| Character name | Captain Marvel |
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| Converted | y |
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| Caption | The traditional Captain Marvel, painted by Alex Ross. |
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| Alter ego | William Joseph "Billy" Batson |
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| Publisher | Fawcett Comics (1939–1953) DC Comics (1972–present) |
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| Debut | Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940) |
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| Creators | C. C. BeckBill Parker |
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| Alliances | Marvel FamilyJustice LeagueJustice Society of AmericaSquadron of Justice |
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| Aliases | Captain Thunder, Shazam, Marvel, Black Billy |
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| Powers | Magically bestowed aspects of various mythological figures which include: vast super-strength, speed and stamina, physical and magical invulnerability, flight, fearlessness, vast wisdom and enhanced mental perception, & control over and emission of magic lightning. |
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| Cat | super |
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| Subcat | Fawcett Comics |
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| Hero | y |
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| Sortkey | Captain Marvel |
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| Addcharcat1 | DC Comics superheroes |
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Captain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940). With a premise that taps adolescent fantasy, Captain Marvel is the alter ego of Billy Batson, a youth who works as a radio news reporter and was chosen to be a champion of good by the wizard Shazam. Whenever Billy speaks the wizard's name, he is instantly struck by a magic lightning bolt that transforms him into an adult superhero empowered with the abilities of six legendary figures. Several friends and family members, most notably Marvel Family cohorts Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr., can share Billy's power and become "Marvels" themselves.
Hailed as "The World's Mightiest Mortal" in his adventures, Captain Marvel was nicknamed "The Big Red Cheese" by arch-villain Doctor Sivana, an epithet later adopted by Captain Marvel's fans. Based on sales, Captain Marvel was the most popular superhero of the 1940s, as his Captain Marvel Adventures comic book series sold more copies than Superman and other competing superhero books during the mid-1940s. Captain Marvel was also the first comic book superhero to be adapted to film, in a 1941 Republic Pictures serial titled Adventures of Captain Marvel.
Fawcett ceased publishing Captain Marvel-related comics in 1953, due in part to a copyright infringement suit from DC Comics alleging that Captain Marvel was an illegal infringement of Superman. In 1972, DC licensed the Marvel Family characters and returned them to publication, acquiring all rights to the characters by 1991. DC has since integrated Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family into their DC Universe, and have attempted to revive the property several times. However, Captain Marvel has not regained widespread appeal with new generations, although a Shazam! live-action Saturday morning television series featuring the character ran for three seasons on CBS in the 1970s.
Because Marvel Comics trademarked their Captain Marvel comic book during the interim between the original Captain Marvel's Fawcett years and DC years, DC Comics is unable to promote and market their Captain Marvel/Marvel Family properties under that name. Since 1972, DC has instead used the trademark Shazam! as the title of their comic books and thus the name under which they market and promote the character. Consequently, Captain Marvel himself is frequently erroneously referred to as Shazam.
==Publication history==
Development and inspirations
After the success of
National Comics' new superhero characters
Superman and
Batman,
Fawcett Publications decided in 1939 to start its own comics division. Fawcett recruited writer Bill Parker to create several hero characters for the first title in their line, tentatively titled
Flash Comics. Besides penning stories featuring
Ibis the Invincible,
Spy Smasher,
Golden Arrow,
Lance O'Casey,
Scoop Smith, and
Dan Dare for the new book, Parker also wrote a story about a team of six superheroes, each possessing a special power granted to them by a mythological figure. Fawcett Comics' executive director Ralph Daigh decided it would be best to combine the team of six into one hero who would embody all six powers. Parker responded by creating a character he called "Captain Thunder." Staff artist Clarence Charles "C. C." Beck was recruited to design and illustrate Parker's story, rendering it in a direct, somewhat
cartoony style that became his trademark.
The first issue of the comic book, printed as both Flash Comics #1 and Thrill Comics #1, had a low-print run in the fall of 1939 as an ashcan copy created for advertising purposes. Shortly after its printing, however, Fawcett found it could not trademark "Captain Thunder," "Flash Comics," or "Thrill Comics," because all three names were already in use. Consequently, the book was renamed Whiz Comics, and Fawcett artist Pete Costanza suggested changing Captain Thunder's name to "Captain Marvelous", which the editors shortened to "Captain Marvel." The word balloons in the story were re-lettered to label the hero of the main story as "Captain Marvel." Whiz Comics #2, dated February 1940, was published in late 1939. Since it was the first of that title to actually be published, the issue is sometimes referred to as Whiz Comics #1, despite the issue number printed on it.
Inspirations for Captain Marvel came from a number of sources. His visual appearance was modeled after that of Fred MacMurray, a popular American actor of the period. C. C. Beck's later versions of the character would resemble other American actors, including Cary Grant and Jack Oakie. Fawcett Publications' founder, Wilford H. Fawcett, was nicknamed "Captain Billy," which inspired the name "Billy Batson" and Marvel's title as well. Fawcett's earliest magazine was titled Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, which inspired the title Whiz Comics. In addition, Fawcett adapted several of the elements that had made Superman, the first popular comic book superhero, popular (super strength and speed, science-fiction stories, a mild mannered reporter alter ego), and incorporated them into Captain Marvel. Fawcett's circulation director Roscoe Kent Fawcett recalled telling the staff, "give me a Superman, only have his other identity be a 10 or 12-year-old boy rather than a man."
As a result, Captain Marvel was given a twelve-year-old boy named Billy Batson as his alter ego. In the origin story printed in Whiz Comics #2, Billy, a homeless newsboy, is led by a mysterious stranger to a secret subway tunnel. An odd subway car with no visible driver takes them past Seven statues depicting the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man (Pride, Envy, Greed, Hatred, Selfishness, Sloth, and Injustice) to the lair of the wizard Shazam, who grants Billy the power to become the adult superhero Captain Marvel and shows him his life, after which a stone above Shazam's head crushes him, although his ghost says he will give advice when a brazier is lighted. In order to transform into Captain Marvel, Billy must speak the wizard's name, an acronym for the six various legendary figures who had agreed to grant aspects of themselves to a willing subject: the wisdom of Solomon; the strength of Hercules; the stamina of Atlas; the power of Zeus; the courage of Achilles; and the speed of Mercury. Speaking the word produces a bolt of magic lightning which transforms Billy into Captain Marvel; speaking the word again reverses the transformation with another bolt of lightning.
Captain Marvel wore a bright red costume, inspired by both military uniforms and ancient Egyptian and Persian costumes as depicted in popular operas, with gold trim and a lightning bolt insignia on the chest. The body suit originally included a buttoned lapel, but was changed to a one-piece skintight suit within a year at the insistence of the editors (the current DC costume of the character has the lapel restored to it since 1994). The costume also included a white-collared cape trimmed with gold flower symbols, usually asymmetrically thrown over the left shoulder and held around his neck by a gold cord. The cape came from the ceremonial cape worn by the British nobility, photographs of which appeared in newspapers in the 1930s.
