The year is 1943. War is raging across the globe, and everyone in the country is doing their part to help the United States and its allies defeat the Nazi fascists. That includes young Billy Batson – boy reporter for radio station WHIZ – who is currently on the top floor of the Northern Life Building in Seattle. It’s Batson’s first visit to the state of Washington, and Wheeler Smith, local newscaster for KOL, asks for his initial impressions of the city.
“As I look around me from this high point, I see a modern, thriving city with Mt. Rainier in the distance, the highest peak in the United States,” Batson begins. “I see the great Boeing Plant, birthplace of the well-known flying fortress that is making history in this war. I see the Lake Washington Bridge, the only concrete pontoon bridge in the world. It would take me too long to tell everything I see in this fascinating city. But I want to tell about one more thing that warms the heart of any true American – a War Bond rally down at Victory Square where a great crowd is being entertained by the True Blue Troupers!”
Five year earlier – in 1938, to be exact – Action Comics #1 was published in the United States, introducing kids across the country to Superman. A comic book superhero craze quickly swept the nation afterwards, with the likes of Batman, Wonder Woman and Captain America soon joining the Man of Steel. Other publishers jumped in as well, including Fawcett Comics, which launched its own superhero in the form of Captain Marvel in 1939.
Captain Marvel was in fact the young Billy Batson, who could transform into his costumed alter ego with the utterance of a single word – SHAZAM! With superhuman strength, speed and the ability to fly, Captain Marvel quickly became one of the most popular characters of the Golden Age of Comics, even outselling Superman at one point during the 1940s.
When the United States entered World War II, most superheroes didn’t take part in the action but still supported the war effort by using their popularity to help promote the sale of War Bonds. It was for this reason that Billy Batson made the trip to Seattle in August 1943, in a story entitled “Sabotage in Seattle.”
After Billy Batson offers his initial thoughts on Seattle in the opening pages of Captain Marvel Adventures #26, the action switches to Victory Square, where two real-world residents of the city – Mayor William F. Devin and Judge William Long – introduce Lew Blue of the True Blue Troopers carnival act that is performing as part of the War Bonds drive.
The first performance involves six strongmen, with one holding the other five on his shoulders to form a human pyramid. As the crowd cheers, it becomes obvious to even Billy Batson high above the proceedings in the Northern Life Building – which is known today as the Seattle Tower – that something is drastically wrong. The lynchpin strongman holding the pyramid has suddenly grown tired and is on the verge of collapsing, but just as tragedy is about to erupt, Batson utters the word “SHAZAM!,” turns into Captain Marvel and streaks towards Victory Square.
Arriving in the nick of time, Captain Marvel effortlessly takes the place of the now unconscious anchor man, holding the remaining five strongmen in place and even balancing them on his hands as opposed to shoulders. The crowd goes wild, but Captain Marvel is more concerned about why the lead strongmen fell asleep. Finding a glass of water in the performer’s dressing room, he realizes it had been laced with a sleeping powder.
Captain Marvel “smells a rat” but is quickly called back to the stage when the next act – a fire eater – is likewise victimized. Captain Marvel again steps in save the day, not only demonstrating his fire-eating ability but doing a bit of sword swallowing as well. “Sure, I can swallow swords,” he tells Lew Blue. “But first I have to chew them. Unhealthy to gulp your food, you know!”
The third act – violin virtuoso Fritz Flugg – appears unaffected by any sleeping potion but is immediately booed from the stage by a crowd that is only interested in seeing more of Captain Marvel at this point. When the jugglers scheduled to appear next are found asleep in their dressing room, Captain Marvel obliges by not only juggling bowling pins but tossing them to the other side of the stage, then racing to catch them at the last possible second.
Next up is the headliner, a ventriloquist named Ventrilo, but he is nowhere to be found. Suspecting that Ventrilo may be the culprit sabotaging the other performances, Captain Marvel flies to his hotel, arriving just in time to see Ventrilo’s unconscious body falling from an open window. Captain Marvel is able to rescue him, but the culprit who tossed Ventrilo from his hotel room has already fled the scene.
Seeing the ventriloquist’s dummy, Captain Marvel hatches a plan and adds some additional paint to it – transforming the dummy into Billy Batson – then returns to Victory Square. After first having some fun with the dummy by pretending to converse with his alter-ego onstage, Captain Marvel next turns his attention to solving the mystery of the sleeping performers once and for all.
Realizing that the culprit would never reveal himself with Captain Marvel around, the superhero once again transforms into Billy Batson. Sneaking around backstage, he stumbles upon violinist Fritz Flugg stealing the War Bond proceeds from the event. Thinking that the ventriloquist dummy has come to life, Flugg chases after Batson and shoots him at point blank range. Unfortunately for Flugg, it’s the actual dummy that he has shot. The real Billy Batson has by now returned to his Captain Marvel persona, who proceeds to clobber Fritz Flugg on the head with his own violin.
“He’s a Nazi,” Captain Marvel explains to Lew Blue of Flugg. “Probably commissioned by Berlin to keep America’s War Bond sales down. He couldn’t stop the show by giving your performers sleeping powders, so he tried stealing the proceeds.”
With Fritz Flugg now in the custody of the police, young Billy Batson returns to the top floor of the Northern Life Building. Standing next to a “War Bond Thermometer” that shows sales from Victory Square as being “over the top,” Batson tells his radio listeners, “In conclusion, folks of Seattle, thanks for going ‘all out’ for War Bonds! Captain Marvel is glad you think his show is that good.”
Anthony Letizia