mikewint
Captain
This is gonna get complicated, you might wanna take notes.
The original Captain Marvel was created in 1939 by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck for Fawcett Publications. The boy was named Billy Batson and he had the power to turn into Captain Marvel, the World's Mightiest Mortal, by saying the magic word "SHAZAM!" which was also the name of the ancient wizard who gave him that power, and an acronym for the source of those powers. S = Solomon (wisdom); H = Hercules (strength); A = Atlas (stamina); Z = Zeus (power); A = Achilles (courage); M = Mercury (speed).
In 1941, DC sued Fawcett Comics over that company's Captain Marvel character (the one who said, "SHAZAM!") claiming that he infringed on DC's Superman copyright. The case dragged on for years, with Fawcett continuing to publish their Captain Marvel comics throughout. Finally, in 1952, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Captain Marvel was indeed a Superman rip-off. It also found DC hadn't done the due diligence to uphold its Superman copyright, which meant the court couldn't actually stop Fawcett from publishing the comics. Even so, sales of superhero comics were taking a nosedive and Fawcett wasn't interested in paying for further court proceedings. The company settled out of court with DC and opted to cease publication of not just Captain Marvel, but all of its superhero books.
Ok now back to 1939 and Martin Goodman who founded Timely publications. Timely's first comic was Marvel Comics #1 in October of 1939 which introduced Torch and Sub-Mariner. Two years later Timely introduced Captain America. Goodman also hired his wife's cousin Stanley Lieber as an office assistant. Lieber soon began to write storylines under the pseudonym Stan Lee. As above by 1952 – 53 superheros were out of fashion so Timely went out of business becoming Atlas Publications. Atlas never had any real successes but pumped out a multitude of pulp and children's characters. By 1961 superheros were coming back in fashion mostly because Stan Lee was "humanizing" them.
The name Captain Marvel was available, and Marvel Comics was really taking off so it was in the company's interest to snatch up any name with "Marvel" in it. So they trademarked it. Marvel didn't actually publish a Captain Marvel comic, however, until DC made some noise about bringing back the Fawcett character, which they'd licensed. DC just couldn't call the book Captain Marvel or advertise the name so they used the old magic word: Shazam! as their title.
That's how both companies could have characters named Captain Marvel, and it put Marvel in a peculiar predicament: Copyrights last for decades upon decades, but trademarks lapse if their owners don't use them, which meant Marvel had to keep putting out a book with the title Captain Marvel every once in a while or risk the mark expiring, in which case DC would quickly publish a Captain Marvel comic (as opposed to a Shazam! comic).
So Marvel had to create their own Captain Marvel. In 1967 they introduced an alien warrior named Mar-Vell, a captain in his planet's military. He disguised himself as a rocket scientist to get into Cape Canaveral and met Carol Danvers, head of security. In the course of their adventures, a machine from his planet exploded, and he thought he was protecting her by shielding her with his body. However, as it turned out she had developed powers similar to Captain Mar-Vell due to a blending of his alien DNA with hers through radiation from the explosion and she adopted the name Ms. Marvel. Unfortunately for Marvel Comics the Captain Marvel concept wasn't drawing readers even though the character went through several redesigns, new costume, different powers and even a sidekick Rick Jones. It didn't seem to work, and Marvel decided to kill off the character once and for all in the first Marvel Graphic Novel wherein Mar-Vell dies of cancer.
But this left Marvel at risk of losing the trademark, and so they created a brand new Captain Marvel. Monica Rambeau was a Black NY harbor cop who gained the power to transform her body into any form of energy when she was bombarded by extradimensional energy (what else would it be?). Monica would hold the title of Captain Marvel for 13-plus years. She performed a respectable stint as an Avenger, too, even leading them at one point. But for whatever reason, Marvel axed Monica and the Captain Marvel title giving it up to Mar-Vell's artificially-aged son, Genis-Vell, in time for him to star in a short Captain Marvel mini-series in the mid-'90s. Genis originally had the name "Legacy," a ponytail and one of those '90s headgear things everybody seemed to have for a while. Rick Jones returned, sharing a body with Genis in what played as sort of a space-adventuring Odd Couple. But, again, sales dipped.
