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[MarkWarner]

So last week's tale of schoolgirl sleuths (The Silent Three) got a thumbs up from the group. This is good news as I am running late and am just about to read it.

Anyway lets' get cracking. So we are at another milestone, our 150th book! With the big question, what to choose? Luckily, I received this message and then the choice was, as I believe our American members would term, "a slam dunk".

"I've been thinking a bit about what you mentioned, about wanting to do a special book for week 150 of the reading group. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw what was done for week 100 is that maybe we could look at an issue #150 of something! Turns out, unsurprisingly, not many Golden Age comics lasted that long. There's Tip Top Comics from United Features, which seems to be reprints of newspaper strips? Fiction House's adventure comics Jumbo Comics and Jungle Comics got to issue #150 as well. Then I saw it. Captain Marvel Adventures #150. As the last original-publisher own-book appearance of such an iconic character, it might be the something special you want for week 150."

The book can be found here https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=18374, and the story we will concentrate on is "Captain Marvel's Wedding".

[narfstar]

I smiled almost all through the story. It was immediately obvious the girl was the witch and they did not even try to hide it from the reader right away. Just plain fun to read.

[EHowie60]

Y'know, when I hear the phrase "Mrs. Marvel", this lady is not who I think about right away. This story was a trip. Captain Marvel really didn't ask too many questions about this "Miss Hagge". (Sometimes I think he's not really that bright.) Interesting how she says "all us witches". Is there a whole group of these people just flying around? Maybe they have monthly meetings and a little newsletter.

I'm pretty sure the authors are confusing ability to testify with requirement to testify on page 9, there.

I wonder if Captain Marvel would have revealed his secret identity to his wife. "That's right honey, you married a twelve-year-old boy!"

Solid C. C. Beck art throughout. I enjoy his work: the faces can be so expressive, and I love his sound effects (Bong! Gug!).

One-page humor stuff: eh. Surprising how universal this stuff was in the Golden Age. It almost never shows up today.

Captain Kid: Also eh. Maybe these sorts of things didn't survive the Golden Age because they were never much good. Note the Captain Marvel Club cryptogram on the last page!

The World of Too Many Sivanas: whoa. So this started out as a typical Dr. Sivana story, narrated by the man himself! I love the guy, he just oozes old-school evil for evil's sake. But then I got to page 25, and for the first time in any Captain Marvel I've read, I felt real, deep tension. The image of Billy, knife to his throat, able to save himself only at the cost of thousands of lives, is a really powerful one. But then on the very next page the tension vanishes, and once again Sivana is a simple Golden Age mad scientist. Love the panel of Captain Sivana. In the end Captain Marvel triumphs, and Sivana is behind bars until DC picked up the license.

All in all a very fun Golden Age read, with interesting hints of a more sophisticated age of comic books that was still to come.

[narfstar]

EHowie look for a revival of one page humor in All-New Popular Comics. I have a Bringing up Father and Freddy one pagers as well as several single panel gags collected on a page like in the old days.

[crashryan]

I never cared much for Captain Marvel. I preferred my superheroes "realistic" and the Marvel stories always teetered on the edge of silly. I went into this issue determined to give the comic a fair shake despite my prejudice. I have to admit it isn't that bad.

"Captain Marvel's Wedding" is the weaker of the two stories. I'm okay with the fact that it's obvious the nameless secretary is really the witch. But her plan to disempower Captain Marvel by marrying him and forcing him to spend his time doing dishes...that's just silly.

"The World of Too Many Sivanas" is much more fun. Sivana's narration is amusing, especially when the villain cries, "No, no, no!" and the caption says, "Unfortunately, it was yes, yes, yes!" CM is faced with a genuinely troubling moral dilemma. The ending is something of a cop-out, though, with Shazam sending in the cavalry to fix things. It's a satisfying story anyway.

The half-page gag strips are just awful. The jokes are stretched to the breaking point even in four panels. The Captain Kid strip is as bad. It goes on forever.

SPOILER: The cipher is: "Can you imagine Mr. Tawny as a king? He'd really have a ball, too, reading all about it in next month's issue!"