In addition to introducing the main character and his alter ego, Captain Marvel's first adventure in Whiz Comics #2 also introduced his archenemy, the evil Doctor Sivana, and found Billy Batson talking his way into a job as an on-air radio reporter. Captain Marvel was an instant success, with Whiz Comics #2 selling over 500,000 copies. By 1941, he had his own solo series, Captain Marvel Adventures, while continuing to appear in Whiz Comics as well. He also made periodic appearances in other Fawcett books, including Master Comics.
Fawcett years: the Marvel Family, allies, and enemies
Through his adventures, Captain Marvel soon gained a host of enemies. His most frequent foe was
Doctor Sivana, a
mad scientist who was determined to rule the world, yet was thwarted by Captain Marvel at every turn. He had two non-evil children, the beautiful Beautia who loved Captain Marvel, and superstrong Magnificus. Sivana's evil children, Georgia and Sivana, Jr., were later introduced to the comics, and they resembled their father both physically and mentally. Marvel's other villains included
Adolf Hitler's champion
Captain Nazi, an older Egyptian renegade Marvel called
Black Adam (whose sole Golden Age appearance was in
Marvel Family #1), an evil magic-powered brute named
Ibac, who gained powers from historical villains, and an artificially intelligent
nuclear-powered robot called
Mister Atom. The most notorious Captain Marvel villains, however, were the nefarious
Mister Mind and his Monster Society of Evil, which recruited several of Marvel's previous adversaries. The "Monster Society of Evil" story arc ran as a twenty-five chapter serial in
Captain Marvel Adventures #22–46 (March 1943 – May 1945), with Mister Mind eventually revealed to be a highly intelligent yet tiny
worm from another planet. The Monster Society was the first criminal group in comics with members from past stories, including Sivana, Ibac, and Captain Nazi, along with new foes, like Herkimer the crocodile man and a multi-headed Hydra. Even Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo were members, along with other Nazis. The Society tried many plans, firstly trying to use Captain Nazi to steal magic fortune-telling pearls, using a film to intimidate the world, and even trying to use a giant cannon to blow holes in countries. Mr. Mind is eventually executed in the electric chair for 186,744 murders at the end of the arc, but would be reintroduced decades later in DC Comics'
Shazam! #2.
In the early 1940s, Captain Marvel also gained allies in the Marvel Family, a collective of superheroes with powers and/or costumes similar to Captain Marvel's. (By comparison, Superman spin-off character Superboy first appeared in 1944, while Supergirl first appeared in 1959). Whiz Comics #21 (September 1941) marked the debut of the Lieutenant Marvels, the alter egos of three other boys (all also named Billy Batson) who found that, by saying "Shazam!" in unison, they too could become Marvels. In Whiz Comics #25 (December 1941), a friend named Freddy Freeman, mortally wounded by an attack from Captain Nazi, was given the power to become teenage boy superhero Captain Marvel Jr. with a distinctive gold on blue version of the Marvel costume. A year later in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (December 1942), Billy and Freddy met Billy's long-lost twin sister Mary Bromfield, who discovered she could, by saying the magic word "Shazam," become teenage superheroine Mary Marvel, although the pre-Crisis Mary Marvel got her power from 'goddesses'.
; Lt. "Tall" Marvel; Lt. "Hillbilly" Marvel; and Mary Marvel. Uncle Marvel can be seen seated at the piano in the background.]]
Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr. were featured as a team in a new comic series entitled The Marvel Family. This was published alongside the other Captain Marvel-related titles, which now included Wow Comics featuring Mary, Master Comics featuring Junior, and both Mary Marvel Comics and Captain Marvel Jr. Comics. Non-super-powered Marvels such as the "lovable con artist" Uncle Marvel and his niece, Freckles Marvel, also sometimes joined the other Marvels on their adventures. A funny animal spin-off, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, was created in 1942 for Fawcett's Funny Animals comics, and later given a series of his own.
As with other superheroes, Captain Marvel had a number of non-powered friends and associates as well. These included Mr. Morris, Billy's employer at WHIZ radio; Joan Jameson, Billy's secretary (and one of the few people to know his secret identity); Beautia Sivana, Dr. Sivana's good-natured adult daughter who had a crush on Captain Marvel and only periodically joined forces with her father (and usually by force); and Dexter Knox, an intelligent young scientist who was a friend of Billy's friends. The most prolific of Captain Marvel's supporting characters at Fawcett was Mister Tawky Tawny, an anthropomorphic tiger who'd been fed a serum that allowed him to learn to speak and stand upright.
The members of the Marvel Family often teamed up with the other Fawcett superheroes, who included Ibis the Invincible, Bulletman and Bulletgirl, Spy Smasher, Minute-Man, and Mr. Scarlet & Pinky. Among the many artists and writers who worked on the Marvel Family stories alongside C. C. Beck and main writer Otto Binder were Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Mac Raboy, Pete Costanza, Kurt Schaffenberger, and Marc Swayze.
Copyright infringement lawsuit and cancellation
Through much of the Golden Age of Comic Books, Captain Marvel proved to be the most popular superhero character of the medium with his comics outselling all others, including those featuring Superman. In fact, Captain Marvel Adventures sold fourteen million copies in 1944, and was at one point being published bi-weekly with a circulation of 1.3 million copies an issue (proclaimed on the cover of issue #19 as being the "Largest Circulation of Any Comic Magazine"). As a result, the initial verdict, delivered in 1951, was decided in Fawcett's favor.
National appealed this decision, and Judge Learned Hand declared in 1952 that National's Superman copyright was in fact valid. Judge Hand did not find that the character of Captain Marvel itself was an infringement, but rather that specific stories or super feats could be infringements, and that the truth of this would have to be determined in a re-trial of the case. The judge therefore sent the matter back to the lower court for final determination. Fawcett tried to revive the popularity of its assorted Captain Marvel series in the early 1950s by introducing elements of the horror comics trend that gained popularity at the time. Feeling that a decline in the popularity of superhero comics meant that it was no longer worth continuing the fight, Fawcett agreed to never again publish a comic book featuring any of the Captain Marvel-related characters, and to pay National $400,000 in damages. Fawcett shut down its comics division in the autumn of 1953 and laid off its comic-creating staff. Whiz Comics had ended with issue #155 in June 1953, Captain Marvel Adventures was canceled with #150 (November 1953), and The Marvel Family ended its run with #89 (January 1954).
