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"Captain Marvel Battles "the Legend Horror"": A sinister mystery hangs over the city as night after night a mounting toll of screaming victims are carried away by some unknown midnight marauder. Late one night as Billy Batson wanders the dark streets, he is attacked by a gigantic bat, with a st

Quote1 And that writes FINIS to the Kraken legend, folks! Not to mention the vampire bats and the horrible human deep-freeze! Quote2
Billy Batson, his final Whiz Comics news report.

Whiz Comics #155 is an issue of the series Whiz Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of June, 1953.

Synopsis for Captain Marvel Battles "the Legend Horror"

A sinister mystery hangs over the city as night after night a mounting toll of screaming victims are carried away by some unknown midnight marauder. Late one night as Billy Batson wanders the dark streets, he is attacked by a gigantic bat, with a stinger in its tail. The bat breaks its stinger on Captain Marvel, but a nearby civilian is stung by a similar bat, and paralyzed, and almost carried away, but Cap rescues him. Half a dozen more bats fly by, carrying paralyzed victims; Cap borrows a large fishing net, contains them, pulls out the humans, and then drags the bats below the ocean to drown. But no sooner does he leave the spot than the bats are rescued by some gigantic tentacles, and set free to raid the city again.

The next night Billy deliberately lets himself get stung and captured, and is carried to a cave at the seacoast. Inside are a large number of paralyzed people lying on slabs of ice. An enormous tentacle grabs Billy and waves him around; he gets his first look at The Kraken, a colossal octopus, who gloats and exposits that it plans to devour all of the people there, after the bats have drunk their blood. Eventually the bat-stinger poison wears off and Billy SHAZAMs himself into Captain Marvel, stabs one bat with an icicle, then finds a seam of coal and starts a really big fire, which many bats are blinded by, and fall into. The fire also melts the big icy slabs that had kept the other paralyzed people inert. The Kraken has fled, and is already elsewhere attacking a merchant ship, but Captain Marvel grabs the monster and carries it away to a hot, burning desert, where the horror meets its hideous end.

Appearing in Captain Marvel Battles "the Legend Horror"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

Locations:


Synopsis for Doctor Death: "The Hero's Spirit"

An elderly Spanish-American War veteran gets murdered by a home-invading robber, and promises that his spirit will never rest until it avenges his murder. The killer returns the next evening to finish the theft, and finds only old medals and insignia in the tin box that supposedly held the old soldier's fortune. The police arrive and the punk flees, taking a shortcut thru the cemetery. A sword-wielding bronze war memorial statue topples, fatally impaling the robber with the sword.

Dr. Death appears, and breaks the Fourth Wall, to assure us that there never was any statue erected in that cemetery at all.

Appearing in Doctor Death: "The Hero's Spirit"

Narrator:

Antagonists:

  • Waldo

Other Characters:

  • Jaspar Beyay (Dies)
  • Mister Clayton

Locations:

  • Doxton, village

Synopsis for Lance O'Casey: "Undercover Warfare"

In a seaport in Southeast Asia, Lance O'Casey and Mike Bellew get outnumbered in a fistfight, with some sailors off the destroyer commanded by their old friend CDR Gates, and get thrashed. Lance and Mike have been accused of smuggling tin and rubber from Malaya to the Reds in China. The shipmates are given some medical aid by a businessman named Ghast, who believes the accusation, and recruits them to move some goods to North Korea. They accept.

It's a scam. Aboard the Starfish, Lance and Mike meet up with Commander Gates, and spill Ghast's plan: a convoy is assembling the following morning, loading up at Ghast's warehouse, then sailing for Korea that night. They expect that Gates will now ring in the local authorities and bust Ghast, but Gates reveals the C.I.A.'s plan, which is that the convoy, including O'Casey's Starfish, should sail unmolested to North Korea, in order to discover the Enemy's secret supply depot. That meeting breaks up, but a Ghast henchman has spied on it, and now scurries back to tell his boss about it. Ghast plans out a trap.

The next morning, during the load-out at Ghast's warehouse, a crated time bomb is loaded aboard the Starfish. Lance and Mike notice it and right away figure out what it is and why it's there. Estimating that the bomb is set for some time when the convoy is well out to sea, they leave it alone for the time being. Ghast holds one last meeting with his ship captains, and that night they set sail. Shortly before it blows up, O'Casey and Bellew toss the bomb overboard, and it detonates in the water. The smugglers now believe them to be dead, but if they follow the convoy too closely, or are still following it the next morning, they'll be spotted. Not to worry, Lance has brought along a long-range, silencer-equipped sniper rifle, with a night-spotting scope. With this, he punctures some oil drums on the deck of one of the smuggling ships, which for the rest of that night leaves an oil trail behind itself.

