"Captain Marvel Battles the Plot Against the Universe," from Captain Marvel Adventures #100 (1949), is one of my all-time favorite comics stories. It is goofy, sublime fun of a very high order.
Dr. Sivana is "the world's maddest scientist," and "the greatest enemy of civilization ever known." He is a child-sized, perpetually grinning, bespectacled bald man in a lab coat who vows to wear the crown of "rightful ruler of the universe! " (He actually keeps the crown under a cobweb-festooned glass display, awaiting future use.)
His multifarious schemes for world domination are inevitably foiled by Captain Marvel (whom Sivana likes to call "The Big Red Cheese").
The story involves an attempt to retroactively prevent the origin of Captain Marvel, the kidnap of a talking tiger, a "spider gun" that shoots ropes of liquid plastic, a palace at the top of "The Rock of Eternity," and an army of Sivana clones, who are so obnoxious that the hero gleefully bludgeons and stomps one of them to bits.
This is one of the most pleasantly daft, fun comics I've ever read. It has the simplicity of a folk tale and the logic of a dream.
"Captain Marvel Battles the Plot Against the Universe" has been reprinted several times. I first read it in Shazam! *from the Forties to the Seventies collection that Crown published in 1977. I think it was also published in one of DC's 100 page giants in the mid-seventies, or maybe in one of their tabloid-sized books; I don't recall exactly which.
It's worth tracking down.
*"Shazam," for those not aquainted with Captain Marvel lore, is the secret word that newsboy Billy Batson would utter to change into Captain Marvel, "the World's Mightiest Mortal." The word is an angagram of the first letters of the names of six heroes of classical antiquity, each representing a specific virtue. They are: Solomon (wisdom), Hercules (strenght), Atlas (stamina), Zeus (power), Achilles (courage) and Mercury (speed).
Dr. Sivana is "the world's maddest scientist," and "the greatest enemy of civilization ever known." He is a child-sized, perpetually grinning, bespectacled bald man in a lab coat who vows to wear the crown of "rightful ruler of the universe! " (He actually keeps the crown under a cobweb-festooned glass display, awaiting future use.)
His multifarious schemes for world domination are inevitably foiled by Captain Marvel (whom Sivana likes to call "The Big Red Cheese").
The story involves an attempt to retroactively prevent the origin of Captain Marvel, the kidnap of a talking tiger, a "spider gun" that shoots ropes of liquid plastic, a palace at the top of "The Rock of Eternity," and an army of Sivana clones, who are so obnoxious that the hero gleefully bludgeons and stomps one of them to bits.
This is one of the most pleasantly daft, fun comics I've ever read. It has the simplicity of a folk tale and the logic of a dream.
"Captain Marvel Battles the Plot Against the Universe" has been reprinted several times. I first read it in Shazam! *from the Forties to the Seventies collection that Crown published in 1977. I think it was also published in one of DC's 100 page giants in the mid-seventies, or maybe in one of their tabloid-sized books; I don't recall exactly which.
It's worth tracking down.
*"Shazam," for those not aquainted with Captain Marvel lore, is the secret word that newsboy Billy Batson would utter to change into Captain Marvel, "the World's Mightiest Mortal." The word is an angagram of the first letters of the names of six heroes of classical antiquity, each representing a specific virtue. They are: Solomon (wisdom), Hercules (strenght), Atlas (stamina), Zeus (power), Achilles (courage) and Mercury (speed).
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