Captain Marvel Jr #89 (Feud With a House) September 1950

The writer of this story points out the contradiction in the Captain Marvel Jr. mythos. CMJ receives his powers from the ancient gods (a spiritual power). The Blue Boy has battled ghosts and evil spirits yet he (maybe just Freddy) takes a modern materialist position. The crippled newsboy notes, "Of course, I don't really believe the house was trying to carry out that curse! But it was a strange series of coincidences!"  Then a truck runs into Freddy's newsstand. The truck is filled with the wreckage of the Van Gloot house. The ending caption says "Whence does come the spirit of evil? Can it really animate apparently mindless objects...such as a house? Freddy Freeman still thinks not! But for a while he certainly had good reasons to doubt his convictions." Art by Joe Certa.

Captain Marvel Jr #89 ( The Doom of Freddy Freeman, September 1950)

Dr Albert Steinein looks like Dr Albert Einstein (note convoluted spelling). This story is somewhat similar to "Twenty Four Hours to Live!" CMJ #35 (January 1946) except it is Freddy who will die in this story not CapJr. Freddy makes the right decision to save another's life who leads to saving his own. Freddy concludes, "I guess it's true that only in trying to help others do we really find our own salvation!" From a Christian perspective this statement is not good theology. Good deeds like saving someone's life is an outgrowth of one's salvation not a means of salvation. Art by Joe Certa.

Captain Marvel Jr. #89 (The Mystery of Jonah Jinx September 1950)

One of the themes running through a number of later Captain Marvel Jr stories was the silliness of superstition. Perhaps the irony lost on many young readers was a magic-based hero railing against superstition. The villain in this story uses the ability of "jinxes" to come "true" as a scam devise to defraud the wealthy Mr. Crenshaw of his property. It seems as if Mr. Jenks went to a lot of trouble (even with homicidal intent)  to collect junk even  "jinxed junk" worth thousands!" Art by Joe Certa.
Script by Otto Binder (GCD). 

Captain Marvel Jr #89 (September 1950) The Ant Crook

This is one of the stupidest and silliest CMJ stories of 1950. The ants are very comical looking not fearsome or menacing (perhaps this was intentional as anti-comic book pressure was mounting at this time). The Blue Boy enjoys hobnobbing with royalty even if they are ants. At the end the Queen ant proclaims, "This will never happen again, I assure you! Henceforth let there be peace between humans and ants, as before!" The World's Most  Powerful Boy pontificates, "Right, your majesty! There is plenty of room in the world for all kinds of people to live in peace and harmony! Live and let live! This was not one of Otto Binder's better efforts. Art by Joe Certa.