Shazam!

[CorporalCaptain]

There was also a non-Marvel Captain Marvel in-between the Fawcett and the Marvel Comics' version, published by M.F. Enterprises.

It ran for four issues of "Captain Marvel", as well as two issues (oddly numbered #1 and #5) of "Captain Marvel Presents the Terrible Five".

It was Marvel Comic's successful leveraging of the trademark that shut that version down.

 

[Christopher]

I love how the Bat looks totally freaked out that the superhero's hand comes off.

 

[dahj]

So that's what happens when Batman wears a fashionable belt instead of the utility one.

 

[Christopher]

Also, why does the Bat have antennae?

 

[Professor Zoom]

I love how people just shit on the fact that Billy batson is the real Captain Marvel. Marvel Comics basically stole the name with some shitty legal maneuvers, so you're basically telling the creators/the legacy of the original CM to fuck off every time you pretend he's not the original.

Are you this sensitive about other jokes? Like, when someone tells you a Knock Knock Joke, do you tell them how Geoff Jones ruined those too?

And "shitty legal maneuvers"? When you say that, you sound ignorant of comic history. There was no shitty legal maneuver. The trademark was there, unused. What do you think MARVEL comics would do? And why wouldn't they? Here was a trademark that wasn't being used, it didn't look like it would EVER be used again... It makes sense that MARVEL COMICS might want to use it.

The guy outsold Superman in WW2, and now he's Fortnite dancing, trying to illegally buy beer, and has people on the internet pretend he doesn't have 30 years of history over Marvel's Ms. Marvel (which is who Carol is, because she's not even the first Marvel character to have stolen the name so she has even less right to be called captain Marvel then that boring fuck mar-Vell.).

Carol is Captain Marvel now. Your anger and tirades won't change that. It makes you look foolish.

I know Billy's history. I know Captain Marvel. He was a part of my childhood. Do I wish they hadn't changed his name to Shazam? Sure. But, when the general public only knows him as that, it would be a stupid business decision to keep his name Captain Marvel.

This is why fans shouldn't run businesses. They cling to the history SO tightly they push everyone away.

 

[JD]

It's confusing as hell when there are two different characters called Captain Marvel at two different companies, and if you are going change the name of one of them, it makes sense for the company called Marvel to be the one who gets to keep calling the character Captain Marvel.
Before the name change I was really confused as to why DC named after their biggest rival, and I didn't learn about the history of the character until quite a while later. Honestly, it was pretty much inevitable that DC was going to have to change the name eventually.

 

[fireproof78]

This is why fans shouldn't run businesses. They cling to the history SO tightly they push everyone away.

I just had to applaud this.

 

[Christopher]

Before the name change I was really confused as to why DC named after their biggest rival, and I didn't learn about the history of the character until quite a while later. Honestly, it was pretty much inevitable that DC was going to have to change the name eventually.

It would've been so much simpler if, when DC had acquired the character, they'd changed his name to Captain Thunder, which is what it was originally going to be before C.C. Beck and Bill Parker settled on Captain Marvel instead.

 

[JD]

I'd never heard that before, it definitely would have saved everyone a lot of trouble.

 

[Professor Zoom]

If we’re talking about what would’ve been simpler: it would’ve been simpler if DC never sued Fawcett. Then Captain Marvel would have continued to be published. The trademark would never have been available and Marvel’s Marvel would never have happened.

 

[DrCorby]

Just to muddy the waters further, let me introduce you to Marvelman...

When Fawcett stopped publishing Captain Marvel comics in the mid-'50s after the DC lawsuit, Len Miller, the guy republishing those comics in England, had Mick Anglo create a replacement, Marvelman. The differences between the characters, their supporting casts, and backstory was slight. He enjoyed some popularity in Britain; Marvelman even had international reprints. His various series continued until the early '60s.

In 1982, Marvelman was revived in the British anthology comic Warrior, written by Alan Moore (later of Watchmen and V for Vendetta fame). Marvel comics, by then a behemoth of the industry, objected to his name. When the Moore Marvelman comics were licensed to American publisher Eclipse in 1985, they avoided Marvel's wrath by renaming the character Miracleman. Moore completed the story he'd started, then turned MM over to Neil Gaiman. Gaiman's storyline was cut off when Eclipse went bankrupt.

