Review by Win Wiacek

Homeless orphan and good kid Billy Batson was selected by an ancient wizard to be given the powers of six gods and heroes to battle injustice. He transforms from scrawny precocious kid to brawny (adult) hero Captain Marvel by speaking aloud the wizard’s acronymic name – invoking the powers of legendary patrons Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury. You’ll have read that in Volume 1.

This second magnificent deluxe full-colour hardback compendium re-presents the lead strips and pertinent Spy Smasher episodes from the fortnightly Whiz Comics during 1941, the premier issue of solo title Captain Marvel Adventures and the magnificent Special Edition Comics #1 which opens this spectacular box of delights after an enthralling introduction by cartoonist, author and historian R.C. Harvey.

Original publishers Fawcett had a brilliant hit on their hands and in late 1940 released a 64-page bonus comic dedicated to their dashing hero with four all-new adventures by Bill Parker and C. C. Beck. The surprise is the first issue of Captain Marvel’s own title being farmed out to up-and-coming whiz-kids Joe Simon and Jack Kirby who produced the entire issue in a hurry from Beck and Parker’s guides. It’s visually impressive and showcases the variety of stories into which the Big Red Cheese fits, with the ‘Captain Marvel Battles the Vampire’ a manic thriller in the movie haunted vein that would so influence Simon and Kirby’s Captain America stories a year later.

The standard issues reprinted feature one of the earliest crossovers in comics. The Pete Costanza illustrated Spy Smasher was a regular back-up feature, and when he’s brainwashed by a Nazi he becomes America’s greatest foe. It needed the intervention of Captain Marvel in his own strip to end the threat. It’s not that simple, though, and continues for much of the collection, the strips crossing back and forth, involving escaped convicts, targetting heavy industry, and an artificial cyclone.

Business as unusual resumes in the final two Captain Marvel adventures. It’s speculated that ‘Captain Marvel and the Black Magician’ was Otto Binder’s first script for the feature his writing eventually defined. It has Billy exposing supernatural charlatans and being targeted by an affronted but genuine backwoods witch-man. This tome terminates with the rousing ‘Crusher of Crime’ wherein the villainous Sivana lays a deadly trap for Billy before making himself Marvel’s physical match.

This second stellar collection further proves that these timeless and sublime comic masterpieces are an ideal introduction to the world of superhero fiction: tales that will appeal to readers of any age and temperament. There’s more in Volume 3.