"There are men so godlike, so exceptional, that they naturally, by right of their extraordinary gifts, transcend all moral judgment or constitutional control. There is no law which embraces men of that calibre. They are themselves law."

Captain Marvel History


Bill Parker with the help of artist C.C. Beck wrote Captain Marvel for the first time in 1939. Captain Marvel is about a boy named Billy Batson who was picked to combat evil by a wizard named Shazam. When Billy says the wizard’s name he turns into (with aid from a lightening bolt) the adult Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel is instilled with the powers of 6 mythical beings. He is touted to be “The World’s Mightiest Mortal”. When the wizard dies Captain Marvel received powers such as omnipresent, cosmic awareness, omniscience, telepathy, omnipotent, teleportation and wound up being immortal.

Fawcett Comics first published Captain Marvel in 1939. They published Captain Marvel from 1939 to 1953. Also during this time other Marvel family members were created. During the 1940s it was reported to be the most popular superhero.

The Captain Marvel Adventures even out sold Superman along with other comic books being sold back then. Also in 1940 Captain Marvel first appeared in Whiz Comics. Interesting fact that in 1941 Republic Pictures made Captain Marvel the very first superhero from a comic book to be transformed into film.

In 1953 Fawcett comics stopped printing Captain Marvel. This happened due to a lawsuit brought by DC Comic that stated the Captain Marvel was an infringement of copyright on Superman.

They settled for $400,000 and agreed not to publish Captain Marvel to prevent any more court action. They were never found guilty of total copyright infringement but the stories were reported to be close enough to cause problems.

Marvel Comics started publishing Captain Marvel in 1967 and later trademarked their version of it. This prevented anyone else from calling a comic book Captain Marvel.

Then DC Comics in 1972 licensed all the Marvel family characters and started back publishing them. It took until 1991 to get them all licensed to DC Comics.

But since Marvel Comics had them trademarked DC Comics had to market their Captain Marvel under the name Shazam!, which they hold the trademark on. This superhero and the Marvel family now is part of DC Universe.

In the 1970s Shazam was a television live action series that was quite popular. It was a whole lot of fun for kids to watch. My kids used to watch it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Captain Marvel is not nearly as popular as it was in its early years. Maybe that is because there are so many superheroes today compared to what there was back then, but he will still go down as one of the great superheroes of his time.

Timeline of Publishing
· Fawcett Comics 1939-1953
· 1st appeared in Whiz Comics in 1940
· Marvel Comics trademarked Captain Marvel during lat 1960s
· DC comics 1972-present

Partial List of Captain Marvel Comics
· Whiz Comics 1940-1955
· Captain Marvel Adventures 1941-1950
· The Marvel Family 1945
· World’s Finest Comics 1978-1982
· Shazam! 1973-1978
· The Power of Shazam! 1995-1999
· Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! September 2008-Now