Whiz Comics #35 is an issue of the series Whiz Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1942.
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "The Stitch in Time"
The Three Fates once existed, and might still exist, and they control the destinies of men. The youngest of the Three is somewhat unpredictable. One day in 1492, she dropped a stitch, causing an English ship, attempting to retrace Columbus's route, to shift from 1492 to 1942. The ship's crew did find their way west to the New World, and made landfall at New York City.
Mooring their ship to an empty pier, the Captain (Francis Terwiddle Popdyke) leads his men in exploring the incredible city. They're wearing helmets and breastplates, and shouldering big halberds. Their "exploration" of a midtown bank branch attracts police attention, which in turn attracts Billy Batson. Captain Marvel charges into the bank and disrupts the crew's looting, very quickly subduing all of them, and soon they leave in a paddy wagon. In jail they are introduced to cigarettes, and through a complicated misunderstanding, Captain Popdyke becomes convinced that Hedy Lamarr is a Spanish lady who is somewhere held captive by the savage denizens of this weird country in which they find themselves. He resolves to find and rescue her.
Broadcaster Billy Batson arrives at the jail to interview the strange and newsworthy prisoners. They grab, gag, and abduct Billy, and escape from the jail. But Billy gets loose from them as the cops close in, and they have to leave him behind as they run away. Captain Marvel soon pursues them, first to the Waterfront and then out to sea. Out on the Atlantic, a German submarine attacks the English galleon. Captain Marvel intercepts a torpedo, turns it about, and destroys the U-boat. An American destroyer arrives on the scene and orders the galleon to heave to and stand by for boarding. A very uneven gunnery duel ensues, but is mercifully brief,.as Captain Marvel propels the smaller craft out of harm's way. But even as he does so, somewhere else in the Universe, the Three Sister Fates are discovering and correcting the error of the dropped stitch.
The rickety little ship, and the superhero propelling it, are both shifted back to 1492, and from the open sea to an inland river. Captain Marvel admonishes the Captain and crew to stay put, then flies off to scout around. Unfortunately this river is the Niagara River, and the ship is upstream from Niagara Falls. The current soon pulls the ship toward the precipice. Over they go. Fortunately Captain Marvel returns in the nick of time and catches the falling ship. But no sooner does he do so than it vanishes. The eldest of the Three Sisters has finally found and corrected the error in time, returning both captains to their own eras.
In 1492, on the open Atlantic, Captain Popdyke rediscovers his photo card of Hedy Lamarr, but no longer can even remember where he got the card. He drops it over the side and sails on.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "The Stitch in Time"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Chief Brannigan
Antagonists:
- Captain Francis Terwiddle Popdyke, from 1492
- his crew, from 1492
Other Characters:
- the Three Fates
- oldest
- middle
- Elvirey
- Hedy Lamarr (on a collectible cigarette card)
Locations:
- Earth-S
- New York City, 1942
- England, 1492
Items:
- 1942 movie star card
Vehicles:
- 15th-century English Galleon
- 20th-century German U-boat (Destroyed)
- 20th-century American Destroyer
Synopsis for Golden Arrow: "A School of Justice"
Appearing in Golden Arrow: "A School of Justice"
Featured Characters
Supporting Characters:
- White Wind, his stallion
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Spy Smasher: "The Eight Nazi Saboteurs"
Appearing in Spy Smasher: "The Eight Nazi Saboteurs"
Featured Characters
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Herr Von Gern, Sabotage School Commandant
- Eight Nazi Saboteurs:
- Ernst Krause
- Johann Schmidt
- Heine Henkel
- Fritz Joseph Egger
- Herman
- Kronk
- Kersch
- Neumann
- Eight Nazi Saboteurs:
Other Characters:
- Coast Guard Patrolman
- J. Edgar Hoover
- FBI Agent Lorgan
Locations:
- Berlin
- Long Island Beach
- Florida Beach
Items:
- explosive fake coal
- booby-trapped pencils
Vehicles:
- German Submarine
- Armstrong's Gyrosub
Synopsis for "Lance O'Casey Meets the Amazons"
At an uncharted island, a distress smoke-signal draws Lance O'Casey and Mike Bellew inland, where they encounter a warlike tribe of man-hating Amazons, and are captured by them. The Amazons have sharp spears and metal helmets, and all are young and beautiful except their ugly old queen, who orders Lance and Mike to be put to death. The girls attempt to execute the pair with thrown spears, but the sailors escape. Rather than pursue them, the Queen dispatches three spear-wielding male slave guards after them. Lance and Mike bare-handedly duke it out with them, and win. But it's clear they won't do so well against the squad of Amazon archers that arrives next, and they are recaptured.
The Queen proposes a series of athletic tests, which if Lance prevails, he and Mike get to live. There's an archery contest; Lance wins. There's a foot-race; Lance wins. There's a coconut-throwing contest; Lance wins. So he and Mike get to be slaves, and the Queen declares that Lance will be her "favorite slave". Lance awkwardly plays along. Later, while Lance is cooking everybody's dinner, he gets jumped by Ashto, of the Slave Guard, newly curb-kicked former favorite slave of the Queen. Instead of thrashing Ashto, Lance teams up with him. Ashto leads Lance to the mines, where Mike has been put to work, and there they meet Van Dyke, who sent that smoke signal in the first place. He had been shipwrecked on this island years earlier.
Their escape is blocked by the Queen and three or more spear girls, and she intends to tear O'Casey to pieces herself. She's built like a pro wrestler and might actually be a serious threat, but Lance reluctantly sets aside his habitual gallantry, steps in, and pops her on the chin for a one-punch knock-out. The demoralized spearwomen scatter, and Lance crowns Ashto with the Queen's own headpiece, telling him that he's now the king. Van Dyke joins the crew of the Starfish, and the three of them sail away.
