The Comics History Of Captain Marvel Part 1

Captain Marvel is THE epitome of the mainstream comic book industry. Which Captain Marvel? ALL of them! In this video we begin the History Of Captain Marvels by talking about the original, Original Captain Marvel. You might be surprised at just how important he was to Comic's History. Shazam!
We explore Comics, Comic's History and other geeky things every odd video. On the even numbered ones we teach cartooning.
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[@MrColuber]

Otto Binder is the biggest reason behind the creation of Supergirl, considering he was the main Captain Marvel writer.

[@arrowcomics4.089]

I 'm sure I'll be covering the career of the Binders in an upcoming video. Thanks for pointing that out!

[@theswan1852]

12:22 Supergirl was created by Otto Binder who wrote Capt. Marvel. So that is "what kind of influence that had on the creation of Supergirl."

[@Krang100]

(1:18) Flash Comics/Thrill Comics #1 actually could be Whiz Comics #1(Unofficially Whiz Comic #0). This comic is the real first apparence of Billy Baston as Captain Thunder (A beta name).
This prototype comic Flash Comics/Thrill Comics #1 (Unofficially Whiz Comics #0) only has two stories, Captain Thunder and Golden Arrow. In the Captain Thunder story appaers Billy Batson, Shazzan (The Wizzard), Sterling Morris and Ebenezer Batson. Doctor Sivana wasn't shown (He was referenced in the news paper, but not by the name), he acts behind scenes.
In the final release in Whiz Comics #2 (Unofficially Whiz Comics #1) beside both stories from Flash Comics/Thrill Comics #1, there a lot more. In Captain Marvel story in Whiz Comics #2(#1), the story was a lot more extensed, know Doctor Sivana is shown, and of course, Captain Thunder was renamed Captain Marvel.

[@Krang100]

(1:18) Curiosly Whiz Comics #2 (Unofficially #1, cover Febrery/1940) and #3 (Unofficially #2, cover March/1940) wans't numbered in the cover, only inside the book.
However in Whiz#4 (#3, cover April/1940) (Is #4 in the indicia, but #3 in the cover) the same thing happened in Whiz#5 (#4, cover May/1940).
The next comic (cover Jun/1940) is oficially Whiz Comic #5 (Is #5 in both indicia and cover) and from Whiz Comics #5 comic onwards keep this numeration.

[@crazymark]

THANK YOU - Great history of the Big Red Cheese!

[@TheRealDustinNunn]

Long story short, Captain Marvel (Billy Batson) was originally created by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck and published by Fawcett Comics as a competitor to DC Comics' Superman. DC did not like the idea of Captain Marvel being a Superman rip-off, so DC sued Parker, Beck and Fawcett in court and legally bought the rights to the Captain Marvel character for themselves. DC trademarked the Captain Marvel character, but they did not trademark the Captain Marvel name. The name "Captain Marvel" ended up being trademarked by Marvel Comics. Marvel used the Captain Marvel name for their characters who took on the name "Captain Marvel". Later, Marvel had a legal battle with another comic book company called M.F. Enterprises. M.F. forgot how copyright worked and created their own version of Captain Marvel, who was an android who had the ability to split himself apart and put himself back together again. After M.F. got sued by Marvel and went out of business because of Marvel, Captain Marvel now had two owners. Marvel owned the Captain Marvel name and DC owned the Captain Marvel character. DC was unaware that Marvel trademarked the Captain Marvel name first before DC could get their hands on the Captain Marvel name, so DC got a cease-and-desist letter from Marvel telling DC that DC could not use the Captain Marvel name, so DC had no choice but to rename Captain Marvel the character from "Captain Marvel" to "Shazam" to avoid conflict with Marvel. DC should have renamed Captain Marvel (Billy Batson) the character's name from "Captain Marvel" to "Captain Marvelous". Because back when Billy Batson was with Fawcett, his creators were trying to think of a superhero name for his alter-ego. The original name was going to be "Captain Thunder", but there was already a character named Captain Thunder. So then, Billy Batson's alter-ego was renamed "Captain Marvelous" and later, the name was shortened to "Captain Marvel". Renaming the character "Shazam" was a stupid idea because there is already a character named Shazam, who was the wizard who passed on his powers to Billy Batson.

[@CaptainMarvelCulture]

There is a lot right here in essence, but some details are a little off.
The company that would be known as DC did not sue the individuals, Parker and Beck, just the company, Fawcett.
DC did not buy the rights to CM as a result of the lawsuit. That didn't occur until 1991. They didn't trademark anything about CM either.
MF. Enterprises introduced their Captain Marvel in 1966, but only made 6 issues with him in them.
After their last issue came out, Marvel came out with their Captain Marvel. Myron Fass (the "MF" of MF Enterprises) sued Marvel, claiming that he owned the trademark of the name "Captain Marvel." Marvel settled with him for a few thousand dollars and secured the trademark for themselves.
In 1972, DC decided to revive the original CM and licensed the character from Fawcett. They knew full well that Marvel owned the trademark, so they couldn't used the name as the title of the comic book, so they titled the comic book "SHAZAM!" but tried to pull a fast one by making the full title "With One Magic Word...SHAZAM! The Original Captain Marvel"
This was what led to the D&D from Marvel. To protect their trademark, they could not allow the name "Captain Marvel to appear n the cover of another company's book, even if that was still the name of the character inside the book.
DC did not change the character's name to "SHAZAM" until they rebooted the character for their New 52 in 2012.

[@TheRealDustinNunn]

@@CaptainMarvelCulture You're very close. Captian Marvel/Billy Batson wasn't renamed to Shazam/Billy Batson not until 2011. It would be nice if DC could still call him Captain Marvel/Billy Batson again because Shazam is supposed to be the name of the wizard who passed his powers to Captain Marvel/Billy Batson. Or DC should have renamed Captain Marvel/Billy Batson to Captain Marvelous/Billy Batson instead of renaming him to Shazam/Billy Batson or The Captain/Billy Batson.

[@jonathanettinger6970]

A comment.
Query: as the plural of Surgeon General is Surgeons General, General taken as more of a descriptive modifier for Surgeon, should the plural of Captain Marvel be Captains Marvel or are we correct to take "Captain Marvel" as a complete name and pluralize to Captain Marvels? In this way, would Supermen be many men who are super but Supermans would be many characters each called "Superman"? Lastly, isn't English a ridiculous language?
PS- tutorial/shmutorial. I want Part 2 yesterday!!!!

[@arrowcomics4.089]

Yes. English is a ridiculous language. I believe, since I'm talking about multiple characters that are named "Captain Marvel" that "Captain Marvels" is correct, or at least sounds correct to me, as does multiple versions of Superman being referred to as "Supermen". Whenever I face a problem like that I say the choices out loud and go with the one that sounds best when spoken. Thanks for the comment!