Marvelman (and Miracleman)
In the 1950s, a small British publisher, L. Miller and Son, published a number of black and white reprints of American comic books, including the Captain Marvel series. With the outcome of the National v. Fawcett lawsuit, L. Miller and Son found their supply of Captain Marvel material abruptly cut off. They requested the help of a British comic writer, Mick Anglo, who created a thinly disguised version of the superhero called Marvelman. Captain Marvel Jr. was adapted to create Young Marvelman, while Mary Marvel had her gender changed to create the male Kid Marvelman. The magic word "Shazam!" was replaced with "Kimota", "Atomik" backwards. The new characters took over the numbering of the original Captain Marvel's United Kingdom series with issue number 25.
Marvelman ceased publication in 1963, but was revived in 1982 by writer Alan Moore in the pages of Warrior Magazine. Beginning in 1985, Moore's black and white serialized adventures were reprinted in color by Eclipse Comics under the new title Miracleman (as Marvel Comics now existed and objected to the use of Marvel in the title), and continued publication in the United States after Warrior's demise. Within the metatextual storyline of the comic series itself, it was noted that Marvelman's creation was based upon Captain Marvel comics, by both Alan Moore and later Marvelman/Miracleman writer Neil Gaiman.
In 2009, Marvel Comics obtained the rights to the original 1950s Marvelman characters and stories.
The M. F. Enterprises Captain Marvel
In 1966,
M. F. Enterprises produced their own Captain Marvel: an
android superhero from another planet whose main characteristic was the ability to split his body into several parts, each of which could move on its own. He triggered the separation by shouting "Split!" and reassembled himself by shouting "Xam!" He had a young human ward named Billy Baxton. This Captain Marvel, who didn't last long, was credited in the comic as being "based on a character created by
Carl Burgos."
DC Comics' Shazam! revival
When superhero comics became popular again in the mid-1960s in what is now called the
Silver Age of Comic Books, Fawcett was unable to revive Captain Marvel because in order to settle the lawsuit it had agreed never to publish the character again. Carmine Infantino, publisher of DC Comics, licensed the characters from Fawcett in 1972, and DC began planning a revival. Because Marvel Comics had by this time established
Captain Marvel as a comic book trademark, DC published their book under the name
Shazam! Since then, that title has become so linked to Captain Marvel that many people have taken to identifying the character as "Shazam" instead of his actual name.
The Shazam! comic series began with issue #1, dated February 1973. It contained both new stories and reprints from the 1940s and 1950s. The first story attempted to explain the Marvel Family's absence by stating that they, Dr. Sivana, Sivana's children, and most of the supporting cast had been accidentally trapped in suspended animation for twenty years when the Sivanas attempted to put the Marvels into suspended animation, until finally breaking free when the Suspendium globe moved towards the Sun.
Dennis O'Neil was the primary writer of the book; his role was later taken over by writers Elliot S. Maggin and E. Nelson Bridwell. C. C. Beck drew stories for the first ten issues of the book before quitting due to creative differences; Bob Oksner and Fawcett alumnus Kurt Schaffenberger were among the later artists of the title.
With DC's Multiverse concept in effect during this time, it was stated that the revived Marvel Family and related characters lived within the DC Universe on the parallel world of "Earth-S". While the series began with a great deal of fanfare, the book had a lackluster reception. The creators themselves had misgivings; Beck said, "As an illustrator I could, in the old days, make a good story better by bringing it to life with drawings. But I couldn't bring the new [Captain Marvel] stories to life no matter how hard I tried." Shazam! was heavily revamped as of #34 (April 1978), with Bridwell providing more realistic stories, accompanied by similar art, the first issue by Alan Weiss and Joe Rubinstein, thereafter by a longtime fan of the character, Don Newton and Schaffenberger. Nevertheless, the next issue was the last one, though the feature was kept alive in a back-up position in a giant-formatted run of World's Finest Comics (from #253, October–November 1978, to #282, August 1982, skipping only #271 which featured a full-length origin of the Superman-Batman team story). Schaffenberger left the feature after #259, and the inking credit subsequently varied. When WFC reverted to the standard 36 pages, leftover Shazam! material saw publication in Adventure Comics (#491, September 1982, and #492, October 1982); the remaining eleven issues of that run contained reprints, Shazam! represented by mostly Fawcett era stories (left out of an all Legion of Super-Heroes #500, and the final #503, where two features were doubled up to complete their respective story arcs). With their 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series, DC fully integrated the characters into the DC Universe. With the exception of an appearance by Lex Luthor in #15, (November–December 1974), the early, faithful-to-the-40s-comics versions never crossed over with the mainstream DC characters.
Captain Marvel in the late 1980s
The first
post-Crisis appearance of Captain Marvel was in the 1986
Legends miniseries. In 1987, Captain Marvel appeared as a member of the
Justice League in
Keith Giffen and
J. M. DeMatteis' relaunch of that title. That same year (spinning-off from
Legends), he was also given his own miniseries titled
Shazam! The New Beginning. With this four-issue miniseries, writers
Roy and Dann Thomas and artist Tom Mandrake attempted to re-launch the Captain Marvel mythos and bring the wizard Shazam, Dr. Sivana, Uncle Dudley, and Black Adam into the modern DC Universe with an altered origin story.
The most notable change that Thomas, Giffen, and DeMatteis introduced into the Captain Marvel mythos was that the personality of young Billy Batson is retained when he transforms into the Captain; this change would remain for most future uses of the character as justification for his sunny, Golden-Age personality in the darker modern-day comic book world instead of the Golden Age depiction which tended to treat Captain Marvel and Billy as two separate personalities.
This revised version of Captain Marvel also appeared in one story-arc featured in the short-lived anthology Action Comics Weekly #623–626, released from October 25, 1988–November 15, 1988. At the end of the arc, it was announced that this would lead to a new Shazam! ongoing series, which failed to materialize.
The Power of Shazam!
DC finally purchased the rights to all of the Fawcett Comics characters in 1991. In 1994, due to the unpopular revision of the character from 1987's Shazam: The New Beginning miniseries, Captain Marvel was retconned again and given a revised origin in The Power of Shazam!, a painted graphic novel written and illustrated by Jerry Ordway. This story became Captain Marvel's official DC Universe origin story (with his appearances in Legends and Justice League still counting as part of this continuity).
Ordway's story more closely followed Captain Marvel's Fawcett origins, with only slight additions and changes. For example, in this version of the origin, it is Black Adam (in his non-powered form of Theo Adam) who killed Billy Batson's parents, and the "mysterious stranger" who leads Billy to the subway tunnel with statues of the Sins and the wizard Shazam is revealed to be the ghost of his father. The graphic novel was a critically acclaimed success, leading to a Power of Shazam! ongoing series which ran from 1995 to 1999. That series reintroduced the Marvel Family and many of their allies and enemies into the modern day DC Universe.
