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Shazam! Vol 1 2

"The Astonishing Arch Enemy": Billy Batson, now having been freed from the suspended animation state he was stuck in for the past 20 years, finds himself out of touch with the rest of the world. He later decides to visits his friend, Mr. Tawky Tawny, the talking tiger who had gotten his old job

I suppose Captain Marvel has deduced that I got any army of worms and insects to undermine the museum building's foundations! No matter... I did what I planned to do -- recover my glasses! It was necessary... it's simply impossible to find frames in my size! Now, to get on with my revenge! First, I'll destroy the western half of the country! Second -- hee hee -- I'll destroy the eastern half!
— Mr. Mind, the World's Wickedest Worm!

Shazam! #2 is an issue of the series Shazam! (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1973.

Synopsis for "The Astonishing Arch Enemy"

Billy Batson, now having been freed from the suspended animation state he was stuck in for the past 20 years, finds himself out of touch with the rest of the world. He later decides to visits his friend, Mr. Tawky Tawny, the talking tiger who had gotten his old job back as a museum guide. When Billy reaches the museum, Tawky Tawny was in the middle of a tour showing the museum's exhibits on the monster society of evil and the their leader, Mr. Mind whose actual stuffed body was at display in the museum along with his voice amplifier and glasses. As soon as Billy greets Tawky Tawny, the building starts rumbling and begins to fall apart. Billy quickly yells his magic word and changes to Captain Marvel who holds the building long enough for everyone to get clear of the falling debris. Captain Marvel suspects that the building falling apart was no mere coincidence and on some inspection he finds out that Mr. mind's stuffed carcass which was at display was actually a fake and the glasses and voice amplifier were missing which confirms his suspicion.

It is revealed that Mr. Mind was the one who had orchestrated the museum's fall because he wanted his glasses and voice amplifier back, which he comments "are hard to come by in his size". Captain Marvel then goes to visit Herkimer the Crocodile Man, who was now working at a circus after retiring from his life of crime, at first he tries to fight Captain Marvel but later happily gives up and reveals Mr. Mind's location because he was satisfied working where he was and didn't wish to join Mr. Mind anymore. Meanwhile, Mr. Mind launches his "Atomic Expanding Missile" from the St. Louis arch which would have destroyed everything between St. Louis and Los Angeles if Captain Marvel hadn't gotten there in time and stopped the missile. Mr. Mind himself, however, manages to escape momentarily but is easily caught by the Captain who uses the St. Louis arch as a tuning fork to draw him out the ground where he was hiding.

Appearing in "The Astonishing Arch Enemy"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Mr. Mind (First appearance in a comic published by DC)
    • Herkimer (First appearance in a comic published by DC)

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

  • Mr. Mind's Atomic Expanding Missile (Destroyed)

Vehicles:

  • Mr. Mind's Toy-Balloon


Synopsis for "The Nicest Guy in the World"

Sunny Sparkle is sneaking his way past a book signing at Ye Booke Nooke where author Richard Revere is signing copies of his hit From Here to Forever, only for everyone to lean out and start offering him things, since he’s so nice! He soon is given a coat, a free book, some groceries and a watch and Sunny is, as always, alack to disappoint them by not accepting, thinking that he’ll do what he usually does and donate most of it to charity. Meanwhile, two goons, Lanky and Lefty, are robbing a bank and clock Billy Batson in the face on the way out with a satchel before he can say his magic words and escape in a green convertible that launches smoke out of the back. Despite the choking smoke, Billy calls SHAZAM once he’s awake and becomes Captain Marvel, who is still obscured by the smoke, not sharing super-vision among with his other powers. The two goons spot Sunny and decide to offer to carry his stuff and then hand over their bag of stolen money to him, which he accepts like he does most unwanted gifts. Captain Marvel soon spots Sunny and offers to help him take his stuff home, which he accepts, but Sunny says he didn’t see any goons that day, only nice people! Back at their criminal hideout, the two goons meekly tell their boss they couldn’t help giving Sunny the money (because he’s so nice) and decides to go shoot him himself… but when he gets to Sunny’s house, he finds he is too nice to believe and gives him a big handful of money. Back at the hideout, the Boss notes that they can’t really work around Sunny easily, so they instead trick Billy by saying that Sunny was already going to donate his big satchel of money to charity and ask him to pick it up for them instead of “disturbing him.” Billy does so when Sunny’s mother lets him in, finding Sunny already has a lot of things people gift to him, but figures out that these are the same goons when their green convertible dumps out another smokescreen. Billy quickly calls SHAZAM and flies after them as Captain Marvel, who lifts their car off its back tires, sending the unbuckled goons flying out the top, where he punches them over, though they land on their feet. When he takes the money from them, they collapse ad Sunny gets a shiny medal from the Mayor for having “helped” so much. Sunny feels like he’s been given something he’s “earned,” though he … isn’t sure exactly how… until the Mayor and his aides start giving him more and more stuff. Captain Marvel notes that the second time, he followed the car by listening for their noisy muffler to catch them.

Appearing in "The Nicest Guy in the World"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • The Boss (Single appearance)
    • Lanky (Single appearance)
    • Lefty (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • The Mayor of Fawcett City
  • Sunny's mother (Mentioned only)
  • Author Richard Revere

Locations:

Items:

  • A Copy of From Here to Forever
  • A Coat
  • A Pocketwatch
  • A Bag of Groceries

Vehicles:

  • A Green Convertible with a Smokescreen

Synopsis for "Captain Marvel Fights Niatpac Levram"

This story is reprinted from Captain Marvel Adventures #139.

Billy Batson leaves Haven House to find there’s giant spiderwebs outside his house, forcing him to call SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel who quickly finds that Ma and Pa Potter and Dexter Knox are also trapped in the webs, freeing them. He starts tearing up webs throughout the Big Apple until Billy needs to broadcast about reports of probably a giant spider hiding out somewhere. Later, while heading home, Billy finds the giant spider and calls SHAZAM to summon Captain Marvel, who quickly finds it’s a mechanical monster before it sprays him in the face with its powerful artificial webbing. Captain Marvel finds it’s as tough as steel cables, but the Strength of Hercules is a lot stronger than steel, finding the Mechanical Spider has escaped. Captain Marvel returns Billy to wait for it to return, but when it does, it grabs Billy from behind and webs him up, covering his mouth and climbing into a large green blimp.

Aboard, he is confronted by Lem Legree, a madman who wants to own slaves like his ancestors did and is going to keep kidnapping people with a Giant Mechanical Spider until he can achieve that dream, finding he’s captured most of the Haven House and local neighborhood already. Lem starts forcing his new slaves to work at mining around his mountain compound in a secluded valley. Lem decides to have the Spider kill Billy to serve as an example to the others not to rebel against him, but once it cracks the webbing over his mouth, he calls SHAZAM and Captain Marvel destroys it in one punch and then punches Lem into a cliffside, freeing everyone. Pa Potter is happy to work hard at Haven House, but willingly!

Appearing in "Captain Marvel Fights Niatpac Levram"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Lem Legree (Single appearance)

Other Characters:


Locations:

Items:

  • Lem's Giant Mechanical Spider (Destroyed)

Vehicles:

  • Lem's Blimp

Notes

Trivia


See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References