Context is Captain Marvel Adventures #33, page 55

Transcript:

But Mr. Mind recovers, and …

Before he slaps me again, I’ll crawl under his clothes and give him a de luxe tickle

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 month ago

      And he’s awesome. They made two Captain Marvel movies and Mr. Mind only appeared in a post-credits sequence in the second one. I was very disappointed.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 month ago

        IIRC he was in the post credits in both, talking to Sivana. The 2nd one Sivana was like “Wait, where have you been all this time?” and Mr. Mind replied with “I’m a worm, it takes forever to get anywhere!”

        The current Shazam comic leans into the more batshit crazy elements. Mr. Tawky Tawny? Yup! Giant space dinosaur accountants? Sure! Why not?

  • m_f@midwest.socialOPM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    1 month ago

    Man there’s a lot of casual racism in these old strips. While hunting this down I came across a bit where Billy Batson (Captain Marvel’s alter ego) drinks some river water that turns him brutish and animalistic. His assistant Steamboat (who is black and drawn/speaks very stereotypically) then drinks the same water and is turned intelligent, which has… implications.

    Steamboat’s wiki page says:

    The character played the role of valet to both Captain Marvel and his teenaged alter-ego, Billy Batson, and was intended by Captain Marvel co-creator C. C. Beck to appeal to African-American readers. However, protests from African-Americans and other readers concerning Steamboat’s racial stereotyping led to the character’s disuse after 1945.

    Hmm, wonder why the character was unpopular 🤔