Whiz Comics #25 Dec 1941
First appearance of Freddy Freeman
in "The Origin of Captain Marvel Jr."
Captain Nazi cuts Station WHIZ off the air and Captain Marvel races for
the radio sending station to deal with the issue and saves engineer Whitey
in the process. He then must stop a powerful turbine from spinning
out of control and costing the lives of innocent people.
Later, Captain Nazi chooses to make a scene of his wickedness by attacking
an air show with the intention of crashing a plane into a crowd of innocents.
Captain Marvel arrives and punches Captain Nazi into the waters of the bay, nearby
the spot where a boy and his grandfather are fishing. Captain Nazi kills the grandfather
and strikes the boy in the waters of the bay. In mere moments, the boy’s life is changed
irrevocably and he is left to die in the ocean alongside the body of his grandfather.
Luckily, Captain Marvel arrives in time to get Freddy, the boy, to a hospital. Unfortunately,
his injuries are quite severe and the doctors don’t know if the boy will survive the night.
Rather than let Freddy die alone, Billy hatches a desperate plan, sneaking Freddy out
of the hospital and bringing him to a secret underground chamber in the subway.
There Billy calls upon the ancient wizard Shazam in order to save a dying Freddy.
Shazam's power being limited, he tells Billy to speak his name and then as Captain Marvel
give up some of the might that he has been endowed with in order to save Freddy's life. When
Freddy sees Captain Marvel and speaks his name he becomes Captain Marvel Jr. for the first time.
Script by France Herron,
art by C. C. Beck and Mac Raboy