Captain Marvel Adventures #66

 Finally, I reached "Captain Marvel Adventures # 66", the last one that contains the serial introducing Oggar, and an improvement on the story, and in general, in the content of the comic book, is perceived by yours truly.

Once again, this comic book shows us the ingenuity of the people in charge of telling us the stories of Captain Marvel, and the daring the were, featuring the same a tale full of fantasy and humor, and then, take the time to give us a dramatic story such as the first that is contained in this issue, and that I have had heard referenced by many "Shazam fans" as an excellent tale, which it really is:

"Captain Marvel and the Atomic War".
 

As far as I know, this tale is reprinted, tho' in black and white, in the seminal "Shazam: From the 40's to the 70's" collection, which I happen to have, but I haven't read, so, amazingly, I read this tale in full color, which, I think, make me a lucky guy, all in all.

This story goes way ahead the corny stuff that some of these stories could present, something that made Captain Marvel so successful, but in this one, the story features a desperate moment for Captain Marvel that has the U.S. attacked by a unnamed (and for a good part of the story unknown) enemy. The story goes so far into showing the horrors of an atomic war, that presents Captain Marvel rescuing a young mother and a baby, but all is a failures because moments later, both, the young woman and her son die due nuclear heat.

The scene is full of drama, and the World's Mightiest Mortal is helpless in this story that I won't end spoiling if any of you have the opportunity to read it and how it concludes.

The issue, superbly planned, continues with the exciting final chapter of Captain Marvel's fight against Oggar in: "The Battle of the Century", as it picks right were it ended last issue and we see Captain Marvel encontering the old witch Circe. The witch's reaction when she sees the World's Mightiest MAN before her is of utter and complete rage, as she unveils the origin for her hatred for men:

In ancient times, Oggar made an advance on her, when she was "the fairest girl in the world of that time" (3000 thousand years ago). As she refused, Oggar decides to curse her granting her the immortality, but not giving her the eternal youth. As she grew old, she found that her strenght didn't wane, but her beauty was lost. Once desired by men, the woman found herself being rejected, so she decided to study witchcraft and transform males into animals, "that what they are".

After revealing this, Circe transforms Captain Marvel into a Centaur, but smart enough, Cap transforms into Billy as he's freed from Circe's enchantment, but Circe is wretched enough even to hate little boys and transforms him into a goat, Billy is completely scared, as he's unable to pronounce the magic word. Worse than all, Oggar has looked everything and starts to hunt down poor Billy.

Oggar, mercilessly, continue his hunt to the goat, using different arms, toying with his victim, until finally, he kills his prey. Billy has been saved by the apparition of another goat that was killed on his place, desperate enough, Billy goes where is Circe and rams her. Furious, the old witch decides to transform the goat back into Billy, wishing to transform him into a worm and crush it. Billy is faster than that, and transforms into Captain Marvel, as he flees, he encounters Oggar, who is pissed to see his enemy alive.

Finally, a titanic fight starts, as Oggar lands a good punch to Captain Marvel, the World's Mightiest Mortal starts to run. Happy for it, Oggar goes chasing the Big Red Cheese, that has pretended all to put Oggar in front of Circe.

Finally, the old woman has in front of her, the man who cursed her! The witch don't looses time, she transforms Oggar into a savage boar, that Captain Marvel starts to chase, but the animal falls from a precipice and dies. When The World's Mightiest Mortal goes back to where is Circe, he finds her skeleton: When Oggar died, the effect of the immortality curse on her, died as well.

Finally, this issue brings only 3 stories for Captain Marvel, instead of the usual 4. This last story brings "The Return of Aunt Minerva", who has set her sight into a new husband (the 6th, actually) and that is, none other, but Captain Marvel.

Now, I know this sounds goofy, and in a way it is, the story IS goofy, it is comical, but once again, this story sets STRAIGHT FORWARD that Captain Marvel and Billy Batson are separate entities, let's see the next examples:

Anyway, the story ends with Aunt Minerva discovering that Billy Batson and Captain Marvel are "the same person", as she promises to get back in the future and... What then?

It's curious enough that this happens when, in the first page of this volume, it is said: "Then, when evil is defeated and justice again established, Marvel repeats the world and changes back to Billy once more! So amazing is the change that most people never realize what has happened!"

So finally, the adventures with Oggar has finished, and thus, my review for the issues into which this story happened, but, as I said, once again I'm TRULY convinced I want to read as much as I can of Captain Marvel's stories in the Golden Age!

Shazam!