Review by Win Wiacek

This third magnificent deluxe full-colour hardback compendium re-presents a strip from anthology compendium America’s Greatest Comics, the second and third issues of Captain Marvel Adventures, and his exploits from the fortnightly Whiz Comics 21-24, continuing from Volume 2. It also happily includes a selection of stunning covers from the plethora of extra and reprint editions generated by the Good Captain’s overnight success.

Despite increasing talk of war amongst the American public, these 1941 tales were created before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and consequently have their share of thinly-veiled saboteur and spy sagas that permeated the genre until official hostilities were finally established. Of more interest perhaps is that at this period the stories – many of them still sadly uncredited – still largely portray Marvel as a grimly heroic figure not averse to slaughtering the truly irredeemable villain and losing no sleep over it.

Following a nostalgic and highly educational foreword by movie producer, author, historian and fan Michael Uslan, the wonderment commences with the C.C. Beck illustrated thriller ‘Ghost of the Deep’.

It’s an extra-long saga and canny mystery wherein a hooded mastermind used purloined technology to wage a campaign of terror against American Naval interests. Billy Batson and alias Captain Marvel scotch his plans in a tale very much the template for the character’s future.

Meanwhile in Captain Marvel Adventures the hero is still undergoing some on-the-job cosmetic refinements. As the World’s Mightiest Mortal catapulted to the first rank of superhero superstars, there was a scramble to fill pages and the issues were rapidly compiled by mostly anonymous scripters and another rising star who drew the issues in a hurry, working from Beck and Parker’s style guides.

Young George Tuska added a raw, lean humanist vivacity to the tales beginning with ‘World of the Microscope’ wherein malign scientist Sivana returns and doses Billy and erstwhile ally Queen Beautia with a shrinking solution leaving them at the mercy of bacterial monsters.

DC/National Periodical Publications had filed suit against Fawcett for copyright infringement of Superman in 1940, and the companies slugged it out in court until 1953 when, with the sales of superhero comics decimated by changing tastes, Captain Marvel’s publishers decided to capitulate.

As a result most merchandising outfits steered well clear of Fawcett, compelling the publisher to generate toys, games, premiums and promotions themselves. The only notable exception was the blockbusting Adventures of Captain Marvel Movie Serial. Consequentially Fawcett used their comics to promote the films and practically invented product placement to plug their in-house merchandise.

In 1941 artist C. C. Beck also began writing some of Captain Marvel’s adventures, an example being ‘The Temple of Itzalotahui’, a turning point for the series. Tying into and deriving from the continuity of the movie serial, Billy gains an assistant in the form of Whitey Murphy, who was a co-star in the film iteration. However, the real sea change is the shift to light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek adventure as the lads travel to Central America to search for a third cast member and find ancient Mayans and modern resource raiders.

More product placement occurs with Captain Marvel devising a new cipher, and readers could decode secret messages in every story as long as they were fully paid-up members of the new Captain Marvel Fan Club.

Still joyful, these timeless tales are an ideal introduction to the world of superhero fiction: tales that will appeal to readers of any age and temperament. More in Volume 4.