[K1ngcat]

I've always derived a special enjoyment from comics that were aimed primarily at kids.  Much as I like "serious" "dark" and "realistic" in comics, the light, uncomplicated style of heroes like Captain Marvel or the UK's Marvelman appeal greatly to my innner child and my sense of nostalgia.  So this one was bound to be a winner with me.

I don't know just where, along the line, they developed the CM who was embarrassed by female attention. I see back in the Archives that at one time he traded his red spandex for a tux and dated Beautia Sivana.  Nonetheless, his boyish confusion at romantic entanglement is quite amusing, even more so when Billy declares "Captain Marvel's a big dope!  But I know what's going on!"

Tightwad Tad and Doc Sorebones are pretty lame, but Captain Kid is truly awful, and there's so much of him!

The World of Too Many Sivanas is rather too drawn-out at times, though it's novel to hear Sivana narrating, and it does have some tension, some shocks and surprises. The Sivana- headed CM is a rather disturbing image.  There are some great lines - "Sivanas to the left of me! Sivanas to the right of me!"  It's a little disappointing that the plot can only be resolved by both parties appealing to the Old Wizard, I'd rather have seen CM arrive at solution.   But as in the previous story, sometimes it does take that old wisdom of Solomon a long while to kick in...

Still, all good (relatively) harmless fun. I'll give it eight out of ten. 

[paw broon]

I rather like Captain Marvel and, as with K1ngcat, his British variant, Marvelman, so I fancied a read at this one.  I laughed at Billy's comment about Cap being a big dope, and so he seems to be in this story.  It's also good, silly fun. Perhaps I missed a couple of things but I'm not sure what they were going to do with the witch, or the others she mentioned in the story.  How do you keep a witch in jail?  And where did the name, Theo, come from?  And isn't it a man's name?.  Apart from those wee odd bits, I enjoyed this story.
Sivana,  however, was a bit much for me.  I know he's an evil genius but how does he keep a whole nation as slaves on his own?  And both of them appealing to the wizard was over the top.  The knife at the throat seemed out of place.  A bit of cruelty which let the appeal of these later, lighter stories down.
Captain Kid was truly awful, and when the judge asks, "any turkeys", the answer should be, those "humour" strips.

[crashryan]

Paw, I also puzzled over why Binder named the witch "Theo." I've only known the name as a shortened form of "Theodore" and I've never seen it given to a woman. I came up with a possibility. It's a real stretch, but...

We all know Golden Age writers loved punning names like Hagge. Maybe Theo Hagge is a mushing together of "The Old Hag" (The Ol' Hag > The O' Hag).

[K1ngcat]

It took me a while to work out where the name came from - my old wisdom of Solomon's a bit slow to kick in, too!    But there it is on the first page of the story, on the name badge on her desk at the Broom Company, "Miss Theo Hagge."

Probably intended as crash suggests, to stand for "The Old Hag," apparently Theo is short for Theodora.

[narfstar]

The Old Hag named jumped out at me right away. Yeah it is a man's name but I knew what they were doing with it.

[paw broon]

Yes, you're all right.  I see the nameplate, although I can't quite read what's on it

[MarkWarner]

Shazam! and Holy Moley!! The Reading Group has now made it to 150 books and, I am really looking forward to this book. I have a soft spot for the various Marvel incarnations. 

Ah ... OK I got it. "Theo Hagge" = The Old Hag. Took a bit of time for the penny to drop on this story. But, if nothing else my past relationships prove I am not very good at spotting witches

Verdict: A BIG HIT! Hee Hee! Heee! I don't think you can fail with the Captain in charge, I really like his humor and think he would have worked great as a newspaper strip! Pity he only lasted 150 issues.

[SuperScrounge]

Interplanetary Jailbreak - Not bad, kind of similar to later Tommy Tomorrow stories.

Captain Marvel's Wedding - Cute story.

The World of Too Many Sivanas - Cute.

The other stories - ehhhhhhhh... not that funny.

[Morgus]

The Captain has always been a favourite and this was an amusing story. The art even kept up to the high standard of the cover..