In Genis' second volume, Captain Marvel focused on his increasingly dangerous insanity, which led to him destroying the universe. Yes, that happened. Soon after Genis recreated the universe with the help of Entropy and Epiphany, the title was finally canceled, though not before he got the chance to kill his own son as an infant (comics, everybody!)
The next (or I guess concurrent) Captain Marvel was Phyla-Vell, Genis' sister -- whom he created from whole cloth when he remade the universe. Turns out Genis had also recreated his mother, Elysius, who wasn't too happy with him, so she gave the Captain Marvel title to his sister (parents, am I right?). Genis wouldn't have it, though. By the time she got her own series, Phyla had taken yet another character's name, Quasar, which she also lost eventually.
By this point, the DC version of Captain Marvel had been brought into the mainline DC Universe, and was turning up in the pages of Justice League International, among other places. He was portrayed as a naive and innocent type, nicknamed the "big red cheese" and contrasted with the more serious Superman.
Back to Marvel, and Carol Danvers. She was going through a rough time. First, her powers and personality were permanently stolen by Rogue, later of the X-Men. Washed up, powerless and amnesiac, she turned to Professor X for help. Naturally, she then ended up being involved in an alien abduction event and subjected to an experiment that gave her a new identity and set of powers, as Binary.
Later she reverted back to her original powers and title, although she briefly called herself Warbird.
Eventually, Marvel gave in to the inevitable and finally gave the name Captain Marvel to the person who most deserved it, Carol Danvers, Ms. Marvell.
DC, meanwhile, had some success with their version, but found that fans were confused and were referring to the Captain as "Shazam" which was not his name, but his magic word and the name of the wizard who gave him his powers. Rather than fight against the tide, DC renamed the character Shazam for their New 52 relaunch.
Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers, from Marvel Studios, is the one being released this March. Shazam, from DC-Warner is due to be released in April.
The original Captain Marvel was created in 1939 by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck for Fawcett Publications. The boy was named Billy Batson and he had the power to turn into Captain Marvel, the World's Mightiest Mortal, by saying the magic word "SHAZAM!" which was also the name of the ancient wizard who gave him that power, and an acronym for the source of those powers. S = Solomon (wisdom); H = Hercules (strength); A = Atlas (stamina); Z = Zeus (power); A = Achilles (courage); M = Mercury (speed).
In 1941, DC sued Fawcett Comics over that company's Captain Marvel character (the one who said, "SHAZAM!") claiming that he infringed on DC's Superman copyright. The case dragged on for years, with Fawcett continuing to publish their Captain Marvel comics throughout. Finally, in 1952, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Captain Marvel was indeed a Superman rip-off. It also found DC hadn't done the due diligence to uphold its Superman copyright, which meant the court couldn't actually stop Fawcett from publishing the comics. Even so, sales of superhero comics were taking a nosedive and Fawcett wasn't interested in paying for further court proceedings. The company settled out of court with DC and opted to cease publication of not just Captain Marvel, but all of its superhero books.
Ok now back to 1939 and Martin Goodman who founded Timely publications. Timely's first comic was Marvel Comics #1 in October of 1939 which introduced Torch and Sub-Mariner. Two years later Timely introduced Captain America. Goodman also hired his wife's cousin Stanley Lieber as an office assistant. Lieber soon began to write storylines under the pseudonym Stan Lee. As above by 1952 – 53 superheros were out of fashion so Timely went out of business becoming Atlas Publications. Atlas never had any real successes but pumped out a multitude of pulp and children's characters. By 1961 superheros were coming back in fashion mostly because Stan Lee was "humanizing" them.
The name Captain Marvel was available, and Marvel Comics was really taking off so it was in the company's interest to snatch up any name with "Marvel" in it. So they trademarked it. Marvel didn't actually publish a Captain Marvel comic, however, until DC made some noise about bringing back the Fawcett character, which they'd licensed. DC just couldn't call the book Captain Marvel or advertise the name so they used the old magic word: Shazam! as their title.