Marvel also appeared in Mark Waid and Alex Ross' critically acclaimed 1996 alternate universe Elseworlds Kingdom Come miniseries. Set twenty years in the future, Kingdom Come features a brainwashed Captain Marvel playing a major role in the story as a mind-controlled pawn of an elderly Lex Luthor. Being one of the most powerful beings on Earth, his mere presence unnerves many of those around him and, brainwashed, he even sets out to cause what could lead to the end of the world. However, Marvel ultimately sacrifices himself as an act of redemption and, as a figure of martyrdom, becomes the symbol of a new world order.
In 2000, Captain Marvel starred in an oversized special graphic novel, Shazam! Power of Hope, written by Paul Dini and painted by Alex Ross.
JSA, 52, and other early/mid 2000s appearances
.]]
Since the cancellation of the
Power of Shazam! title in 1999, the Marvel Family have made appearances in a number of other DC comic books. Black Adam became a main character in
Geoff Johns and
David S. Goyer's
JSA series, which depicted the latest adventures of the
Justice Society of America. Captain Marvel also appeared regularly in
JSA in 2003 and 2004. He also appeared in
Frank Miller's graphic novel
, the sequel to Miller's highly-acclaimed graphic novel
The Dark Knight Returns.
The Marvel Family played an integral part in DC's 2005/2006 Infinite Crisis crossover, which began DC's efforts to retool the Shazam! franchise. In the Day of Vengeance miniseries, which preceded the Infinite Crisis event, the wizard Shazam is killed by the Spectre, and Captain Marvel assumes the wizard's place in the Rock of Eternity which is rebuilt by the Shadowpact, although he has trouble with the Sins imprisoned there as he hears their voices. The Marvel Family made a handful of guest appearances in the year-long weekly maxi-series 52, which featured Black Adam as one of its main characters and introduced Adam's "Black Marvel Family", consisting of Adam himself, his wife Isis, and her brother Osiris, and Sobek. Marvel gave the amulet which was used to give Isis her powers. Marvel marries Adam and Isis. He helped battle Sabbac later on Halloween. The Marvel Family also appeared frequently in the 12-issue bimonthly painted Justice maxi-series by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, and Doug Braithwaite, published from 2005 to 2007. When Black Adam attacks the world in retaliation to the deaths of Osiris and Isis at the hands of the Four Horsemen, Captain Marvel is beaten by him, along with the rest of the Marvel family. He first asks the Egyptian gods to take Adam's powers but fails and is told he has their blessing, then uses his lightning to change Adam back. He also changes Adam's magic word with the help of other mystics and he claims he will never tell anybody else.
The Trials of Shazam! and Final Crisis
The Trials of Shazam!, a 12-issue maxi-series written by
Judd Winick and illustrated by
Howard Porter for the first eight issues and by Mauro Cascioli for the remaining four, began publication in August 2006. The series redefined the
Shazam! mythos, the characters, and their place in the DC Universe.
Trials of Shazam! featured Captain Marvel, now with a white costume and long white hair, taking over the role of the wizard Shazam under the name
Marvel, while Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel lose their powers. A powerless Freddy Freeman is then drafted to prove himself worthy to each of the six gods represented by the "Shazam" acronym so that he can become their new champion and herald under the name
Shazam, although a witch Sabina from the Council of Merlin attempts to take the power herself, as ordered by her father Merlin. Atlas is killed during the series by Sabina, but Apollo's healing replaces him. Marvel helps Freddy when he is trapped by the weight that Atlas bore.
In the pages of the 2007–2008 Countdown to Final Crisis limited series, Black Adam gives the powerless Mary Batson his powers, turning her into a more villainous character. She eventually relinquishes the power and gets powers from the Olympians, but she is tempted by her old power. By the end of the series, as well as in DC's 2008–2009 Final Crisis limited series, the now black-costumed Mary Marvel, possessed by the evil New God Desaad, becomes a villain, joining forces with Superman villain Darkseid and fighting both Supergirl and Freddy Freeman/Shazam, who turns her back using his lightning.
Justice Society of America
The redesigned Marvel made a few appearances in various DC comics outside of
The Trials of Shazam! maxi-series for two years before returning in
Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #23 in January 2009.
Justice Society writer Geoff Johns collaborated with writer/artist Jerry Ordway to write a three-issue storyline that would again retool the
Shazam! franchise.
In the story, Marvel is ambushed by Black Adam and Isis, who are intent on taking over the Rock of Eternity. Isis robs Marvel of his powers by saying Shazam from a spell book to send lightning at him, and banishes a powerless Billy Batson back to Fawcett City, where he tries to contact Freddy, but instead contacts the Justice Society for help. Upon arriving at the Rock of Eternity with Billy, the Justice Society fights Black Adam and Isis. Billy is abducted by the now evil Mary Marvel, who shares her powers with him and turns him into an evil teenage Captain Marvel. The evil Billy and Mary join Adam and Isis in fighting the Justice Society. However, Adam switches sides when Isis sets into action her plan to kill off humanity and destroy modern civilization, firstly killing civilians of Khandaq. With the help of the Justice Society's Flash and the spirit of C.C Batson (Mary and Billy's father), the dead wizard Shazam's soul is retrieved from an underworld realm known as the Rock of Finality, and Adam gives up his powers to resurrect him from the statue he is imprisoned in. Shazam promptly takes his powers back from the other three Black Marvels, turns Adam and Isis into stone statues, and banishes Billy and Mary from the Rock of Eternity upon stating that they have failed him. He threatens to come after Freddy Freeman, as his powers come directly from the Gods. They are later seen walking the streets of Fawcett City while homeless and pondering the fate of their father's spirit.
Billy and Mary Batson made a brief appearance during DC's 2009/2010 Blackest Night saga in a one-shot special, The Power of Shazam! #48. The siblings watch the rampage of the once-dead Osiris, now revived as an undead Black Lantern, on the internet from their apartment. The issue was written by Eric Wallace, who will also write a Shazam! one-shot due for release in January 2011 featuring Billy, Mary, Freddy Freeman/Shazam, Osiris, and Blaze.
Flashpoint
After history is rewritten by
Professor Zoom in
Flashpoint, radically different versions of Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family are introduced. The new Marvel Family consists of six children who were caught on a subway car that took them to Shazam's lair, and as a result each of the youths were granted with a different one of the wizard's attributes. Billy possesses the courage of Achilles, Freddy possesses the power of Zeus, and an Asian-American boy name Eugene possesses the wisdom of Solomon. Additionally, Mary appears alongside an African-American girl named Darla and an overweight Latino boy named Pedro, each of whom also possess undetermined attributes. Tawkey Tawney is shown with them. The six children possess the collective ability to turn into Captain Thunder by saying the word together, similar to the
Lieutenant Marvels, this timeline's version of Captain Marvel, who has a scarred face which he claims is due to
Wonder Woman, who in this timeline is a villain. The transformation also seems to effect Tawney.
