The Lost Marvel Episode III: 2 for the Money, 2 for the Freckles at 4:23 PM

Freckles Marvel was a part of Captain Marvel history, and not a once off oddity either: During the height of Captain Marvel's fame, at which point, need  I remind you, he was easily more recognizable than Superman,  she graced several covers. She had a town for her to inhabit,  supporting characters to her, and even a nifty apellation. And seemingly overnight, she banished off the face of the earth, never to be tarted up, or gritted up, or killed off. Just oblivion.

But she won't stay forgotten for long, because, I'm covering all her adventures in my series The Lost Marvel.

In this episode we see a very different side of Mary Dudely/Freckles Marvel. Like all good stories, it starts with the protagonist finding out she's rich.

Or, you know...maybe he was really good at crime.

Naturally, we've seen this story a million times. Frecks gets a million dollars from some offscreen dead relative and goes money crazy and conceited and forgets everyone she knew, until she loses it, and finds out the real treasure is family/friendship. That's when the writer of this story shyamalans you.

I mean, wouldn't that be the oldest friggin cliche in the book!

That's right.  Not being a shithead like her Uncle, Mary Dudely spends her first day buying stuff on credit (and people take her word for it) before she even gets the money.  She gets Mary Batson on her shopping spree, and she's secretly proud of her friend. But If there's something Mary D loves herself more than charitable donations, it's violence, so she buys herself a B-B gun.

So she can fire off a few rounds before sleeping.

After a good night shooting the shit, she goes to bed. And life had never been sweeter.

So she gets kidnaped immediately.

Unlike the art for this stories, the Swamps existence remains constant.

After a ransom note is recieved in the Dudely home, Mary Marvel goes on the trail for the kidnappers. Her search leads her to...Mary dudely owning the two kidnappers with her BB gun. Why'd they let her keep that thing?

Gritty Reboot of Freckles Marvel should involve  play swords.

One of the ruffians tries to escalate things by pulling a gun on Mdudz, to which the other disagrees. Of course, Mary Marvel  clocks the more violent guy. But then they pull another twist.

I can recognize him now that I can see the missing 20 percent of his face!

That's right, the other kidnapper is THE GUY WHO HAD INHERITED HER THE MONEY! Turns out he was alive and poor, and the inheritance was to another similarly named girl by another similarly named uncle a town over.  When he heard his niece had gotten rich, he kidnapped her.  This family is...a little disfunctional.

And they won't forgive me, even if the town is named after me!

Freckie gets pretty dismayed that she's gonna have to now pay for the stuff she bought, but then yet another twist! There was a reward for the guy she caught! It's enough to pay her bills. And so, Mary Dudely ends the story with a single earned penny and a smile on her face.

The bank does not accept "helped a lot of poor people"as a down payment on a yacht, though.

There were several  new things for Mary Dudely. This is her first story she's out of her costume for the long run. We see her parents for the first time. And, oh yeah, this is the first evidence  we get she's anything more than a terrible person.

When we first met her, there was this whole, "oh, here comes an idiot to pretend to be a superhero hahahaha what an idiot."  vibe. But overtime they've continued to expand on the character, to the point you get that Mary Marvel wasn't just being naive to think well of her. Or maybe I'm reading way too much into this. Why don't we flip a few pages... and see what's next?