Whiz Comics #5 is an issue of the series Whiz Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of June, 1940.
Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "The Slaves of Dr. Lake"
After five years a careful planning, a phantom genius of crime perfects a fiendishly clever scheme for wholesale robbery. A crime wave sweeps America, $250 billion worth of it, done by preadolescent boy thieves, hypnotized and coordinated by local "Fagins" in several cities, using hypnotizing machines. In Washington DC, Mr. Scar runs one such ring, supervising burglaries and purse-snatchings, accumulating a fortune in gold watches and pen knives. Billy Batson joins this gang and gets hypnotized and sent out on a gem robbery, but fortunately gets hit in the head with a pistol butt during a simultaneous robbery in the same store; the K.O. destroys the brain-paralyzing effects of the hypnotizer.
Captain Marvel takes out the adult robbers, and their getaway driver, then returns to Scar's abandoned-factory-basement hideout and busts him, and hypnotizes him; Scar tells what he knows but it's not much. Billy Batson spends a week in New York looking for one gang of Fagins, and eventually infiltrates it, and takes down another boss in Chinatown, but this one doesn't know the big picture either. Captain Marvel flies from New York to Chicago to San Francisco, breaking up gang after gang of hypnotized boy robbers. Finally, in a luxurious mansion in Nob Hill, after transforming from Billy Batson to Captain Marvel during a spanking, C.M. beats up Doctor Aloysius Lake, sinister inventor of the modern Fagin robbery ring.
Appearing in Captain Marvel: "The Slaves of Dr. Lake"
Featured Characters:
Villains:
- Doctor Aloysius Lake (Single appearance)
- Mister Scar (Single appearance)
- Mister Chung (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- unnamed FBI Chief
- Joe (Single appearance)
- Mr. Levy (jewelry store owner)
Locations:
- Earth-S
- Washington, D.C.
- New York City
- Chinatown
- Chicago
- San Francisco
- Nob Hill
Items:
Synopsis for Golden Arrow: "Enter: Carol Braddock"
Appearing in Golden Arrow: "Enter: Carol Braddock"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
Other Characters:
- Carol Braddock (Bronk and Brute's niece) (First appearance)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Lance O'Casey: "The Bucket O' Blood"
Appearing in Lance O'Casey: "The Bucket O' Blood"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
- Brian Boru (Destroyed)
Synopsis for Spy Smasher: "Schlitzoff's Spy Plot"
Appearing in Spy Smasher: "Schlitzoff's Spy Plot"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- The Mask
- Gerald Schlitzoff (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Admiral Corby
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Dan Dare: "The Great Rollo Mystery"
Appearing in Dan Dare: "The Great Rollo Mystery"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Carol Clews
Villains:
- Miss Montros
- Rollo
Other Characters:
- Mr. Haskel
- Marie Mynard (Single appearance; dies)
- Luigi
- Jack Storms (Single appearance; dies)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Scoop Smith: "The Kingdom of Scorpia"
Editor Bruce Lane sends Scoop Smith and Blimp Black to Mexico to look for the Invisible Revolutionary Army. In a remote and well-defended valley they find an underground kingdom of alien enemies, and a second underground kingdom of ancient Mexican enemies. Hiding out from both hostile factions, Smith uses a radio transmitter, which he brought along, to contact the President of Mexico, and warn him of the two imminent attacks. The President personally takes the call, and is very grateful for the warning; he dispatches troops to search beneath Mexico City, to repel the invaders and rescue the informants. Scoop and Blimp are meantime being captured by first one enemy army then the other.
In a vast system of tunnels under Mexico City, the Scorpian and Subterrinian armies clash with one another, creating enough distraction for Scoop and Blimp to escape and hook up with a detachment of Mexican troops. Using explosives, the regular Mexican Army wipes out both enemy armies. Scoop and Blimp get a headline-making story!