Other appearances
The
mini-series, written by
Judd Winick with art by
Josh Middleton, and published between September 2005 and March 2006, depicted the first post-
Crisis meeting between Superman and Captain Marvel. The meeting proves to be most amicable, with Superman noting that he is impressed to have an ally who may have similar powers to himself, but who is also far more resistant to the kind of magic attacks that he is vulnerable to. However, he is disturbed when he learns that the Captain is actually a child and agrees to Shazam's suggestion that he mentor the boy.
A second Captain Marvel mini-series, , written and illustrated by Jeff Smith (creator of Bone), was published in four 48-page installments between February and July 2007. Smith's Shazam! miniseries, in the works since 2003, is a more traditional take on the character, which updates and reimagines Captain Marvel's origin. Smith's story features a younger looking Billy Batson and Captain Marvel as separate personalities, as they were in the pre-1985 stories, and features a prepubescent Mary Marvel as Captain Marvel's sidekick instead of the traditional teenaged or adult version. Dr. Sivana is Attorney General of the United States, and Mr. Mind looks more like a snake than a caterpillar.
An all-ages Captain Marvel comic, Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam!, debuted in July 2008 under DC's Johnny DC youth-oriented imprint and was published monthly through December 2010. Following the lead and continuity of Smith's version, it was initially written and drawn by Mike Kunkel, creator of Herobear. Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani, of Tiny Titans, took over as writers with issue #5, with Byron Vaughns as main artist until issue 13, when Mike Norton assumed his place for the rest of the series. Kunkel's version returns to the modern concept of having Captain Marvel retain Billy's personality, and also introduces new versions of Black Adam (whose alter ego, Theo Adam, is a child like Billy Batson in this version), King Kull, the Arson Fiend, and Freddy Freeman/Captain Marvel Jr.
Powers and abilities
When Billy Batson says the magic word "Shazam!" and transforms into Captain Marvel, he is granted the following powers:
{|class="wikitable"
|-
|S ||for the wisdom of Solomon ||As Captain Marvel, Billy has instant access to a vast amount of scholarly knowledge, including most known languages and sciences. He has exceptional photographic recall and mental acuity allowing him to read and decipher hieroglyphics, recall everything he has ever learned and solve long mathematical equations. He also has a great understanding of divine phenomenon in the mortal world. The wisdom of Solomon also provides him with counsel and advice in times of need. In early Captain Marvel stories, Solomon's power also gave Marvel the ability to hypnotize people. (Solomon is the only figure in the list not taken from Greco-Roman mythology.)
|-
|H ||for the strength of Hercules* ||Hercules' power grants Captain Marvel immense superhuman strength, making him one of DC Comics' most physically powerful characters; he is able to easily bend steel, punch through walls, and lift massive objects, (including whole continents like South America). In the comics, this strength has evolved in parallel to that of Superman.
|-
|A ||for the stamina of Atlas ||Using Atlas' stamina, Captain Marvel can withstand and survive most types of extreme physical assaults, and heal from them. Additionally, he does not need to eat, sleep, or breathe and can survive unaided in space when in Captain Marvel form. Pre-Crisis, it was implied in some stories to give him invulnerability.
|-
|Z ||for the power of Zeus ||Zeus' power, besides fueling the magic thunderbolt that transforms Captain Marvel, also enhances Marvel's other physical and mental abilities, and grants him resistance against all magic spells and attacks. Marvel can use the lightning bolt as a weapon by dodging it and allowing it to strike an opponent or target. The magic lightning has several uses, such as creating apparatus, restoring damage done to Marvel, and acting as fuel for magic spells. If Billy is poisoned, for example, transforming will enable him to survive.(Captain Marvel Adventures #8) Pre-Crisis it was claimed in some stories to give him invulnerabilty. It can also turn other Marvels back by striking them. It aids interdimensional travel at the Rock of Eternity.
|-
|A ||for the courage of Achilles ||This aspect gives Captain Marvel the courage of Achilles, giving him bravery and in one story it is claimed to give him fighting skills. In the Trials of Shazam! mini-series, this was changed to Achilles' near invulnerability. It also aids Captain Marvel's mental fortitude against most mental attacks.
|-
|M ||for the speed of Mercury ||By channeling Mercury's speed, Captain Marvel can move at superhuman speeds and fly, although in older comics he could only leap great distances. This also gives Marvel the ability to fly to the Rock of Eternity by flying faster than the speed of light.
|}
Repeating the word "Shazam!" transforms Captain Marvel back into Billy. In Whiz Comics #11, Billy is shown to be able to summon up a ghostly version of Captain Marvel by whispering the word, and in other stories the spirit of Captain Marvel was shown talking to Billy. Captain Marvel shares his powers with Marvel Family members Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. In pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths stories, this had no detrimental effect on the heroes' abilities, while in DC's Power of Shazam series and irregularly afterward, the Shazam power was shown to be a finite source which would be divided in half or into thirds depending upon how many Marvels were in active super-powered form at one time.
As he was transformed by magic lightning, Captain Marvel was shown in several stories to be susceptible to both high-powered magic, which can weaken or de-power him, and to significantly high voltages of electricity or lightning to revert him back to Billy Batson form. Likewise, lightning could transform Billy to Captain Marvel. The modern version of Captain Marvel is also vulnerable in the fact that he possesses the immature personality of a teenager. In one story it is shown that if the gods strike their name from the list Captain Marvel loses his powers. It was claimed in some stories that he was invulnerable to every force in the Universe, such as shrinking rays.
The white-clad "Marvel" version of the character from the Trials of Shazam! series also possessed the commands of various magic abilities once owned by the wizard Shazam. However, Marvel was required to remain on the Rock of Eternity and could only be away from the Rock for twenty-four hours at a time.
Other versions
Captain Thunder 1974
In
Superman (vol. 1) #276 (June 1974), Superman found himself at odds with
Captain Thunder, a superhero displaced from another Earth and another time. Thunder had been tricked by his archenemies in the Monster League of Evil into doing evil by a magic spell, and Thunder therefore was made to do battle with Superman. Captain Thunder, whose name was derived from Captain Marvel's original moniker, was a thinly veiled pastiche of Marvel; down to his similar costume, his young alter ego named "
Willie Fawcett" (a reference to the publisher of the original Captain Marvel stories, Fawcett Comics), and a magic word ("Thunder!") which was an acronym for seven entities and their respective powers. He got his power from rubbbing a magic belt buckle with a thunder symbol on it and saying 'Thunder.' He got his powers from Tornado (power), Hare (speed),
Uncas (bravery), Nature (wisdom), Diamond (toughness), Eagle (flight) and Ram (tenacity).
At the time of Superman #276, DC had been publishing Shazam! comics for two years, but had kept that universe separate from those of its other publications. The real Captain Marvel would finally meet Superman in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #137 two years later (although he met Lex Luthor in Shazam! #15, November–December 1974).
Captain Thunder 1982
and
Jerry Ordway.]]
