Captain Marvel Adventures #17
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCaptain Marvel Adventures #17 is the single issue that gave the World's Mightiest Mortal his most enduring nickname: 'the Big Red Cheese.' In a story scripted by Otto Binder, Dr. Sivana concocts a chemical hate serum to turn the public against Captain Marvel, and in the process hurls a cascade of cheese-based insults at the hero — a phrase that readers and the hero's own allies eventually reclaimed as a term of affection. What began as a villain's taunt became the defining in-universe nickname for a character who was, at that very moment in 1942, among the best-selling superheroes in comics, making the moment culturally sticky in a way few throwaway gags ever are. The issue also marks a first appearance for Dr. Gool, an alien villain, adding to the Fawcett cosmology during its creative peak.
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The issue carries a cover date of November 1942 and an on-sale date corroborated by the U.S. Catalog of Copyright Entries for that year. Writing credits for the issue are shared by Otto Binder, Joe Millard, and Al Liederman, with cover and interior art by C.C. Beck — the principal creative team that was by this point firmly in command of the Captain Marvel Adventures franchise after Beck and Binder had begun reshaping it into the whimsical, humor-inflected superhero anthology that would drive the series to its circulation peak in 1944. The 68-page, full-color, ten-cent anthology format was standard for Fawcett's Captain Marvel line at this stage.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Contains the story 'The Hate Campaign' by Otto Binder, in which Dr. Sivana creates a chemical serum to make people hate Captain Marvel — the scene in which Sivana and then Billy Batson under the drug's influence call the hero a 'Big Red Cheese' or 'Big Red Cheesecake' marks the coinage of Captain Marvel's most famous nickname.
- The 'Big Red Cheese' nickname, introduced here as a villain's insult, was subsequently adopted affectionately by fans and in-universe allies and has remained attached to the character through every iteration, including DC's modern Shazam.
- Grand Comics Database records a first appearance of Dr. Gool, described as an alien villain, in this issue.
- Cover and interior art are by C.C. Beck, working in the painted-cover style; the issue is reprinted in the Fantagraphics anthology 'Take That, Adolf!: The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War' (2017).
- Story contents per indexed sources include: 'The Mummy Mystery,' 'The Sky People,' 'The Revolt of the Shadows,' 'Bazooka!,' and 'The Hate Campaign,' with supporting appearances by Beautia Sivana, Steamboat, and Prof. Edgewise.
- Dr. Sivana, the archnemesis who drives the key story, was created by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck and first appeared in Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940); his appearance here represents one of his many Golden Age clashes with Captain Marvel, a rivalry that ran through more than half of all Fawcett Captain Marvel stories published between 1939 and 1953.
- Captain Marvel Adventures was at this point a rising commercial juggernaut — series-wide annual circulation for 1942 was approximately 6.4 million copies, climbing toward its wartime peak — giving this issue's story developments wide readership across the American comics audience.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Whiz Comics #69 (1952), Take That, Adolf!: The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War #[nn] (2017), Captain Marvel Adventures #17 (2024)
Key issues in Captain Marvel Adventures
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