Appearing in Scoop Smith: "The Kingdom of Scorpia"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Blimp Black
- Bruce Lane, Editor
Villains:
- King Cortes (Single appearance)
- his alien legions (Dies)
- Subterrine General (Single appearance)
- Invisible Revolutionary Army (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Mexican Troops
Locations:
- New York City
- Mexico
- Valley of Pyramid Temples
- Underground Kingdom of Scorpia
- Underground Kingdom of Subterrinia
- Tunnels Under Mexico City
- Mount Xitu (has a crater full of poison gas)
Animals:
- Giant Scorpion
Vehicles:
- Smith's Airplane (Destroyed)
Synopsis for Ibis the Invincible: "Showdown With Murder Malone"
In our previous episode the beautiful Taia had been kidnapped into the Ibisship speedplane by Murder Malone, ruthless killer and outlaw munitions maker; the plane takes off with Malone at the controls. Arriving late, Ibis the Invincible commands the Ibistick to create a supersensitive airplane detector, and a 400-mph (3000 hp) monoplane, and pursues them, but by mistake chases a commercial airliner instead, then luckily finds a small clearing in a thick forest where the Ibisship has crashed. Ibis turns his own airplane into a parachute and lands at the spot, and gets jumped by a cougar which he turns into a fawn, then examines the Ibisship's wreckage and follows Malone's tracks into the woods.
Along the way, Ibis neutralizes an electrified barbed-wire fence then encounters a rifle-toting guard, whom he turns into a duplicate of Rodin's statue "The Thinker." He finds Malone's cabin, where Taia is being menaced by Malone with a bullwhip; Ibis plays some preliminary pranks on Malone, then confronts him, while turning a kitten into a wildcat and then into a straightjacket. Taia is freed but then two thugs jump Ibis from behind and wrest away the Ibistick and hand it to Malone. Malone tries to use the stick to turn Ibis into a toad, this backfires on him; then Ibis turns the two thugs into toads as well. He turns the wreckage of the Ibisship into a new autogiro, and he and Taia fly away. En route to New Thebes, over the ocean, Ibis accidentally drops the Ibistick out of the canopy and it falls towards the ocean.
Appearing in Ibis the Invincible: "Showdown With Murder Malone"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- Murder Malone (Final appearance)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
- the Ibistick of Prince Amentep
Vehicles:
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.
- "The Slaves of Dr. Scar" is reprinted in 'The Shazam! Archives Vol. 1'.
- Billy Batson gets knocked unconscious with a pistol butt, the first concussion of his long career.
- Confronting a tommy-gun-wielding robber, "Captain Marvel holds his hand over the barrel and the machine gun explodes in the gangster's face." It's hard to understand how the robber is not killed by this move.
- Ibis the Invincible, body count: Ibis has now killed one submarine crew, turned two guys into statues, and turned four guys into animals.
- Also appearing in this issue of Whiz Comics were:
- Lance O'Casey: "Sea Dogs"
- "The Convict's Ghost" (text)
Trivia
- The tagline for this issue is "Captain Marvel Scores Again".
See Also
Recommended Reading
- Marvel Family Recommended Reading
- Whiz Comics (Volume 1)
- Captain Marvel Adventures (Volume 1)
- Captain Marvel, Jr. (Volume 1)
- Mary Marvel (Volume 1)
- Master Comics (Volume 1)
- Wow Comics (Volume 1)
- The Marvel Family (Volume 1)
- Hoppy the Marvel Bunny (Volume 1)
- Shazam! (Volume 1)
- Shazam!: The New Beginning (Volume 1)
- The Power of Shazam! (Volume 1)
- Superman/Shazam!: First Thunder (Volume 1)
- Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil (Volume 1)
- The Trials of Shazam! (Volume 1)
- Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! (Volume 1)
- Shazam! (Volume 2)
- Shazam! (Volume 3)
- Shazam! (Volume 4)
- The New Champion of Shazam! (Volume 1)
- Shazam! (Volume 5)
Links and References
- Captain Marvel at Wikipedia
- Captain Marvel at Toonopedia
- Captain Marvel at DCU Guide
- Dan Dare at Wikipedia
- Golden Arrow at Wikipedia
- Golden Arrow at Toonopedia
- Ibis the Invincible at Wikipedia
- Ibis the Invincible at Toonopedia
- Ibis the Invincible at DCU Guide
- Lance O'Casey at Wikipedia
- Marvel Family at Toonopedia
- Scoop Smith at DCU Guide
- Shazam at Wikipedia
- Shazam at DCU Guide
- Spy Smasher at Wikipedia
- Spy Smasher at Toonopedia
- Spy Smasher at DCU Guide
- Whiz Comics article at Wikipedia
- Whiz Comics series index at the Grand Comics Database (creator credits)
- Whiz Comics #5 entire issue
- Whiz Comics #5 index entry
- Whiz Comics #5 spoilers