In the early 1980s, a proposal for an updated Captain Marvel was submitted to DC by Roy Thomas, Don Newton, and Jerry Ordway. This version of the character, to be an inhabitant of DC's main Earth-One universe rather than the Fawcett-based Earth-S universe, would have featured an African-American version of Billy Batson, who spoke the magic word "Shazam!" to become Captain Thunder, Earth-One's Mightiest Mortal. This alternate version of the character was never used.
Captain Thunder 2011
In the
Flashpoint event, an alternate timeline is shown, where the wizard split the blessings of the gods between six youths (among whom are Billy and Mary Batson & Freddy Freeman). When the six youths speak the word "Shazam" together, they become Captain Thunder, an alternate version of Captain Marvel.
Supporting cast
Captain Marvel often fights evil as a member of a superhero team known as the Marvel Family, made up of himself and several other heroes: The wizard Shazam who empowers the team, Captain Marvel's sister Mary Marvel and Marvel's protégé Captain Marvel Jr. Before the Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series, the Marvel Family also included part-time members such as Mary's non-powered friend "Uncle" Dudley aka Uncle Marvel, Dudley's non-powered niece Freckles Marvel, a team of proteges (all of whose alter egos are named "Billy Batson") known as the Lieutenant Marvels, and the funny-animal pink rabbit version of Captain Marvel, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny.
Through his adventures, Captain Marvel gained an extensive rogues gallery, the most notable of whom include the evil mad scientist Doctor Sivana (and, pre-Crisis, the Sivana Family), Shazam's corrupted previous champion Black Adam who has powers from Egyptian Gods, Adolf Hitler's champion Captain Nazi, and the mind-controlling worm Mister Mind and his Monster Society of Evil. Other Marvel Family foes include the evil robot Mister Atom, the "World's Mightiest Immortal" Oggar, a god with magic powers and former pupil of Shazam with cloven hooves and member of the Pantheon, who was banished for an attempted rebellion, and Ibac and Sabbac, demon-powered supervillains who transform by saying magic words made up of beings who give them power as Captain Marvel does. For more see List of Captain Marvel (DC comics) enemies.
The Marvel Family's non-powered allies include Dr. Sivana's good-natured adult offspring Beautia and Magnificus Sivana, Mister "Tawky" Tawny the talking tiger, WHIZ radio president and Billy's employer Sterling Morris, Billy's girlfriend Cissie Sommerly, Billy's school principal Miss Wormwood, and Mary's adoptive parents Nick and Nora Bromfield.
Collected editions
The characters appearance have been collected into individual
volumes:
Shazam! From the Forties to the Seventies (1977). Hardcover collection reprinting thirty-seven Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel, Jr., Mary Marvel, and Marvel Family stories from the original Fawcett comics and DC's 1970s Shazam! series. Stories by Bill Parker, Otto Binder, and others; art by C.C. Beck, Marc Swayze, Mac Rayboy, Kurt Shaffenberger, and others. Forward by E. Nelson Bridewell, published by Harmony Books (ISBN 0-51753-127-5).
The Monster Society of Evil - Deluxe Limited Collector's Edition (1989). Compiled and designed by Mike Higgs. Reprints the entire The Monster Society of Evil story arc that ran for two years from Captain Marvel Adventures #22-46 (1943–1945) where Captain Marvel meets Mister Mind and his Monster Society of Evil. This oversized, slipcased hardcover book was strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies. Published by American Nostalgia Library, an imprint of Hawk Books Limited. (ISBN 0-948248-07-6)
The Shazam! Archives, Volumes 1–4 (1992, 1998, 2002, 2005). Hardcover volumes reprinting Captain Marvel's adventures from his earliest Fawcett appearances in titles such as Whiz Comics, Master Comics, and Captain Marvel Adventures from 1940 to 1942. Stories by Bill Parker, Ed Herron, and others; art by C. C. Beck, Pete Costanza, Mac Raboy, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, George Tuska, and others. (ISBN 1-56389-053-4, vol. 1; ISBN 1-56389-521-8, vol. 2; ISBN 1-56389-832-2, vol. 3; ISBN 1-4012-0160-1, vol. 4)
The Shazam! Family Archives, Volume 1 (2006). This spin-off volume features the adventures of Captain Marvel, Jr. from Master Comics #23-32 and Captain Marvel Jr. #1, as well as the origin of Mary Marvel from Captain Marvel Adventures #18. Stories by various; art by Mac Raboy, Al Carreno, Marc Swayze and C.C. Beck. (ISBN 1-4012-0779-0)
Shazam! and the Shazam! Family Annual (2002). An 80-page paperback collection reprinting several Golden Age Marvel Family adventures from Captain Marvel Adventures, Captain Marvel, Jr., and The Marvel Family, including the first appearances of Mary Marvel and Black Adam. Stories by Otto Binder; art by C. C. Beck, Pete Costanza, Mac Rayboy, Marc Swayze, Bud Thompson, and Jack Binder.
Showcase Presents: Shazam! Volume 1 (2006). A five hundred page trade paperback featuring black-and-white reprints of stories from the 1970s Shazam! ongoing series, collecting only the new material that was published (and not the Golden Age reprints) in issues #1-33. Written by Dennis O'Neill, E. Nelson Bridwell and Elliott Maggin; Art by C.C. Beck, Kurt Schaffenberger, Dave Cockrum, Dick Giordano and others. (ISBN 1-4012-1089-9)
Shazam! The Greatest Stories Ever Told (2008). A compilation featuring Captain Marvel stories collected from the Fawcett publications Whiz Comics #2, Captain Marvel Adventures #1, 137, 148, and The Marvel Family #21, 85, and from the DC publications Shazam! #1, 14, DC Comics Presents Annual #3, Superman #276, L.E.G.I.O.N. '91 #31, The Power of Shazam! #33, and Adventures in the DC Universe #15. (ISBN 1-4012-1674-9)
In other media
Film
film serial, starring
Tom Tyler in the title role.]]
The first filmed adaptation of Captain Marvel was produced in 1941.
Adventures of Captain Marvel, starring
Tom Tyler in the title role and
Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy Batson, was a twelve-part
film serial produced by
Republic Pictures in 1941. Often ranked among the finest examples of the form, its release made Captain Marvel the first superhero to be depicted in film. Whitey Murphy, a supporting character in the serial, found his way into Fawcett's Captain Marvel stories, and elements of the serial's plot were later worked into DC's
The Power of Shazam continuity.
The Adventures of Captain Marvel (the man-in-flight effects techniques which, ironically, were originally developed for a Superman film serial that Republic never produced)
In 1950, Columbia Pictures released the comedy/mystery The Good Humor Man with Jack Carson, Lola Albright and George Reeves. The storyline has Carson as an ice cream vendor who also belongs to a home-grown Captain Marvel Club with some of the kids in the neighborhood. Fawcett released a tie-in one-shot the same year the movie appeared, Captain Marvel and the Good Humor Man.
