User blog comment:Flashfangirl/Captain Marvel in Season Two/@comment-98.70.76.153-20120803010501/@comment-1038387-20120803073531

"he came from Marvel anyway"?

Dolt.

Captain Marvel, Billy Batson, was created back in 1940, by C.C. Beck and Otto Binder for Fawcett Comics. He was a first in many, many fields.

Fawcett's founder, Wilford Fawcett had been publishing since the at least 1919, and his nickname was "Captain Billy" - something that was used for their flagship character twenty years later. He was the first superhero with a military title (not counting the occasional adventuring sea captain) - for example, Captain America was created a year later for Timely Comics.

He was also the first superhero with a family of characters, and a family of titles. First Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel, Jr., Hoppy the Marvel Bunny... each starred in their own title, which was unheard of at the time. Add in comic relief characters like Uncle Marvel and the Lieutenant Marvels (and, sadly, racial stereotypes that make Tintin in Africa look PC: Packboat and his family) and you've got the blueprint of just about every superhero family ever (okay, they didn't have a magical imp friend).

Alas, National Comics (later DC) thought he looked too much like Superman. They sued, Fawcett quit publishing them, and the characters went into limbo. DC eventually got their hands on the character, as well as most of the old staff. For those who think Mary Marvel is a Supergirl ripoff: Supergirl was created in 1958, 17 years after Mary, and who's got the story credit for her creation? Otto Binder. So it's the opposite. The Super-Pets were similarly inspired by Hoppy.

In this time, Marvel (formerly Timely) scooped in to create their own hero named Captain Marvel in 1967. They most likely deliberately cashed in on the golden age name. DC had not published Cap at all, and so they lost claim to the name. Marvel would have to publish at least one title with the name every year or so to retain the rights.

As a counteroffensive, DC decided to publish the Captain again - some old stories, a lot of new ones. It was set on Earth-S, and was called after the magic word: Shazam!. It was quite successful. And quite good too. Since then, every title starring Captain Marvel has had "Shazam!" in it, leading many people to think it was his name.

In the last five or so years, the Marvels have been the butt monkeys of the DC Universe. They've been powerless, corrupted, put on a bus, killed off, et cetera, so many times that a lot of the old school fans wonder if DC really wants one of the most iconic characters in comic book history.

There. Sorry to ent, but I just can't stand stupidity.