Master Comics #29
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMaster Comics #29 (August 1942) is a prime artifact of Fawcett's wartime Golden Age output, landing squarely in the celebrated early run of Captain Marvel Jr. that transformed the anthology into one of the most artistically distinctive superhero titles of its era. Mac Raboy's cover and lead story art represent the grimly realistic, cinematically composed style that set the Captain Marvel Jr. feature apart from virtually every other superhero strip of the period — a tonal departure so striking that imitators across the spin-off Captain Marvel Jr. solo title were, by contemporary accounts, essentially trying to trace it. The issue belongs to the run (Master Comics #23–32) later judged significant enough to anchor DC's Shazam! Family Archives, Volume 1 (2006), cementing its place in the permanent historical record of the character. As a wartime anthology it also captures Fawcett's full stable — Captain Marvel Jr., Bulletman and Bulletgirl, Minute-Man, El Carim, and Buck Jones — in a single 68-page package that illustrates both the breadth and the editorial ambition of one of the Golden Age's most commercially successful publishers.
In "The Iron Heel of the Huns!" from Master Comics #29 (1942), Freddy Freeman—now Captain Marvel Jr.—is dropped behind enemy lines in Nazi Germany to rescue the leader of a secret resistance movement, trapped in a heavily fortified prison. With his powers and courage tested like never before, he must navigate a web of danger and deception to accomplish his mission.
In "null," the Flying Detectives take on a deadly mystery when a series of crimes point to a villain wielding concentrated bee venom as a weapon. Their investigation leads them to a greedy chauffeur with a secret obsession—his wealthy boss, a woman he’s determined to marry, no matter the cost.
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By the time issue #29 reached newsstands on July 8, 1942, Master Comics had already pivoted its identity around Captain Marvel Jr., who had taken over the lead slot from issue #23 onward after a celebrated three-issue crossover origin. Fawcett staff artist Mac Raboy — who had designed the character alongside writer Ed Herron — continued as the regular cover and lead-story artist, bringing the 'romantic realism' style that critics and colleagues would later describe as pace-setting for the anthology format. Writer Joe Millard scripted the lead Captain Marvel Jr. chapter, titled 'The Iron Heel of the Huns!', while Phil Bard, Ralph Carlson, and Kin Platt handled the backup features; the anthology ran at 68 pages for a dime, a format Fawcett used consistently for Master Comics through this period.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: August 1942; on-sale date: July 8, 1942; published by Fawcett Publications at a cover price of ten cents.
- 68-page anthology containing 9 stories; lead feature is Captain Marvel Jr. in 'The Iron Heel of the Huns!' running 14 pages.
- Cover and Captain Marvel Jr. story art by Mac Raboy, whose darker, more realistic draftsmanship defined the visual identity of the Captain Marvel Jr. feature and was widely imitated in the character's concurrent solo title.
- Writer Joe Millard scripted the Captain Marvel Jr. lead; additional art credits include Phil Bard (Bulletman), Ralph Carlson, and Kin Platt.
- Backup features include Bulletman and Bulletgirl (James Barr and Susan Kent), Minute-Man ('The Fumes of Fear'), El Carim, Buck Jones Frontier Marshal, and Companions Three — a representative cross-section of Fawcett's full mid-war anthology lineup.
- Falls within the historically significant Master Comics #23–32 run, all of which were reprinted in DC's Shazam! Family Archives, Volume 1 (2006), with art by Mac Raboy and others.
- Captain Marvel Jr. had become the regular lead of Master Comics starting with issue #23 (February 1942), following his origin in a crossover spanning Whiz Comics #25 and Master Comics #21–22 in late 1941.
- Captain Marvel Jr.'s alter ego, Freddy Freeman, was conceived as a permanently disabled teenage newsboy — a working-class hero whose stories regularly engaged with espionage, organized crime, and Axis villainy in a more somber register than the whimsical Captain Marvel Adventures title.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Captain Marvel Jr. [Mighty Midget Comic] #11 (1942), The Shazam! Family Archives #1 (2006), Justice League: Cry for Justice #5 (2010), Take That, Adolf!: The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War #[nn] (2017)
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