New Line Cinema began development of a Shazam! live-action feature film in the early 2000s, with screenplay drafts by the team of William Goldman & Bryan Goluboff and later being written by John August. Peter Segal was attached as director and former wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was in talks to appear as Black Adam. The Shazam! film was originally being produced by New Line Cinema, which was absorbed into Warner Bros. during the course of pre-production. Following the success of Warner's film noir-inspired Batman film The Dark Knight and the commercial failure of its lighter, family-friendly Speed Racer during the summer of 2008, August departed from the project after being forced to make the film's script more in line with The Dark Knight's serious tone. In the summer of 2009, it was announced Bill Birch and JSA/52 co-author Geoff Johns were assigned to write the screenplay, while Segal remained attached as director. In August, 2010, Los Angeles Times columnist Geoff Boucher reported discussions had begun to possibly cancel the theatrical movie and do a live action series for prime time network television instead.
Captain Marvel's first appearance in Warner Bros.' line of DC Animated Universe direct-to-video films was a brief cameo in 2008's . The character had a more substantial role in the 2009 DTV animated film , based on a Superman/Batman comic book arc, in which Marvel battles Superman under orders from United States president Lex Luthor. Captain Marvel was voiced by Corey Burton. An uncredited Rachael MacFarlane voiced Billy Batson.
Captain Marvel appears in an animated short film entitled (released on the DC Showcase Original Shorts Collection DVD compilation as part of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies) with Jerry O'Connell reprising his role as Captain Marvel and Billy Batson voiced by Zach Callison.
Television
Captain Marvel first came to
television in 1974.
Filmation produced
Shazam!, a live-action
television show which ran from 1974 to 1977 on
CBS. From 1975 until the end of its run, it aired as one-half of
The Shazam!/Isis Hour, featuring Filmation's own
The Secrets of Isis as a companion program.
as Captain Marvel on CBS' Shazam! Saturday morning TV series.]]
Instead of directly following the lead of the comic, the Shazam! TV show took a more indirect approach to the character: Billy Batson/Captain Marvel, accompanied by an older man known simply as Mentor (Les Tremayne), traveled in an RV motor home across the USA, interacting with people in different towns they stopped in to save the citizens or help them combat evil. The wizard Shazam was absent from this series, and Billy received his powers and counsel directly from the six "immortal elders" represented in the "Shazam" name, who were depicted via animation: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. Shazam! starred Michael Gray as Billy Batson, with both Jackson Bostwick (season one) and John Davey (seasons two and three) as Captain Marvel. An adapted version of Isis, the heroine of The Secrets of Isis, was introduced into DC Comics in 2006 as Black Adam's wife in the weekly comic book series 52.
Shortly after the Shazam! show ended its network run, Captain Marvel, played by Garrett Craig, appeared as a character in a pair of low-budgeted live-action comedy specials, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions under the name Legends of the Superheroes in 1978. The specials also featured Howard Morris as Doctor Sivana, and Ruth Buzzi as Aunt Minerva, marking the first appearance of those characters in film or television. Although Captain Marvel did not appear in Hanna-Barbera's long-running concurrent Saturday morning cartoon series Super Friends (which featured many of the other DC superheroes), he did appear in some of the merchandise associated with the show.
Filmation revisited the character three years later for an animated Shazam! cartoon, which ran on NBC from 1981 to 1982 as part of The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! with Captain Marvel voiced by Burr Middleton. The rest of the Marvel Family joined Captain Marvel on his adventures in this series, which were more similar to his comic-book adventures than the 1970s TV show. Dr. Sivana, Mr. Mind, Black Adam, and other familiar Captain Marvel foes appeared as enemies.
Captain Marvel and/or Billy Batson made brief "cameo" appearances in two 1990s TV series. Billy has a non-speaking cameo in the episode "Obsession", while live actors portraying Captain Marvel make "cameo" appearances in both a dream-sequence within an episode of The Drew Carey Show, and in the Beastie Boys' music video for "Alive".
's Justice League Unlimited.]]
Captain Marvel's first formal appearance in a DC Animated Universe series, the name given to the animated DC Comics spin-off productions produced by Bruce Timm and/or Paul Dini, was as the main guest star character of the Justice League Unlimited episode "Clash", originally aired in 2005 on Cartoon Network. Captain Marvel was voiced by Jerry O'Connell and Billy Batson voiced by Shane Haboucha. In this episode, Captain Marvel joins the Justice League, but his positive opinions about supervillain Lex Luthor's apparent reform create a heavy strain on his relationship with Superman. This tension eventually leads to an all-out battle between Marvel and Superman which destroys Luthor's newest creation, Lexor City.
Four years later, Captain Marvel made four appearances in Cartoon Network's series. He appears in the opening teaser to the episode "Death Race to Oblivion!" helping Batman battle the supervillain Blockbuster. A later episode in the same 2009-10 season, "The Power of Shazam!", was set in Fawcett City and featured Captain Marvel/Billy Batson, as well as the Sivana Family, Black Adam, the wizard Shazam, Aunt Minerva, and Mary Batson. Marvel later appeared in the two-episode storyline "The Siege of Starro!", in which he joins a small coalition of heroes, among them Firestorm, B'wana Beast, and Booster Gold, in helping Batman stop a malevolent alien from invading and devouring the Earth. The entire Marvel Family was featured in the episode "The Malicious Mr. Mind!", which pitted Batman, Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr. against Sivana, Mr. Mind, and the rest of the Monster Society of Evil. In this series, Captain Marvel is voiced by Jeff Bennett, and Billy Batson is voiced by Tara Strong. Captain Marvel also appears in the DC Comics-based Cartoon Network series Young Justice, with his voice provided by Rob Lowe.
Video games
Captain Marvel made his first official video game appearance as a playable character in
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe played by Stephan Scalabrino and voiced by
Kevin Delaney, for the
PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360 game consoles. In the story, Captain Marvel is among several DC superheroes teleported to the
Mortal Kombat video game universe when the two universes merge and characters from each franchise are forced to do battle. Marvel also appears as a jump-in hero character in
, voiced by Jeff Bennett, and is set to appear in DC's
massively multiplayer online role-playing game DC Universe Online.
Comic strips
In 1943, C.C. Beck and writer Rod Reed prepared seven sample installments of a comic strip. Syndicates expressed no interest in it; Reed suspected the DC lawsuit was why syndicates wouldn't take on the property, for fear of ending up as parties in the ongoing litigation.
Cultural impact
Captain Marvel vs. Superman in fiction
miniseries. Art by
Alex Ross.]]
Captain Marvel's adventures have contributed a number of elements to both comic book culture and
pop culture in general. The most notable of these is the regular use of Superman and Captain Marvel as adversaries in
Modern Age comic book stories.