Todd McFarland bought many of the assets of Eclipse, intending to publish a new Miracleman series. But the rights to this character were murky, with claims from Anglo and Gaiman keeping Miracleman from appearing for years. Finally, Marvel stepped in with buckets of money and cleared up the rights issues for good (allegedly). They've since republished all of Moore's run and Gaiman's run up to its abrupt cut-off. Gaiman was trumpeted as planning to finally complete his projected story, but solicitations were later canceled and nothing has been heard about it for a couple of years, except for occasional rumors.

Marvelman / Miracleman was a fascinating deconstruction of superheroes by Moore (without completely invalidating any of the previously-published adventures, no small feat). He had most of the trappings of Fawcett's Captain Marvel, including sidekicks called Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman, who gained superpowers when they spoke their hero's name.

Maybe think of him as a pseudo-Captain Marvel. But, guaranteed, he's definitely not your dad's Captain Marvel...

 

[Professor Zoom]

Just to muddy the waters further, let me introduce you to Marvelman...

When Fawcett stopped publishing Captain Marvel comics in the mid-'50s after the DC lawsuit, Len Miller, the guy republishing those comics in England, had Mick Anglo create a replacement, Marvelman. The differences between the characters, their supporting casts, and backstory was slight. He enjoyed some popularity in Britain; Marvelman even had international reprints. His various series continued until the early '60s.

In 1982, Marvelman was revived in the British anthology comic Warrior, written by Alan Moore (later of Watchmen and V for Vendetta fame). Marvel comics, by then a behemoth of the industry, objected to his name. When the Moore Marvelman comics were licensed to American publisher Eclipse in 1985, they avoided Marvel's wrath by renaming the character Miracleman. Moore completed the story he'd started, then turned MM over to Neil Gaiman. Gaiman's storyline was cut off when Eclipse went bankrupt.

Todd McFarland bought many of the assets of Eclipse, intending to publish a new Miracleman series. But the rights to this character were murky, with claims from Anglo and Gaiman keeping Miracleman from appearing for years. Finally, Marvel stepped in with buckets of money and cleared up the rights issues for good (allegedly). They've since republished all of Moore's run and Gaiman's run up to its abrupt cut-off. Gaiman was trumpeted as planning to finally complete his projected story, but solicitations were later canceled and nothing has been heard about it for a couple of years, except for occasional rumors.

Marvelman / Miracleman was a fascinating deconstruction of superheroes by Moore (without completely invalidating any of the previously-published adventures, no small feat). He had most of the trappings of Fawcett's Captain Marvel, including sidekicks called Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman, who gained superpowers when they spoke their hero's name.

Maybe think of him as a pseudo-Captain Marvel. But, guaranteed, he's definitely not your dad's Captain Marvel...

Kimota!

 

[kirk55555]

Are you this sensitive about other jokes? Like, when someone tells you a Knock Knock Joke, do you tell them how Geoff Jones ruined those too?

And "shitty legal maneuvers"? When you say that, you sound ignorant of comic history. There was no shitty legal maneuver. The trademark was there, unused. What do you think MARVEL comics would do? And why wouldn't they? Here was a trademark that wasn't being used, it didn't look like it would EVER be used again... It makes sense that MARVEL COMICS might want to use it.

Legally they did nothing wrong, but ethically they were pieces of shit and were stealing something that didn't belong to them because their company just coincidentally was called Marvel Comics. Its one of the most blatantly shitty moves one of the Big 2 companies has done to the other.

Carol is Captain Marvel now. Your anger and tirades won't change that. It makes you look foolish.

She's no more captain Marvel then Justin Bieber is Captain marvel, and I'm not the foolish one.

I know Billy's history. I know Captain Marvel. He was a part of my childhood. Do I wish they hadn't changed his name to Shazam? Sure. But, when the general public only knows him as that, it would be a stupid business decision to keep his name Captain Marvel.

This is why fans shouldn't run businesses. They cling to the history SO tightly they push everyone away.

As opposed to people like you, who want to erase history? If you don't give a shit about the character, stop posting about it. I don't go into threads about, I don't know, My Little Pony or Supernatural and just start randomly shitting in them. They're not things I care about, so I don't post about them. As opposed to the real Captain Marvel, who is my favorite DC superhero.

DC is ran by people who explicitly hate comics, which is why we get shit like this. Hell, current DC Editor in Chief Bob Harras has a history of literally disliking a character named Captain marvel, although ironically it was the third marvel version (Genis-Vell). The whole thing involved a stupid comic pissing contest where Harras thought he could write a book to outsell Peter david's Captain marvel book (Bob Harras's book was really fucking shit and Peter David's book kicked its ass in sales).