The next morning, the Starfish follows the oil slick which follows the supply convoy, to Hungtu Island, off the coast of Korea. They go ashore and take a spotting position on a ridge, from which they radio in a detailed report, and remain on the scene to provide fire-control reports, as a U.S.Naval Task Group arrives to raid the supply port. While that goes on, Ghast's crew has spotted the spotters, and they attack with rifles, but Lance and Mike take them all out, including Ghast, with their bare fists. Soon all the prisoners are aboard CDR Gates' destroyer, and the Enemy depot has been blown up very completely. Gates wants to recommend the shipmates for Navy Cross awards, but in O'Casey's opinion that will need to wait, lest it ruin their cover for future Central Intelligence operations.

Appearing in Lance O'Casey: "Undercover Warfare"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Mike Bellew (Final appearance)
  • Commander Gates (Final appearance)
    • his crewmen

Antagonists:

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • O'Casey's "Starfish", 2-masted sloop
  • CDR Gates' US destroyer
  • assorted freight smuggling ships
  • squadron of US destroyers

Synopsis for Ibis the Invincible: "The Guardians of the Tomb"

Somewhere in Egypt, with pick-axes, archaeologists Arthur Randall and John Combs chop their way through an ancient wall and into a burial chamber. After 3000 years, the burial place of the cruel tyrant and master of black magic, Pharoah En-Tep, is found! Near the king's ornate sarcophagus are two large urns, painted with figures of spear-wielding guards, containing the unmummified bones of four long-dead sentries.

Over the next few months, all of this is packed out, shipped 5000 miles, and finally is set up in an American museum, and Ibis and Taia have been invited there to authenticate the discovery. [Ibis himself was buried 4000 years ago, so En-Tep's reign took place long after Ibis's death. Ibis's authoritative knowledge comes from studying and magic.] In a nearby storage room, Combs screams, and is soon found dead, with two live men running away from his body; the men have ancient attire and hairstyles. Ibis the Invincible foils their escape with some conjured spears; but these are trained fighters, and they get away after nearly killing Ibis with a knife. One of the two large urns is found broken, and the Ibistick is warning that the other contains an evil spirit.

Ibis and Taia return to their home and fruitlessly consult ancient records, then Ibis summons the ghost of Pharoah En-Tep from the land of the dead. En-Tep is well pleased to learn that his ancient command is still obeyed by the bones of the dead! This remark tips off Ibis that the other urn is still dangerous, and he magics himself back to the museum, where a dense black mist is now pouring out of the urn in question. Two of the awful "Guardians of the Tomb" burst out of the vase, shattering it, and attack Arthur Randall, just as Ibis and Taia arrive. The mummy and sarcophagus of En-Tep are dissolved in flames by the Ibistick's power, which causes the attacking guardians to collapse in a heap of moldering bones.

Appearing in Ibis the Invincible: "The Guardians of the Tomb"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Pharaoh En-Tep (As a spirit)

Other Characters:

  • Arthur Randall
  • John Combs

Locations:

Items:

Synopsis for "Sacrifice Play"

A U.S. infantry unit in Korea is pinned down by a well-hidden artillery piece. Two volunteers go to scout out its location, one sacrifices his own life to ensure that the other gets into position. The surviving volunteer lights off a flare, guiding U.N. air support to the site of the big gun.

Appearing in "Sacrifice Play"

Characters:

  • Captain
  • Beamus
  • Jowett
  • Private Downes (Dies)
  • Sgt. Parker

Antagonists:

Locations:

Notes

  • This series was published by Fawcett Publications. All characters and likeness(es) thereof associated with the Captain Marvel family of titles became the legal property of National Periodical Publications (DC Comics) in 1991.
  • This was the final issue of Whiz Comics.
  • The Doctor Death appearing in this issue is the host/narrator for two short stand-alone horror stories, appearing in Whiz Comics #154 and this issue. Unlike later horror book hosts, this guy maintains a somber demeanor and makes no puns.
  • To date, Lance O'Casey has only made one appearance in a DC comic, in The Power of Shazam! #34.
  • Also appearing in this issue of Whiz Comics was:
    • Doc Sorebones" (top halves of the "Wilbur the Waiter" pages)
    • Wicky and O'Shawnessy: "Dogs and Frogs" (text story) by Walter Farmer
    • Wilbur the Waiter (bottom halves of the "Doc Sorebones" pages)



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