I am a major Captain Marvel fan. Billy Batson shares the spot of my favorite DC hero right along with Superman.

Once upon a time Captain Marvel was extremely popular during the 40's and early 50's. He was so popular that he was even outselling Superman and was infinitely more popular. Part of the reason for this popularity included the inherent wish-fulfillment appeal of the character to children, as well as the humorous and surreal quality of the stories. The only problem was that DC sued Fawcett Comics, Captain Marvel's publisher at the time, for copyright infringement in 1941, on the basis that Captain Marvel was based on Superman. After seven years of litigation Fawcett decided to settle with DC out of court. The DC lawsuit was not the only problem Fawcett faced in regards to Captain Marvel.

While Captain Marvel Adventures had been the top-selling comic series during World War II, it suffered declining sales every year after 1945 and by 1949 it was selling only half its wartime rate.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 DC $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 in November of 1953, and The Marvel Family ended its run with #89 in January 1954.

When superhero comics became popular again in the mid-1960s in what is now called the Silver Age of Comics, Fawcett was unable to revive Captain Marvel, having agreed never to publish the character again in order to settle the lawsuit. The 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 their own version of 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 who only have passing knowledge or are not entirely familiar with the character have taken to identifying him as "Shazam" instead of his actual name.

The Shazam! comic series began with Shazam #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.

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. 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 of December 1974, the early, "Faithful to the original comics" versions never crossed over with the mainstream DC characters.

And from that point on when the Marvel Family crossed over in the mainstream DC universe it became abundantly clear.

They..... Just........ Don’t.......... Have........ A.......... Clue........... WHAT........ TO DO WITH THEM!!

There’s no reason they can’t use the name “Captain Marvel” other than some stupidity with the Moronic Competition. It comes down to money and trademarks. They really shouldn’t be able to trademark words, IMHO. Images and backgrounds behind characters, yes, but not basic English that’s where the law has gotten crazy IMHO in addition to the criminal trademark extensions passed into law! Yes, creators and idea people SHOULD get money on their patents and copyrights but the companies whom these concepts pass onto shouldn’t have the right to extend ownership on those ideas/concepts beyond the natural lifespan of the original creators OR keep extending ownership years after the creators have died! IP trademark has been completely perverted from the original intent by the politicians (judges, congressmen, etc.) and corporations that own these people.

You know the law can’t keep other people from using the same movie titles, right? Someone somehow realized that the world doesn’t end if there are a million movies that use the word “Evil” in the title or “Star”?

I bet no one here knows that the original Fawcett Comics Captain Marvel comics are in the public domain and DC can’t do a damn thing to fans of the character that seek those comics out and download them from the Internet! Virtually every Captain Marvel comic published during the series’ original run in the 1940s and 1950s is available online and it’s perfectly legal because Fawcett Publications never renewed its copyright on the original comics! (Same thing happened with the Fleischer Superman shorts… The guy at DC who was SUPPOSED to keep track of the trademark renewal forgot and that’s why there are a million different releases of those shorts on home video.) Yep, the rights on the Fawcett comics expired BEFORE DC bought the stable of characters from Fawcett. That’s a dirty little secret DC doesn’t want spread and yet they do nothing on their own to make the original comics more available at a price-point that would encourage people to try them out… That’s one thing I have NEVER liked about the Archives.

The last time many of the Fawcett characters saw print in new stories was during The Power of Shazam series by Jerry Ordway. I didn’t necessarily agree with how he portrayed his Cap in the modern edition but his heart was in the right place, and he at least used original versions of the characters even if I was annoyed by some of the little tinkering he did(Captain Marvel Jr calling himself CM3 which is more ridiculous than Junior!). Nobody redesigned Spy Smasher, Bulletman, and the others during his Captain Marvel series run. Everywhere else you see these characters now in the DCU if DC even bothers to use them! They’re redesigned and not the same person behind the mask.

It’s unfortunate that DC is the custodian of Captain Marvel. They generally do NOT know what to do with Captain Marvel which is why we had the ridiculous Judd Winick revamp a few years back and now this mess with the new, dumb cape-over-his face by Geoff Johns who’s doing his best (worst) Frank Miller impression now in its 15th year now. This is Captain Marvel in only the vaguest sense now.

Jeff Smith came closest to capturing the essence of the original character and following “the rules” set by Otto Binder and the other original “Cap” writers. I’ve never been too keen on the modern interpretation that Captain Marvel is the “grown up version” of Billy Batson. Read the original Fawcett Comics and you’ll see clearly that wasn’t the original version of the character. Jeff Smith got it right = Captain Marvel is basically a kind of genie or spirit and is influenced by the character of Billy Batson but is still his own separate entity. He does what Billy might do, has his ethics and morals, but is still clearly an a different person. Not quite like the Hulk more like the Captain Mar-Vell of Marvel where for a time he and Rick Jones where bound and had to swap places with one of them going to the Phantom Zone for Mar-Vell to fight crime the early 1970s.

My point is that DC should have done one of three things.

1: Keep their Captain Marvel universe separate from the DC universe. Or better yet! Do an imprint of it with all of the acquired Fawcett characters filling up the universe!!

2: If they were going to introduce Billy Batson and Captain Marvel into the DC universe but were afraid of getting in trouble with Marvel, here's a solution that would have solved everything. CALL HIM CAPTAIN THUNDER!!! Just change the Marvel part to Thunder. Nothing else changed, just the last part of his name. Fixed!!

3: If all of THAT had failed, give the character over to a comic company that would have some kind of sense on how to handle him!!!!!!!!

Farewell Captain Marvel....................... Farewell.

1959216 That is sad.

I like Captain Marvel

Not just because he got mentioned in a Beatles song

1959268 Also this is my favorite picture of Captain Marvel

It's just so perfect

1959449 That is amazing artwork by an amazing artist.

Alex Ross is a freaking genius.

1959478 And Captain Marvel is his favorite superhero. How he handled him in Kingdom Come was so beautiful and it has a legitimate REASON why Captain Marvel and Superman would fight.

1959519 Yes it was.

Not to mention the artwork was AMAZING.

And there, another reason why his artwork for Captain Marvel is so damn amazing.

I like Captain Marvel. Shame what DC is doing.

1959535 stop saying amazing

1959519 And yes, Kingdom come is a master piece. Also, I agree that Marvel has never really gotten the attention he's deserved. He's almost always been a bit player for DC, showing up only when they actually needed a superman level player without weakness.

I still don't like the name 'Captain Thunder', though.

I was disappointed by them turning Billy into a turd, but I read on and I keep seeing some old Billy peak through. Before Trinity War, he took it upon himself to go to Black Adam's home land and spread his ashes there.

If that's not old Billy shining, I don't know what is.

All will be well

1959449 That's beautiful art.

1959535 That he is.

Also there's SO many other awesome characters DC got from Fawcett Comics that they NEVER use!!!

1959581 Is it weird that my first reaction to Bullet Man was uncontrollable laughter?

1959592 no. I did it to

1959581 I don't think they needed Ibis. They had Dr. Fate, which is about a million times cooler

Also, Spy Smasher just reminded me of this guy