That's how both companies could have characters named Captain Marvel, and it put Marvel in a peculiar predicament: Copyrights last for decades upon decades, but trademarks lapse if their owners don't use them, which meant Marvel had to keep putting out a book with the title Captain Marvel every once in a while or risk the mark expiring, in which case DC would quickly publish a Captain Marvel comic (as opposed to a Shazam! comic).
So Marvel had to create their own Captain Marvel. In 1967 they introduced an alien warrior named Mar-Vell, a captain in his planet's military. He disguised himself as a rocket scientist to get into Cape Canaveral and met Carol Danvers, head of security. In the course of their adventures, a machine from his planet exploded, and he thought he was protecting her by shielding her with his body. However, as it turned out she had developed powers similar to Captain Mar-Vell due to a blending of his alien DNA with hers through radiation from the explosion and she adopted the name Ms. Marvel. Unfortunately for Marvel Comics the Captain Marvel concept wasn't drawing readers even though the character went through several redesigns, new costume, different powers and even a sidekick Rick Jones. It didn't seem to work, and Marvel decided to kill off the character once and for all in the first Marvel Graphic Novel wherein Mar-Vell dies of cancer.
But this left Marvel at risk of losing the trademark, and so they created a brand new Captain Marvel. Monica Rambeau was a Black NY harbor cop who gained the power to transform her body into any form of energy when she was bombarded by extradimensional energy (what else would it be?). Monica would hold the title of Captain Marvel for 13-plus years. She performed a respectable stint as an Avenger, too, even leading them at one point. But for whatever reason, Marvel axed Monica and the Captain Marvel title giving it up to Mar-Vell's artificially-aged son, Genis-Vell, in time for him to star in a short Captain Marvel mini-series in the mid-'90s. Genis originally had the name "Legacy," a ponytail and one of those '90s headgear things everybody seemed to have for a while. Rick Jones returned, sharing a body with Genis in what played as sort of a space-adventuring Odd Couple. But, again, sales dipped.
In Genis' second volume, Captain Marvel focused on his increasingly dangerous insanity, which led to him destroying the universe. Yes, that happened. Soon after Genis recreated the universe with the help of Entropy and Epiphany, the title was finally canceled, though not before he got the chance to kill his own son as an infant (comics, everybody!)
The next (or I guess concurrent) Captain Marvel was Phyla-Vell, Genis' sister -- whom he created from whole cloth when he remade the universe. Turns out Genis had also recreated his mother, Elysius, who wasn't too happy with him, so she gave the Captain Marvel title to his sister (parents, am I right?). Genis wouldn't have it, though. By the time she got her own series, Phyla had taken yet another character's name, Quasar, which she also lost eventually.
By this point, the DC version of Captain Marvel had been brought into the mainline DC Universe, and was turning up in the pages of Justice League International, among other places. He was portrayed as a naive and innocent type, nicknamed the "big red cheese" and contrasted with the more serious Superman.
Back to Marvel, and Carol Danvers. She was going through a rough time. First, her powers and personality were permanently stolen by Rogue, later of the X-Men. Washed up, powerless and amnesiac, she turned to Professor X for help. Naturally, she then ended up being involved in an alien abduction event and subjected to an experiment that gave her a new identity and set of powers, as Binary.
Later she reverted back to her original powers and title, although she briefly called herself Warbird.
Eventually, Marvel gave in to the inevitable and finally gave the name Captain Marvel to the person who most deserved it, Carol Danvers, Ms. Marvell.
DC, meanwhile, had some success with their version, but found that fans were confused and were referring to the Captain as "Shazam" which was not his name, but his magic word and the name of the wizard who gave him his powers. Rather than fight against the tide, DC renamed the character Shazam for their New 52 relaunch.
Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers, from Marvel Studios, is the one being released this March. Shazam, from DC-Warner is due to be released in April.
