BC: SHAZAM #24

I continued to read through the stack of the complete run of SHAZAM that my grade school buddy Donald Sims had lent to me–it took a lot less time than these assorted issue reviews have been taking. The next issue was the final reprint issue in the run. As you’ll recall, with its sales flagging but with the SHAZAM television program proving popular on Saturday mornings, DC kept SHAZAM alive by reducing its frequency to a quarterly and filling the book entirely with vintage reprints. This kept the character visible on the stands (and the reprints were better than most of the new stories that had been produced anyway.) But a new factor would change all of that. This was newly-arriving DC publisher Jenette Kahn. Kahn both didn’t like reprint titles and also saw the potential for expanding the readership by capturing the audience who was watching the television show. Accordingly, she started the short-lived DC-TV line of books, handing control of SHAZAM over to editor Joe Orlando with the following issue–a book that I covered long ago, here:

BHOC: SHAZAM #25

But that was all still to come. In the here-and-now, I was facing the final reprint issue of the series, #24. As in current times, this one contained a pair of vintage stories: a Captain Marvel lead-off adventure and then a back-up starring Captain Marvel Jr. The opening story was a pretty good one, produced by the always-reliable pairing of writer Otto Binder and artist C. C. Beck. it contrives to give the Big Red Cheese’s oldest enemy Doctor Sivana the victory over his nemesis that he’s always dreamed of having, before snatching that victory right out of his hands, causing him to have to throw in his lot with Captain Marvel.

The story opens with the Earth being plagued by a mysterious ray from space that disintegrates anyone it touches, turning them to dust. Billy Batson summons Captain Marvel to seek out Sivana, whom he imagines must be responsible for this disintegration ray. The World’s Mightiest Mortal finds the evil scientist in the sky above Greenville, using a different ray to turn the inhabitants of the city below into insects. Cap bursts into Sivana’s ship and quickly overpowers his foe, but Sivana shoves a kazoo-like gizmo into Marvel’s mouth that makes him say his magic word, then clobbers Billy and seals the boy into a transparent suspended animation coffin, which he sets in a permanent orbit around the Earth. Now, the way is clear for Sivana to dominate the Earth as he’s always dreamed of doing, while Billy suffers endlessly, unable to speak or move but kept perpetually alive.

Unfortunately for Sivana, it turns out that he isn’t the one responsible for the disintegration ray that kicked off this adventure. Rather, this is the work of the Azpaks, a hidden civilization concealed in the Andes who have built up their scientific war machine with the intent of taking over the planet. And they do! One of their principle goals, though, is to eliminate anybody who might have the scientific knowledge to halt their advance–and Doctor Sivana qualifies. Sivana runs for his life, pursued by the Azpak war machine. It quickly becomes clear that if he doesn’t do something fast, Sivana’s going to be wiped out by the marauders. He realizes that he’s got no choice but to locate Billy Batson and restore Captain Marvel.

Sivana scours outer space, searching for Billy’s floating coffin, and upon locating it, he frees the kid, explaining to Captain Marvel just what is going on and comically playing up to Marvel like an old friend. The two enemies begin to work together to bring down the Azpaks, with Sivana locating key targets and the Captain wiping them out. Eventually, Marvel locates the Azpaks’s city, suspended in the Andes in a network of cables and he causes them to sue for peace. Meanwhile, Sivana has made his way to the U.N. with his insect ray, intent on taking over once the Azpaks are deposed. But Marvel beats him there, preventing any more people from becoming insects and smashing Sivana’s dreams of domination. To add insult to injury, Sivana is considered a hero in the eyes of the world for having saved Captain Marvel in the first place. The story is predictable once you’ve seen the splash page image, but it’s still a lot of fun.

The back-up tale was written by Bill Woolfolk and illustrated by Bud Thompson. it’s a riff on the legend of Robin Hood, a popular figure during the 1950s when this story was first crafted. In it, Freddy Freeman’s ancestor John Freeman escapes from his master, the Earl of Nottingham, in an attempt to warn Robin Hood about a trap to capture him. But John is wounded in his escape, and he’s only able to make it to the abode of a wizened wizard. The wizard helps to heal his injuries, then gives the boy an enchanted orb which can send a message through time. With it, John is able to summon Freddy to the distant past, where the powers of Captain Marvel Junior might be able to put things to right.

There really isn’t anything in this story that can even slow Junior down, so powerful is her compared to everybody else. But he lives through the Robin Hood legend, competing in the archery contest and interceding when Robin is to be hanged for his crimes. He’s also able to transport Robin and company to King Richard in the crusades, and tell him of the Earl of Nottingham’s perfidy. In the end, Richard returns to England, exiles the Earl, appoints the wizard to his court and liberates John from his servitude–so that he gains the name John Freeman. The whole thing is pretty much a romp, and wile there isn’t a lick of suspense in this 8 page tale, it’s delivered in a cheerful fashion.

The SHAZAMAIL letters page is truncated this month so as to fit in this year’s Statement of Ownership, which gives us a sense as to how well the series was performing. According to the numbers, the most recent issue sold 105,442 on a print run of 287,444, for an efficiency rating of just under 37%. For a DC book of this vintage, that isn’t a horrible percentage, but with the added expense of the royalty that had to be paid to Fawcett to license the character, that made the book a dodgy proposition.