Marvel Family #65 (1951)

In the shadow of the Station WHIZ Building is a tenement slum where Gaylord Tinzborough, a starving artist with a “sensitive soul” lives. He dramatically climbs the 9 flights of stairs and is nearly hit by a car on his way home after covering his face in not even wanting to look at his neighborhood. He is waylaid at home by his landlord, Mr. Simon McPinch, who demands his money today. Gaylord forks over what little he has, which is his entire rent, except for two cents, which McPinch is willing to kick him out over. Mary Batson happens to be in the building doing charity work and calls SHAZAM to stop him from falling down the stairs and flies him back up to confront McPinch. She pays him the entire two cents and McPinch leaves, saying he is sated, but that the law is on his side. Gaylord leads her in and says that he's an artistic genius and that his new project will change the tenements forever! Mary Marvel offers him soft encouragement and leaves as he activates his Molecule Molder Machine, which irradiates the whole slum area. On the way out, Mary Batson finds that her basket she was collecting food in (for charity) is now sagging, as if the wicker handle were made of soft taffy. She soon encounters a similarly drooping lamppost. Freddy Freeman soon comes by the slums to peddle papers and finds that they're also melting. He finds a cart of bricks is coming right at him and quickly calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Captain Marvel Junior, but the bricks are soft and doughy, unable to harm him at all as they droop him in his hand. He soon encounters Mary Marvel and they join up with Billy Batson, who doesn't quite believe it until he sees his microphone is melting and calls SHAZAM. The Marvel Family soon find a short brick wall melting over and McPinch having a panic attack, since all of the money that he just has lying around his house has turned into literally liquid assets and are flooding his coffers, forcing the Marvels to carry him out so it won't smother him. The greedy McPinch watches in anguish as his money starts flooding into the streets and down a storm drain. Captain Marvel realizes that buildings are likely going to melt next... Mary Marvel finds a workman working on a lamppost is trapped by it bending over and catches him while Junior saves a painter on a ladder who finds has also become stretchy while Captain Marvel saves some painters on a melting scaffold before they find together that the street and car's tires are melting. They find the tenements are going down next and evacuate everyone while McPinch continues to panic that his slum-house is falling over and he can't collect rent anymore and then angrily turns on them, deciding the Marvel Family are (somehow) responsible. To counter this, they call SHAZAM and CAPTAIN MARVEL to return to normal. They head back to go see Gaylord and he shows off his awesome machine that melts everything into Modernist art! Billy points out that it's not a good method, but Gaylord turns up the Machine, deciding he'll melt people too and that once they recover from being melty, everyone will be handsome people. The kids soon find they're now too soft to use their magic words, but the Molecule Molder Machine breaks down, forcing Gaylord to take some hours to repair it while the kids wonder how long it'll be until they melt into puddles. The kids leg it out into the city to try to get help from Shazam, making it to Shazam's Secret Subway Station, summoning him with the magic brazier and he, recognizing their trouble, calls the lightning for them. Gaylord finds that he's fixed the machine, but now it only plays music for some reason. The Marvel Family return in full force and tell him to shut it down and soon leave to find that the neighborhood has become Expressionist and wobbly all over. McPinch is having a panic attack as, being in a panic room in his house, he is now being crushed by his money due to the round floor and they fly him to Gaylord's garret. Gaylord graciously offers to “accept” only a million dollars for “beautifying” the slums, only for McPinch to try smashing his machine with a modernist chair. Captain Marvel angrily shoves Gaylord into the chair and tells him that he's only made the slums worse since no one can live in their slum houses anymore and fixes up the machine to fix things while Junior and Mary Marvel fly out to shape the buildings back into shape (since they're still soft) into more workable rooms until the Molecule Molder Machine slips and breaks itself due to the floor curving. Gaylord learns his lesson that a sloping floor isn't a very stable one and McPinch gets a call that everyone loves their new apartments and they want to pay him more rent for them! McPinch snidely points out he never improved his buildings because he couldn't afford to, but he now insists that Captain Marvel be paid for it. Captain Marvel accepts it, but says he'll donate it to charity. Later, Billy signs off saying that Simon and Gaylord are now partners in buying up slums and redesigning them in the Marvel Style and everyone is happy it's over.