The National Comics/Fawcett Comics rivalry was parodied in "Superduperman," a satirical comic book story by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood in the fourth issue of Mad (April–May, 1953). In the parody, inspired by the Fawcett/DC legal battles, Superduperman, endowed with muscles on muscles, does battle with Captain Marbles, a Captain Marvel caricature. Marbles' magic word is "SHAZOOM", which stands for Strength, Health, Aptitude, Zeal, Ox—power of, Ox—power of another and Money. In contrast to Captain Marvel's perceived innocence and goodness, Marbles was greedy and money-grubbing, and a master criminal. Superduperman defeats Marbles by tricking him into hitting himself.
While publishing its Shazam! revival in the 1970s, DC Comics published a story in Superman #276 (June 1974) featuring a battle between the Man of Steel and a thinly disguised version of Captain Marvel called Captain Thunder, a reference to the character's original name. He apparently battled against a monster league. Two years later, Justice League of America #135-137 featured a story arc which featured the heroes of Earth-1, Earth-2, and Earth-S teaming together against their enemies. It was in this story that Superman and Captain Marvel first met, albeit briefly. King Kull has caused Superman to go mad using red kryptonite, meaning he and Marvel battle, but Marvel restores his mind to normal with lightning. In Shazam! #30 (1977), Dr. Sivana creates several steel creatures to destroy Pittsburgh's steel mills, after getting the idea from reading an issue of Action Comics. He finally creates a Superman robot made of a super-steel to destroy Captain Marvel. They both hit each other at the same moment, and the Superman is destroyed.
Notable later Superman/Captain Marvel battles in DC Comics include All-New Collectors' Edition #C-58 (1978), All-Star Squadron #36 & 37 (1984), and Superman (vol. 2) #102 (1995). The Superman/Captain Marvel battle depicted in Kingdom Come #4 (1996) served as the climax of that miniseries, with Marvel having been brainwashed by Lex Luthor and Mister Mind to turn against the other heroes. The "Clash" episode of the DC-based animated TV series Justice League Unlimited, which included Captain Marvel as a guest character, featured a Superman/Captain Marvel fight as its centerpiece. By contrast, the depiction of the pair's first meeting in the Superman/Shazam!: First Thunder miniseries establishes them as firm friends and allies to the point of Superman volunteering to be Billy's mentor when he learns the boy's true age.
Captain Marvel in popular culture
In pop culture, Billy Batson/Captain Marvel's magic word, "Shazam!", became a popular
exclamation from the 1940s on, often used in place of an
expletive. The most notable user of the word "Shazam!" in this form was
Gomer Pyle, a character from the 1960s
sitcom The Andy Griffith Show and later
Gomer Pyle USMC.
Foxxy Cleopatra from the 2002 film
Austin Powers in Goldmember is also fond of the word. In another 2002 movie,
Spider-Man, Peter Parker shouts "Shazam!" while trying to control his powers. Then in the 2007 sequel
Spider-Man 3 Peter Parker again uses the phrase while posing and celebrating, whilst receiving the key to New York City. In the Fox TV show
Family Guy, the phrase "Shazam!" is used by
Peter Griffin whenever he is having sexual relations with his
wife and shouts it out upon climax. In the aforementioned 1950
Columbia Pictures film,
The Good Humor Man (see
Film section, above), the kids of the local Captain Marvel Club's secret catchphrase isn’t “Shazam!” but instead “Niat-Pac Lev-Ram!” - that is, "Captain Marvel" pronounced backwards.
For many years, Phoenix Suns play-by-play announcer Al McCoy has said "Shazam!" when a Phoenix Sun player makes a three-point field goal. He has said that it came from Captain Marvel comics. In 1974, Square Dance caller Deuce Williams wrote the call "Shazam". It is a very quick call (taking one, or at most two beats of music) and can be thought of as a lightning strike.
Years after the character disappeared in 1953, the superhero was still used for allusions and jokes, in films such as West Side Story, TV shows such as The Monkees and M*A*S*H, and songs such as "Shazam" (1960) by Duane Eddy. Elvis Presley was a fan of Captain Marvel, Jr. comic books as a child, and later styled his hair to look like Freddy Freeman's and based his stage jumpsuits and TCB lightning logo on Captain Marvel Junior's costume and lightning-bolt insignia. The Academy of Comic Book Arts named its Shazam Award in honor of the character's mythos. The Beatles mentioned Captain Marvel in their song "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" (1968), and Paul McCartney shouts "Shazam" to the camera in the dressing room scene of A Hard Day's Night (1964). The English footballer Bryan Robson, who was captain of Manchester United F.C. and England, was nicknamed "Captain Marvel".
Reception
Captain Marvel was ranked as the 55th greatest comic book character of all time by
Wizard magazine.
IGN also ranked Captain Marvel as the 50th greatest comic book hero of all time stating that Captain Marvel will always be an enduring reminder of a simpler time.
UGO Networks also placed him as one of the top heroes of entertainment quoting "At his best, Shazam has always been Superman with a sense of crazy, goofy fun, to wit.
Notes
References
Beck, C. C. and Parker, Bill (February 1940, reprinted March 2000). "Capt. Marvel" Whiz Comics #2. New York: Fawcett Publications (reprint by DC Comics).
Beck, C. C. and O'Neil, Denny. (February 1973). "In the Beginning" Shazam! #1. New York: National Periodical Publications.
Benton, Mike. (1989). The Comic Book in America: An Illustrated History. Dallas: Taylor. ISBN 0-87833-659-1
Grogan, Walt. The Marvel Family Web. Retrieved 16 June 2005.
Markstein, Donald D. (2000–2004). "Captain Marvel". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 16 June 2005.
Ordway, Jerry (1994). The Power of Shazam! New York: DC Comics. ISBN 1-56389-153-0.
Thomas, Roy and Mandrake, Tom. Shazam! The New Beginning #1–4. New York: DC Comics.
Wright, Bradford W. (2001). Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins. ISBN 0-8018-7450-5
External links
The Marvel Family Web
Captain Marvel vs. Superman battle in Justice League Unlimited episode "Clash"
Captain Marvel Culture A history of the many Captain Marvels
Earth-S Captain Marvel Index
Earth-S Marvel Family Index
Post-Crisis Captain Marvel Index
Supermanica website entry on Captain Thunder
Comic Book Profile: Captain Thunder
Category:1972 comic debuts
Category:Characters created by C. C. Beck
Category:Child superheroes
Category:Comics characters introduced in 1940
Category:DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
Category:DC Comics characters with accelerated healing
Category:DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
Category:DC Comics titles
Category:Fawcett Comics titles
Category:Fictional characters with precognition
Category:Fictional orphans
Category:Fictional twins
Category:Film characters
Category:Film serial characters
Category:Golden Age superheroes
Category:Marvel Family
