Captain Marvel Jr. #114

This October 1952 Fawcett issue sends "The World's Mightiest Boy" on one of his most imaginatively outlandish adventures, as the cover by Bud Thompson depicts Captain Marvel Jr. soaring through a star-filled cosmos alongside a full-size train hurtling toward a blazing cosmic vortex, with Saturn and a distant planet completing the spectacular backdrop. The sheer audacity of that image — a locomotive defying the void of space while a caped hero races alongside it — perfectly captures the freewheeling spirit of early-'50s comics adventure. Writer Bill Woolfolk and artist Joe Certa bring "The Train That Travelled Through Space" to life inside, promising the kind of wonderfully inventive storytelling that made this series a delight for young readers of the era.