DC Comics is publishing two series about Captain Marvel, but it can't use his name in the title of either one.
DC Comics
This Captain Marvel (left) is really Billy Batson.
Captain Marvel, created in 1940, is really a young boy named Billy Batson who turns into an adult superhero by shouting the name of the wizard Shazam. The Trials of Shazam! is an attempt to work Captain Marvel into DC's post-Infinite Crisis landscape. Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil is an out-of-continuity tale aimed at kids.
The characters in these books originally belonged to Fawcett Comics. But DC sued Fawcett over Captain Marvel's similarities to Superman. After a long legal battle spanning the 1940s and '50s, Fawcett folded and Captain Marvel became DC's property.
But DC let the character lie dormant until the early '70s. In the interim, Marvel Comics created its own Captain Marvel, an alien whose real name is Mar-Vell, and copyrighted the name "Captain Marvel."
Ever since, Billy Batson's adventures as Captain Marvel have been chronicled in comics and TV shows with "Shazam!" in their titles, leading many people to think that's his name.
Why write about this now? Because Mar-Vell has returned from a dormant period of his own. In 1982, Marvel Comics published its first graphic novel, The Death of Captain Marvel, which showed him succumbing to cancer.
He wasn't seen for the next 25 years – an eternity in comics, where almost all dead characters come back to life.
But last month, Marvel released a one-shot called Civil War: The Return. Its subject matter was top secret, and promotional images were limited to a blank cover. Once it came out, we learned that a young Mar-Vell was inadvertently pulled forward in time by the Civil War's pro-registration forces.
Mar-Vell is remaining in the present day, for the time being, and will star in a new series later this year. Its name? Captain Marvel, of course.
Dan keeps track of all this so you don't have to. E-mail him at dkoller@quickdfw.com.
Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil
Written and drawn by Bone creator Jeff Smith. The second of four issues comes out next week. $5.99.
The Trials of Shazam!
Writen by Judd Winick, formerly of MTV's The Real World, and drawn by Howard Porter. The sixth of 12 issues comes out March 28. $2.99.
