Mary Marvel Comics 1

Mary Marvel #1 was the first issue of the comic series Mary Marvel. It was first published in January 1946. The cover shows Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel saying 'Hope you like her.' It featured the first appearance of Georgia Sivana and features four stories.

Mary Marvel meets Sivana

Sivana, knowing that Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr are out of town, decides to go on a crime spree. Mary sees him about to shoot a cop, and transforms into Mary Marvel, who stops him while demonstrating her strength and invulnerability. When he asks whether she can really fly, she demonstrates, allowing him to escape by running away and hiding in a dustbin. He then creates something overnight and uses a beard to disguise himself as a peddlar selling earings. He goes to Mary and puts on the earings, before revealing himself. Mary transforms, but has apparently lost her powers, and is kidnapped by him. He then reveals the earings draw the lightining's power away, and they are coated with a glue which means Mary would have to tear her ears to remove them. She works as his drudge, but finally attacks him. However, she does not succeed in knocking him out despite using her lightining and own fighting skills, and knows he will soon recover, so appeels to her goddesses to send an extra-powerful lightining blast to destroy the earings. The goddesses hear her, so Hippolyta fashions and throws a powerful lightining-bolt, destroying the earings and transforming Mary, who easily defeats Sivana.

Mary Marvel meets Sivana's daughter Georgia Sivana

While Mary is walking home, she is gagged from behind and tied to a pole by an unknown assaliant, who she believes is Sivana because of their laugh. However she then sees it is a girl who looks like Sivana, who reveals herself as Sivana's daughter Georgia, who has lived most of her life on Venus. A week ago Sivana landed, and said he was having trouble with World domination due to the Marvels. He thinks he will one day defeat Captain Marvel, his son Jr is after Capt. Jr, but he needs someone to handle Mary Marvel, to which Georgia volunteered, she then travelled to Earth on a space ship with Sivana, whose last orders to her were to destroy Mary. She prepares to shoot Mary, who turns aside, making Georgia think she is afraid, hooks her gag on a rung, and transforms. Georgia flees into her lab and turns on her Mary Marvel repellor ray, preventing Mary from entering. She uses a secret underground tunnel to get out, but Mary is alerted when she attempts to rob a jewellry store and the manager sets off the alarm. She follows Georgia down the tunnel who tries to use the repellor ray, but Mary is drawn towards it and destroys it. Georgia realises she turned it to attractor instead of repellor, and is then taken to reform school, but she swears revenge.

Trouble for Teacher

While Mary's mother is out, Miss Peabody of the teachers recruiting service visits. Mary offers to take the job of teaching, and is sent to a Kindergarten class at Hog Hollow. There she meets Charlie Mcblurney and Herkimer Blurrt, grown men who have never been taught before. She transforms to keep order, and is surprised how stupid Herkimer is at 18. Herkimer wishes he could write her a love letter, which Charlie writes for him. Mary realises it is fake as Herkimer cannot write, but Charlie writes a letter telling Herkimer she will marry him at Preachers tonight. Charlie tells Becky Herk wants to marry her, and tells her to wear a heavy veil. Herk discovers this when it is blown off, and chases Charlie with his rifle. Mary then saves Charlie from quicksand, and Herk from an alligator. She gives the unhappy Becky a makeover, making her pretty enough for Herk to marry her, while Charlie is given detention of 100 lines.

The Growth Epidemic

Across the city people start growing in size. Mary transforms when an oversized dog tries attacking a child, and realises as Mary Marvel she is not oversize. The Larch Bros, shopowners, advertise their large clothing, furniture, and food, and start making money from the desperate citizens. Mary sees one of them stop another from drinking the water, and sees they have doped the city's water with H-G (Growth Hormone). They call their fourth brother Hertman, who has been given large quantities of growth hormone and is 20 feet tall so he can carry their supplies, but despite being knocked into the ground Mary defeats him using his superior strength to knock him out. She realises Vinegar and Castor oil will reverse the effects, and tells her brother Billy Batson to broadcast this information over the city, after which people start turning back. She then transforms and takes the antidote.

Notes

Georgia Sivana would become a recurring foe in this series, like Sivana in Captain Marvel Adventures. Mary Marvel Comics ran until #28, September 1948.

• Read Mary Marvel #1