Did you know Billy Batson's friend, Whitey Murphy, was a character that had his origin outside of Captain Marvel comics?
The Whitey Murphy character was introduced in the 1941 Adventures of Captain Marvel movie serial in which Whitey was a friend of Billy Batsons. Murphy was played by actor William Benedict.
Whitey makes his first appearance in Whiz Comics #22 (published September 5, 1941) in the story "Captain Marvel and the Temple of Itzalotahui." Whitey stops by Billy's office at W.H.I.Z. and the two young men are reunited after working on the Captain Marvel movie together and go on a wonderful adventure!
Billy and Whitey would have further adventures in the pages of Captain Marvel's comics. For example, Cap helps Whitey get a promotion in Captain Marvel Adventures #12.
Even though Whitey Murphy was first introduced to us in the Captain Marvel movie, I'm glad they incorporated him into Cap's comics. He's a great friend of Billy's and a great character who appears now and then on the pages of both the golden-age comics and the Shazam! comics of the 70s.
Captain Marvel Adventures #12 (published June 26, 1942) tells us information about Cap and Shazam's efforts during World War 2! This happens in the story, "Captain Marvel Joins the Army!" I'm not going to write about the entire story, but instead I want to focus on what the story reveals about Shazam and Cap's actions to support the Allies against the Axis.
The story tells us that Billy Batson wanted to join the Army but was turned away because he was to young. So Billy transforms into Captain Marvel and assumes the alias of M. R. Vell who passes all the entrance tests with flying colors! M. R. Vell is offered a commission, but he declines and requests to go to boot camp like all the other soldiers. Captain Marvel joins the Army and is now known as Private M. R. Vell!!
At the end of the adventure, Private M. R. Vell has been summoned to General Headquarters. Upon entering the office, Private M. R. Vell meets the General - and to his surprise (and mine!!) it is none other than the wizard Shazam! Shazam is a General in the Army and is supporting the Allies to defeat the Axis.
While Private M. R. Vell would be a super soldier, General Shazam explains that he has plans for Captain Marvel that far exceed what any soldier could do and Cap will see more fighting action than any soldier will. Then, Billy Batson sums it up for us by explaining, "So that's why Captain Marvel isn't in an Army uniform! But he's in the scrap, shoulder to shoulder with the Army, the Navy, the Marines!"
This story was a fantastic adventure that gives us more information about the wizard Shazam as well as Captain Marvel's exploits during WWII. It also gives us a glimpse at Captain Marvel's patriotic and humble character. I'm sure it gave a morale boost to the men and women serving in the armed forces during the war and to the boys and girls back home.
General Shazam and Captain Marvel joined forces with the Allies during World War 2, and for a moment so did a little known Private - M. R. Vell!!
Did you know that there was a tie-in between the Adventures of Captain Marvel movie serial and Whiz Comics? Whiz Comics #22 has the story of Captain Marvel and the Temple of Itzalotahui (I love that title!!). In this story, Cap and Billy team up with two characters featured in the movie: Professor Malcolm and Whitey Murphy. Betty Wallace is another character from the movie who was featured in Cap's comics, but she does not appear in Whiz Comics #22.
Holy Moley - this really blew my mind! I had previously posted how the movie serial had changed Cap's origin and now to read that Billy worked on making the movie just adds a whole new level of excitement...and confusion! It's pretty incredible to me that they would tie-in the comic with the movie and even more so when the origin of Captain Marvel has been changed.
That's my 'Did You Know' for this post - hope you've enjoyed it!