Appearing in "Lance O'Casey Meets the Amazons"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Mike Bellew
- Van Dyke (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Amazon Queen
- Amazons
- Slave Guards
- Amazons
Other Characters:
- Ashto
Locations:
Vehicles:
- O'Casey's "Starfish", a two-masted sloop
Synopsis for Colonel Porterhouse: "The Port of Missing Men"
Brother and Sis are enthusiastically reading the previous story, in Whiz Comics, prompting Colonel Porterhouse to regale them with the story of his own adventure at the Land of the Amazons.
- Despite the misgivings of his aide-de-camp Chadwick, Colonel Porterhouse leads a landing party ashore at an ominous-looking island, with a mound of skulls on the beach and a big "KEEP OUT" sign. The two of them encounter some Norse-looking Amazons, and Porterhouse rashly rescues one of them from a pouncing tiger, using only a stout cudgel. This results in Chadwick and Porterhouse getting captured by the Amazons, and brought before their Queen. She's a man-hating old battle-axe and built like a linebacker, and she orders them both put to death. This dismays the young Amazons who are quite charmed with young Porterhouse, and Porterhouse pours on the charm, pitches woo, dissembles, and otherwise talks his way out of this tight spot. The Queen postpones the execution until the morrow, binding the boys hand and foot then tossing them into an ill-guarded hut.
- That night the young Amazon whom Porterhouse had rescued from the tiger sneaks into the hut and sets both men free. She's smitten with Porterhouse, and wants to run away with him. But it is not meant to be, and Porterhouse and Chadwick run to the beach, swim thru the surf, and escape aboard the Black Castle.
Mrs. Porterhouse shows up right after the end of the story and nags him into doing a chore that he was supposed to do much earlier.
Appearing in Colonel Porterhouse: "The Port of Missing Men"
Featured Characters:
- Colonel Porterhouse (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Sis
- Brother
- Mrs. Porterhouse
- Chadwick (Flashback only)
- crew of the Black Castle (Flashback only)
Antagonists:
- Amazon Queen (Flashback only)
Other Characters:
- Young Amazons (Flashback only)
Locations:
- Land of the Amazons (Flashback only)
Items:
- Amazon poison-tipped arrows and spears (Flashback only)
Vehicles:
- The "Black Castle", Porterhouse's brigantine (Flashback only)
Synopsis for Ibis the Invincible: "A Dead Man's Curse"
Prince Ibis and Taia have lunch with their old friend, explorer Derek Mace, who tells them a wild tale. At midnight, in Loanda, Africa, he had spied on a forbidden ceremony of the Leopard Cult, been caught, and gunned down the Witch Doctor, who then laid a curse on him, and died. The curse was that Njego, the Leopard Spirit, would make himself manifest, on the next night of the full moon, which it just so happens was that very night. Sir Derek laughs off the whole "curse" business, but Ibis takes it seriously.
That night at his home, Sir Derek is transformed into a hideous and dangerous were-leopard. He leaps out a window and hunts, invading a female neighbor's apartment and slaughtering her. The next morning he awakens, believing it all to be a dream. Except the police are at the door, and with them is his old friend Ibis, investigating a murder right here in the neighborhood. From their remarks, Mace quickly but quietly figures out what his real situation is.
That next night, fearing to fall asleep, Derek goes club-hopping. But the curse strikes again, and another young woman is killed. The next morning, Mace is half crazy with dread and self-loathing; he very belatedly telephones Ibis for help! Ibis diagnoses the problem as lycanthropy and gets to work on it, but this will take many hours.
The third night, Mace is again transformed, and in his leopard form he knows that Ibis is a threat to him. He sets out to hunt the Master of White Magic. He climbs and leaps across enough rooftops to reach Ibis's penthouse, leaps inside, menaces Taia, and is confronted by Ibis, with the Ibistick in hand. After a brief telepathic exchange, Ibis opens a gap in this high part of his building's wall, and the leopard leaps thru it, plunging to its death. But on the sidewalk outside, Ibis and Taia find the dead body of a man; the dead man's curse was broken by death!
Appearing in Ibis the Invincible: "A Dead Man's Curse"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Leopard Cult Witch Doctor (Dies)
- Sir Derek Mace, the Human Leopard (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Derek's neighbor (Dies)
- Captain Pierce, City Police
- Derek's date, Julia (Dies)
Spirits:
- Njego, Leopard Spirit
Locations:
- Africa
- Loanda (Flashback only)
- New York City
- Ibis's penthouse
- Mace's apartment
- Club 66
Items:
Notes
- As in most Captain Marvel stories, Billy Batson breaks the Fourth Wall introducing this issue's story, in his guise as a radio announcer.
- Captain Marvel destroys a submarine with a torpedo, definitely killing the crew.
- The Three Fates evidently control the destiny of Captain Marvel along with everybody else.
- The Colonel Porterhouse story in this issue is only partly "in universe". It consists of a framing story (set outside the Fourth Wall), and Porterhouse's own narrative (set within it).
- In the final panel of his story, Ibis The Invincible breaks the Fourth Wall, and admonishes the reader with the advice quoted above.
- Lance O'Casey:
- The Colonel Porterhouse story in this issue is a parody of the Lance O'Casey story in this issue.
- Mike Bellew is from Brooklyn.
- Spy Smasher villain Herr Von Gern wears a monocle.
- Also featured in this issue of Whiz Comics was:
- "Too Many Spies" (text story) by Joseph J. Mallard
See Also