That said, if the movie called him Shazam but still used the real character? I'd deal with it. But, they're not using the real character with a name change. They're using the anti-social shithead original character that geoff Johns created and then named Shazam so that DC would publish the book. So, really, the name is pretty damn low on the list of fuck ups, especially since no one forced Warner Bros to use Geoff Johns shitty punk character (who, to be fair, never fortnite danced or did other modern idiot bullshit so WB somehow made their Shazam worse then Geoff Johns version). You can't even say that was to appeal to teens, because I didn't see Tom Holland dabbing or doing other shithead things yet Spider-Man is still popular.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Legally they did nothing wrong, but ethically they were pieces of shit and were stealing something that didn't belong to them because their company just coincidentally was called Marvel Comics. Its one of the most blatantly shitty moves one of the Big 2 companies has done to the other.

It really isn’t. The trademark wasn’t being used. There wasn’t any expectation it WOULD be used. Again, describing it as a “shitty” move makes you look ignorant and foolish.

She's no more captain Marvel then Justin Bieber is Captain marvel, and I'm not the foolish one.

*looks at a recent issue of Captain Marvel. *

Nope. She’s still Captain Marvel.

As opposed to people like you, who want to erase history?

How do I want to erase history? Billy Batson/Captain Marvel is history. It’s there. It’s great. You can still read the comics. They’re great!

I’m not asking for them to be deleted, the Wikipedia pages to be removed, so I don’t know what you are talking about.

The history is there.

But, stories aren’t frozen in time. And neither are businesses.

If you don't give a shit about the character, stop posting about it. I don't go into threads about, I don't know, My Little Pony or Supernatural and just start randomly shitting in them.

Are you having a stroke or something? Who says I don’t give a shit about Captain Marvel/Shazam. He was one of my favorite parts of the JLI.

But, to your point, you don’t give a shit about this movie, so why do you come in here and shit post about it?

Seriously, get a grip.

They're not things I care about, so I don't post about them. As opposed to the real Captain Marvel, who is my favorite DC superhero.

DC is ran by people who explicitly hate comics, which is why we get shit like this. Hell, current DC Editor in Chief Bob Harras has a history of literally disliking a character named Captain marvel, although ironically it was the third marvel version (Genis-Vell). The whole thing involved a stupid comic pissing contest where Harras thought he could write a book to outsell Peter david's Captain marvel book (Bob Harras's book was really fucking shit and Peter David's book kicked its ass in sales).

That said, if the movie called him Shazam but still used the real character? I'd deal with it. But, they're not using the real character with a name change. They're using the anti-social shithead original character that geoff Johns created and then named Shazam so that DC would publish the book. So, really, the name is pretty damn low on the list of fuck ups, especially since no one forced Warner Bros to use Geoff Johns shitty punk character (who, to be fair, never fortnite danced or did other modern idiot bullshit so WB somehow made their Shazam worse then Geoff Johns version). You can't even say that was to appeal to teens, because I didn't see Tom Holland dabbing or doing other shithead things yet Spider-Man is still popular.

Tl;dr, don’t care. Seriously. Take a breath. Go for a walk. Find something to like.

 

[Gov Kodos]

She's no more captain Marvel then Justin Bieber is Captain marvel, and I'm not the foolish one.

Wrong. She is Captain Marvel. Your opinion is worthless and wrong.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Bieber could make a half decent Marvel Boy.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Bieber as Hoppy. Make it so, film folk.

 

[Guy Gardener]

How about he huge tiger tattoo on Ed Sheran's chest as Mr Tawky Tawny?

 

[theenglish]

The bratty version of Billy Batson existed in the origin story of the New 52 Shazam. His character started off like that because the world had given him a bad deal and he was angry. By the end of the first story arc, the character had already developed beyond this. Don't keep harping on that point as if it defines the character.

If you want a legitimate criticism of that version of Shazam, it's that he didn't display the wisdom of Solomon--but that may have been because he was still learning how to access it and may have changed since then.

 

[JD]

She's no more captain Marvel then Justin Bieber is Captain marvel, and I'm not the foolish one.

I've actually read the first collection of the first Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, and been following a whole series of articles about her history on Marvel.com, and so now I can say with experience that this is bullshit. Carol has more than earned the right to be called Captain Marvel.