Two new concepts — the superhero and the teenager — had to intersect at some point, and that point was Captain Marvel Jr.
CMJ was introduced in Whiz Comics 25 in December 1941, a good four years before Superboy debuted in More Fun Comics 101 (Jan.-Feb. 1945).
“Captain Marvel proved to be the most popular superhero character of the medium with his comics outselling all others, including those featuring Superman,” noted comics historian John Cimino.
“Part of the reason for this popularity included the inherent wish-fulfillment appeal of the character to children, as well as the humorous and surreal quality of the stories.”
Captain Marvel Jr. also expressed the powerlessness-to-power theme, with Freddy Freeman, a lame newsboy, transformed by magic lightning into a flying superteen.
That fantasy proved durable enough to outlast even the character himself. Two decades later, the lame Dr. Don Blake would be transformed by magic lightning into the flying god Thor.
“Never as successful as his brawnier predecessor, Junior nevertheless had a long and lucrative career that lasted until 1953,” observed author Ron Goulart.
Mac Raboy’s art on the feature was a good decade ahead of its time, more illustrative than cartoony. His poses were graceful and lyrical, and his CMJ looked like an actual teenage boy, not just a small man.
The Fawcett stories sometimes contained surprisingly human touches.
For example, in Captain Marvel Jr. 28 (March 1945), having destroyed Dr. Sivana’s building-crumbling ray and thwarted a Japanese saboteur disguised in his own costume, CMJ embarked on a flight into space to recover lunar rocks (which turned out to be moon monster eggs, drat the luck). Otto Binder penned the tale.
“Brr! Kind of lonely up here all by myself,” Captain Marvel Jr. thinks while soaring through the cold darkness of space, even as artist Bud Thompson provides a close-up of the teen to underline his sense of eerie isolation.
Not a thought that would ever have occurred to the stalwart, space-born Superboy.
Bob Doncaster wrote:
ReplyDeleteI've read that even Elvis was a fan.
Gene Popa wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I'd have changed about Junior was his magic word. It was awkward that he could never say his own heroic name without turning back into Freddy. They should have just had his say Shazam instead.
Bob Hughes wrote:
ReplyDeleteGene Popa Didn't seem to hurt sales any. And advertised the other comic, plus it added an amusing weakness, that certainly made more sense than wood, or kryptonite.
Joseph Lenius wrote:
ReplyDeleteHitler never looked so good. He should have kissed Mac Raboy's ass.