Captain Marvel and Sivana's Suspendium Watch

Suspendium is the compound Dr. Sivana created and used to put Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family into suspended animation.  In Shazam! #6 (published on July 19, 1973*) Sivana and his Suspendium return in the story, "Better Late Than Never!"

The adventure begins with Billy Batson meeting his self-proclaimed greatest fan who gives Billy a brand new watch as a present.  The fan turns out to be none other than Dr. Sivana in disguise!  After Billy leaves, Sivana cackles that Billy and Captain Marvel are now out of business because of the watch.  

What could this mean?  We soon find out as Billy hears a report of a bridge collapsing and needs to transform into Captain Marvel.  As he starts to say the magic word, Billy can only blurt "Sha...." and then goes into suspended animation for two minutes and finally finishes saying,"...zam!"  The magic lightning strikes and the transformation into Captain Marvel is complete!

Captain Marvel arrives too late to keep the bridge from collapsing, and this makes Cap wonder as he says, "I can't understand it!  I got here as quickly as I could...yet I was too late!"  As Cap walks away, we see Sivana observing him and happily recounting that the watch he gave Billy is made of Suspendium, and any time Billy or Captain Marvel say "Shazam!" when wearing the watch, it puts them in suspended animation for two minutes!  Two minutes, opines Sivana, is all he needs to become the 'rightful ruler of the world'!!!

Meanwhile, Captain Marvel has decided to transform back into Billy, and as he begins to say the magic word he is placed in suspended animation for two minutes.  Once the transformation is complete, Billy needs to get back to the office and notices that his new watch is two minutes too slow so he sets the correct time.  It then turns out that Billy has actually set his watch two minutes ahead of the correct time!

Later in the day, Sivana hijacks all television broadcasts to announce that in two minutes he will attack the world with his Universal Will-Power Paralyzer which will enable him to take over the world!  Billy realizes this is a job for Captain Marvel, and as he says the magic word, the Suspendium watch explodes because it is no longer set correctly!  There is no suspended animation this time, and Captain Marvel finds Sivana and destroys his Universal Will-Power Paralyzer in a matter of seconds.

As Captain Marvel flies Dr. Sivana to jail, Cap tells him, "Speaking of time you'll be doing a lot of it -- behind bars!  I hope you have a calendar watch to keep track of the years!"

This was a fairly short adventure for Cap and Billy, but what I enjoyed about it was Sivana once again using his Suspendium compound to try and defeat Captain Marvel.  It didn't work the first time, and it didn't work this time either!

*According to Mike's Amazing World of Comics

Captain Marvel's Bronze Age Adventures Begin

Captain Marvel exited comics with the last issue of Whiz Comics #155 (printed March 6, 1953) and Captain Marvel Adventures #150 (printed August 10, 1953).  For twenty years we didn't hear a peep from Billy Batson or the World's Mightiest Mortal.  Where did Captain Marvel go?  Why did he leave Fawcett City without notice!  That silence was broken on December 14, 1972 when DC published Shazam! #1!

In the pages of Shazam! #1 we discover what happened during those silent years.  Captain Marvel wasn't on vacation - he had been placed in suspended animation by none other than the world's wickedest scientist, Dr. Sivana!

You see, Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family (Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel, Jr.) were being honored by the Mayor of Fawcett City one day in 1953.  Many of the Marvel's close friends as well as most of the city were in attendance.  Suddenly, a strange ray captures the mighty Marvels along with some of their friends and draws them into deep space, taken captive by Dr. Sivana and his odious offspring, Georgia and Sivana, Jr.  

Dr. Sivana places the Marvels and friends into a globe of Suspendium, a compound crafted by Sivana that will keep the captives in suspended animation forever!  However, thanks to a mishap caused by his son, Sivana and family become trapped in Suspendium along with the Marvels.  (NOTE: If you've read Thunderworld then you've seen Suspendium in action!)

For twenty years they remain in deep space orbiting the sun while captive in Suspendium.  As they moved closer to the sun, the Suspendium began to melt away!  Captain Marvel is the first to awaken from suspended animation and immediately takes action to rescue everyone while the scheming Sivanas escape.

The Marvels get their friends safely back to Fawcett City, but after their time in suspended animation they are dazed and unaware that twenty years had passed while they were in deep space.  The friends the Marvels rescued were Uncle Dudley, Joan Jameson (Billy and Captain Marvel's secretary), Sterling Morris (WHIZ station owner), Cissie Sommerly (Billy's girl friend), Ma and Pa Potter (Billy rents an apartment from them), Professor Edgewise (lives in the same boardinghouse as Freddie Freeman), Beautia Sivana, and Tawky Tawny.  We will see more of these friends throughout the Bronze Age Captain Marvel comic series!

Shazam! #1 also retells the origin of Captain Marvel, staying true to the original story as told in the pages of Whiz Comics #2.  And who could tell it better than C. C. Beck himself??!!??

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this comic.  These were the Captain Marvel comics I grew up with and collected (and lost)! DC brought Captain Marvel back into print in a way that explained his twenty years of silence.  Captain Marvel would go on to have some great new adventures in the Bronze Age of comics!