BC: SHAZAM #29

And on and on it went! I continued to steadily eat my way through the complete run of DC’s SHAZAM, which had been lent to me by my grade school friend Donald Sims. I have to say, it’s fun looking back at these issues and seeing how deftly (or not) the editors were in avoiding naming their lead character on the cover. I really hadn’t noticed it at the time, but ever since they had been legally prohibited from saying Captain Marvel anywhere on a cover (after having gotten away with it for a few months) they had adapted beautifully to this limitation. Fortunately, they could use the name all they wanted to on the interiors.

By this point, writer E. Nelson Bridwell had his formula for the series set in place: Billy Batson and Uncle Dudley/Mentor would visit another major city somewhere in the United States and contend with their recurring foe Doctor Sivana, as well as whatever other additional factors Sivana had pulled into play for this particular plot. In this case, the added elements were IBAC and Aunt Minerva, a pair of no-goodniks from the captain’s Golden Age exploits. IBAC was a kind of reverse Captain Marvel empowered by a quartet of villains and demons, and Aunt Minerva was a gun-toting gang boss who tended to fall in love with whatever male crossed her path.

The story this time out is a bit more lighthearted than even recent fare in the series. It’s set in and around Niagra Falls in Buffalo, New York, where Sivana intends to destroy the Falls as a part of his campaign against eh bicentennial. Having informed Captain Marvel of his next target, Sivana has captured Stinky Printwhistle, the human incarnation of IBAC, with an eye towards recruiting IBAC as an ally. In this Sivana gets some aid from Lucifer himself, who shows up to force Stinky to say his magic word and become IBAC once more. This is the sum total of Lucifer’s involvement in this story, and seems like a sop towards justifying the cover image more than anything else. Sivana has also recruited Aunt Minerva to his crew, and she immediately takes a shine to IBAC, much to the villain’s discomfort. In order to avoid being teamed up with the lovestruck Minerva, IBAC races off to hunt down Captain Marvel on his own.

The captain, meanwhile, is working his way through an enormous laundry list of charity jobs that Dudley had set him up with through SHAZAM INC., his corporation. So when IBAC starts tearing up the town, Dudley find that he has no choice but to confront the enemy in his guise as the powerless Uncle Marvel, hoping that he’ll be able to bluff IBAC down. Things look bad for Dudley until Minerva rounds the corner. IBAC is so frightened of her that he races away, and Uncle Marvel dutifully pursues him for as long as he’s able. Finding himself at the river, IBAC decides to hide out in a barrel that’s full of scientific equipment. This was all part of Sivana’s scheme to destroy the Falls, so when IBAC takes the gear out in order to get into the barrel himself, he spoils everything. Unknowingly, Sivana kicks the barrel into the river and IBAC goes over the Falls.

But it’s against the law to go over the Falls in a barrel, and so some cops show up to try to take IBAC into custody. This goes about as well as you might imagine. At this point, Aunt Minerva has spotted IBAC down below and waves to him, and IBAC is so unnerved at the prospect of facing her again that he begs Uncle Marvel for protection. Not sure just what to do, Dudley uses Billy’s Eterni-Phone to dial up Solomon and get some wisdom. Solomon regrets having had 700 wives, a bit that’s played for gags, but he is able to provide IBAC with a quote from his Book of Proverbs: “A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth; and a word spoken in due season how good it is.” Bridwell was super-knowledgeable on a variety of topics, and I have little doubt that he didn’t have to look up this proverb before quoting it.

At this point, Captain Marvel returns, his list of chores having been accomplished. Coming upon IBAC and Uncle Marvel, he attacks, assuming that IBAC means Dudley harm. He doesn’t–but he also wants to try out the power-up that Lucifer gave him at the story’s start. So the two indestructible figures begin to pound on one another. Their clash makes the ground tremble, which Sivana mistakenly assumes is the blast of his devices destroying the Falls. He ventures out to see his handiwork and is aghast to discover that the Falls are just fine. Meanwhile, Minerva has been drawn to the area by the scuffle, and upon seeing her so close, IBAC realizes what word Solomon had been referring to. He says his own name, which transforms him back into Stinky Printwhistle once more, whom Minerva has absolutely no interest in.

There’s just one loose end left: the equipment that IBAC pulled out of Sivana’s barrel. Turns out he returned it to Sivana’s lab for safe keeping, and so at that moment the lab goes up in a blaze of glory. This time out Sivana is caught, as is Aunt Minerva. But even though he’s going to prison, Sivana promises to escape and clash with Captain Marvel once more in Pittsburg. The artwork on this story is perhaps a hair shakier than might be expected of artist Kurt Schafenberger; it’s another story that was embellished by Vince Colletta, who at this point had also been hired as DC’s art director. It isn’t a terrible job, but neither is it as polished as Schaffenberger inking himself.

The SHAZAMAIL letters page in this issue carries some correspondence from Peter Sanderson, a comic book historian who in just a few years would be hired by DC to read and compile notes on every single comic book that they had ever published in preparation for CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, DC’S WHO’S WHO and the HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE projects.