MA POTTER
Real Name: Potter (first name unrevealed)
Class: Parallel Earth (Earth-S) human
Occupation: Landlord
Group Affiliation: None
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Fawcett City, Earth-S
First Appearance: Captain Marvel Adventures (Fawcett) #133 (June, 1952)
Powers: None.
History: Ma and Pa Potter were landlords who rented a room to Billy Batson, secretly the hero Captain Marvel.
(Shazam! I #1) - <1953> The mayor of Fawcett City threw a celebration at city hall to honor the Marvel Family, with a number of their friends and fans in attendance, including Ma and Pa Potter. The wicked Sivana Family chose that moment to strike from Sivana's spaceship, hitting the crowd with a vortex transporter paralyzer ray, drawing them into space, and encasing them in a globe of suspendium, a compound that would put them in suspended animation. Sivana, Junior slapped his dad on the back for a job well done, causing Sivana to lose control of his spaceship and crashing into the suspendium, trapping the villains with their victims. The globe orbited the sun for decades until the heat of the sun began to melt the suspendium, freeing the Marvel Family. They realized the suspendium was being pulled into the sun's orbit, and had to act fast to save the lives of everyone inside the globe. The Sivana Family revived and flew their spaceship to safety while the Marvel Family pushed the globe back to Earth before smashing it, freeing their friends and returning to Fawcett. Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. went into space to search for the Sivanas, while Captain Marvel checked out one of Sivana's old mountain hideouts. He found the Sivana Family working on a death projector, which Sivana fired up, hoping it would destroy most of Earth's population, making him ruler of the world. Marvel smashed their machine and took the Sivanas to jail, but they all shared a laugh over how happy they were to be a live and out of suspended animation.
(Shazam! I #4) - April 1st rolled around, and Billy Batson was depressed because he hadn't celebrated his birthday in decades, and after being gone from Fawcett so long he thought nobody remembered it was his birthday. Billy returned home, where all his friends, including the Potters threw him a surprise birthday party.
(Shazam! I #7) - New tenants moved into the house Billy Batson rented a room in, and Ma Potter told Billy they kept to themselves. The renter were Mr. Grump and his boss, who despised Captain Marvel because he'd broken up his gang. He considered Marvel such bad luck that he forbade Grump from speaking his name, and Grump balked his boss knocked him out. Ma Potter overheard the end of their conversation, and when the boss told her his friend had a fainting spell she became convinced that saying "Captain Marvel" really was a jinx. She told Pa Potter, who thought she was being superstitious. On his walk to the store he passed Freddy Freeman, who was listening to Billy's WHIZ broadcast about a crack in the Rockaway Dam, and Freddy said the magic words Captain Marvel to turn into Captain Marvel Jr. and save the dam. All Pa saw was the boy say "Captain Marvel," get struck by lightning and disappear, so he was now convinced Ma was right. He ran into Doc Quartz at the drugstore, and told him about what he saw. Doc started gossiping, and as the story kept getting retold and exaggerated people started believing that saying Captain Marvel's name would cause doomsday. Sterling Morris caught wind of the gossip and told Billy he could no longer say "Captain Marvel" on air. Even Billy was wary about saying his own name, suspicious that Sivana put a jinx on him. As Captain Marvel he visited Sivana in jail, and Sivana assured him he wasn't currently plotting against him. Even Sivana refused to say Marvel's name, telling Marvel that he wanted to rule the universe, not destroy it. Marvel returned home, and overheard the boss living next door fencing an expensive cane "capped in marvel"ous silverwork. The world didn't end, so Marvel realized the new superstition was baseless. He apprehended the boss, and scoffed at himself for having believed the rumor the boss inadvertently started. The boss was headed to jail, so he was still convinced the name "Captain Marvel" was a jinx.
(Shazam! I #11) - Billy Batson, Mary and Freddy attended Sterling Morris’ Christmas Eve party along with all of their friends, including Beautia Sivana, Joan Jameson, the Potters, Sunny Sparkle, Mr. Tawky-Tawny and Uncle Dudley. The Sivana Family groused in their lab about how much they hated Christmas, and Sivana activated his Cosmic Clock, speeding up time so Christmas day would only last 10 minutes. The Marvel Family went into action when they noticed time was speeding up around them, and they saved Santa Claus, who was having trouble controlling his sped up reindeer. Santa told them the Sivana Family were trying to ruin Christmas, so the Marvels flew to the Sivanas’ lab and made short work of them. Combining their strength the Marvels stopped the Cosmic clock and pushed its’ hands backwards so Christmas day could proceed at a normal rate. The Marvels visited the Sivanas in jail, and said they found an appropriate Christmas present, the first the Sivanas had ever gotten, for the family that proclaimed themselves the rightful rulers of the universe. The present turned out to be a book entitled The Universe, and the Marvels returned to Morris’ party to celebrate the holiday with their friends.
Comments: Created by Otto Binder & C.C. Beck.
Ma Potter was originally published by Fawcett Comics, which DC obtained the rights to in 1972.
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