Let’s not forget this guy, besides hilarity ensues when someone says “I love Captain Marvel” and you can reply “Which one?” This is the original Captain Marvel, and he’s part of the DC universe, not Marvel’s. Billy Batson is the real and original Captain Marvel.
https://www.deviantart.com/onlytheghosts/favourites/78938517/Captain-Marvel
The original Captain Marvel was created in 1939
There were Captain Marvel serial films during WW2, this is the 1st episode in which the Wizard Shazam grants his powers to Billy Batson, turning the teenager into Captain Marvel
https://hooktube.com/watch?v=WdElOYs9kWo
I’ve recently been watching the old Republic serial of Captain Marvel from 1941. Not bad effects for the time period, and the story with the sneaky villain “The Scorpion” has been pretty good. One of the episodes has a really good, long, drag out fight between a loyal butler and a gangster. The butler hardly speaks, but he’s no wimp.
Marvel’s Captain Marvel came along after this guy, in 1967
and there’s a MALE original Captain Marvel from Marvel as well. Yes, Marvel’s Captain Marvel was a GUY first.
The original Captain Marvel was a headline character for Fawcett Comics, and was created in 1939.
In his heyday, he was the most popular comic book character in the world and beating Superman on sales in the USA.
Fawcett ceased publication of Captain Marvel in 1954 following a copyright infringement lawsuit from DC (which claimed the character was too similar to Superman). DC wanted Fawcett to cease production of the serial and comics by the early 1940s, but Fawcett fought to delay a court battle for years. It wasn’t until 1948 that the case actually went to trial, with the dust finally settling in DC’s favour in 1954. Legally, Fawcett would never be allowed to print another Captain Marvel book.
Then in 1972, DC comics licensed and eventually purchased Captain Marvel (Shazam) and a host of other characters from Charlton comics (who now owned the character). Of course DC Comics can’t publish a comic called Captain Marvel due to Marvel Comics owning the trademark. They instead published titles under Shazam name. DC started licensing the rights to Captain Marvel from Fawcett in 1973. By 1991, they had acquired all rights to the character.
Neither Marvel Comics nor any of its predecessors ever owned the rights to the original Captain Marvel.
Marvel Comics owns the rights to an entirely separate series of Captain Marvel. Theirs started as Captain Mar-Vell, not Marvel. He – not she – was a Kree warrior. The character was born purely for legal reasons. According to comic book veteran Roy Thomas, Stan Lee only created a Captain Marvel at publisher Martin Goodman’s insistence: “All I know is the basis of the character came from a resentment over the use of the ‘Captain Marvel’ name.”
Although DC uses the name Shazam! on the Comics and films, it never changed the name of the character. They weren’t legally required to do so.
Since Marvel owned the rights to the name Marvel, DC couldn’t call its Captain Marvel comic Captain Marvel. Instead, all of his comics went by the title Shazam, as did the character’s live-action TV revival in the mid-1970s. The name of the character himself was still Captain Marvel. Marvel has been forced by legal reasons to keep putting out reboots of their Captain Marvel every couple of years because otherwise they may lose the basis for their claim to character name.
DC writer Geoff Johns started using the name Shazam! for the original Captain Marvel character in 2012, but in the film coming out this year, the character isn’t called that.
So, I guess it’s a matter of whether you respect legal gymnastics regarding IP or actual origin. The argument isn’t over yet.
he was the first – and the original.
How can someone not be the original when they were the first ever?
He’s actually in the public domain.
No joke, DC “purchased” the rights to Fawcett’s characters after their copyright expired, since Fawcett didn’t bother to renew the copyright on a lot of their books after the lawsuit with DC since they pretty much went out of business at that point. So while DC did manage purchase the rights to some of the books, like Black Adam’s first appearance, Billy, The Marvel Family (besides Tawny) and most of the villains in Whiz Comics and others are safe to use legally.
https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Captain_Marvel_(Fawcett)
https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/FAQ
Although DC has the trademark for their version, legally the original Fawcett version is available for others to use. Though because DC is like Disney when it involves protecting their properties, you have to change up The Big Red Cheese a bit to lower your chances of getting both barrels of an expensive lawyer’s shotgun. Though as long as you don’t have him or his name on the cover which, you’re good.
OnlyTheGhosts remain 