearls of Blood"
Lance and Mike spot a man falling off a bridge and pull him on to the Starfish, finding this is "Cap" Fellowes when he awakens in the hospital. He shows a blood-red pearl, far rarer than even Tahitian Black Pearls, saying he's discovered a bay off the Asian coast that has tons of them! Lance and Mike decide to help him find his fortune, not realizing that infamous waterfront criminal "Ace" Harpe is listening from an adjacent hospital bed. Ace and his goons try to strong-arm Cap into a car, but Lance and Mike dive in and defeat them in a quick fistfight. Lance explains that Ace, captain of the Sea Serpent, is likely a pirate and a known racketeer. Entering the Bay of Pearls, Lance is able to find a blood red pearl, confirming their find, but when he gets back aboard, he finds that Ace is already after him. Ace and his goon Blackie plan to hide out behind the rocks and ambush them with spear-guns from below. Finding Lance and Mike harvesting pearls, they fire at them, but Lance shoves Mike out of the way and then uses the spent spears to fight them off when they approach with diving knives. However, since they have fins, they swim faster and manage to get away to a nearby shore. Ace decides to wait until after they harvest all the pearls instead.
A week later, the pearl harvest is complete and Mike notes they haven't seen Ace in days, though Lance is naturally still suspicious. When they exit the Bay of Pearls, Ace dumps oil into the water and threatens to torch their ship unless they give him all the pearls, but Lance manages to get to the shore before they light the oil aflame. Ace, furious, tries to go after him, but drives into the burning oil patch himself. Lance and Mike try to swim out to help them, but their boilers go up, killing them all. Later, Mike notices the similarity between the red pearls and the setting sun on the water, though Lance says they both look like blood...
Appearing in Lance O'Casey: "Lance O'Casey and the Pearls of Blood"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- 1st Mate Mike Bellew
- "Cap" Fellowes
Antagonists:
- "Ace" Harpe (Dies)
- Blackie (Dies)
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-S
- A Seaman's Hospital
- An Asian Coast
- The Bay of Pearls
Items:
- Blood-Red Pearls
Vehicles:
- The Starfish
- The Sea Serpent
Synopsis for Ibis the Invincible: "Ibis the Invincible and the Swarm of Horrors!"
In the fertile European land of Lucania, farmland is being devastated by a swarm of locusts eating their crops! The Minister of the country, Hafrid, seeks assistance from Prince Ibis to look into this with their premier scientist, Dr. Zeiss, who manufactures pesticides. Ibis wishes them to the Locust Idol, a giant locust that controls all insects and wishes for it to speak to him. The Locust Idol soon reveals that it’s literally just a statue, meaning this isn’t a magical problem. Thus, he just wishes for him and Princess Taia to have wings so they can fly over the locust cloud and then wish a crop-dusting of poison on to them. However, these beasts are resistant to poison and he instead wishes for a magic net to hatch some and investigate them. Dr. Zeiss reveals that these are robot locusts and that they’re controlled by radio. They’re further shocked to find a swarm of the robot locusts coming at them and the Ibistick suddenly missing! They head down from the top floor to find it collapsing above them and they start to tunnel their way out. Ibis finds Dr. Zeiss has told Minister Hafrid that he was killed in the blast and Ibis says that Dr. Zeiss was the one who was spreading rumors of the Locust Idol and was aiming to be Minister of Lucania. Further, they found his radio controls for the locusts in his apartment. Dr. Zeiss reveals he stole the Ibistick, but Ibis cold-cocks him and takes it back, even telling him that the Ibistick cannot harm the True Owner of the Ibistick. Later, Dr. Zeiss is arrested and Minister Hafrid shakes hands with Ibis for showing that you don’t always need magic to stop evil!
Appearing in Ibis the Invincible: "Ibis the Invincible and the Swarm of Horrors!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Dr. Zeiss
- Robot Locusts
Other Characters:
- Minister Hafrid of Lucania
Locations:
- Earth-S
- Lucania
Items:
Vehicles:
Trivia
- Despite the cover, Captain Marvel doesn't lift the Earth in any way, instead finding copper to stop a Modern Gold Rush. It does look almost exactly like a statue made for him by aliens at the Orella World's Fair from Whiz Comics# 146, depicting him doing the same thing, though it's in stone, while here it's in color.
See Also