SCOTT: In a few years, we'll be getting a Captain Marvel movie. Actually, we're technically
getting two. One of them is from Marvel. Guess what that one's called, and the other one
is from DC, titled Shazam after the character of the same name who originally was also called
Captain Marvel but wasn't originally owned by DC. It's all pretty complicated but hopefully,
we can shed some light on who owns the name Captain Marvel.
Welcome to Comic Misconceptions.
I'm Scott, and I could've done the smart thing and waited until some big news or announcement
regarding the Captain Marvel movie came out before posting this video to hopefully give
it an SEO boost via tent-pole programming capitalizing on search trends and audience
interests but I didn't. Just wanted to talk about Captain Marvel today. There have been
quite a few comic book characters to take on the name Captain Marvel over the years,
and I am definitely not going to touch on all of them, though we will talk about the
main ones and even a super-obscure one. Mostly, though, I just wanted to talk about the crazy
stories and legal issues involving the name Captain Marvel in comics. The very first Captain
Marvel in comics was this guy right here that many of you might know as the DC character
called Shazam nowadays. Originally though, he first appeared under the name Captain Marvel
in Whiz Comics #2 from 1940, created by C.C. Beck and Bill Parker from the publisher Fawcett
Comics. Then director, Roscoe Kent Fawcett, said that he told his team to specifically
create a Superman character, only make him a young boy instead of a man. You see, in
order to attract more young readers to comic books, writers starting creating kid sidekicks
in the early '40s. Robin, Bucky, Speedy -- they were all created as a way to relate to kids
who read the comics better than the adult heroes could. But the problem is that the
sidekicks were just that, sidekicks. What's great about Captain Marvel is that he was
the first, or at least the first notable example in comics, of a kid who was himself the hero.
In case you don't know the backstory of Captain Marvel, I will give you an incredibly brief
rundown of it right now. But just like last week, if you want a more in-depth origin story,
I'll put a link in the description to my friend Arris's video over at Variant who, once again,
did a great job of it. But the very essence of his origin is that a young boy named Billy
Batson was bestowed the gift of magical superpowers by an old wizard named Shazam. Whenever Billy
said that word, he would go from a young boy and turn into the adult Captain Marvel, magical
superpowers and all. Also, Shazam at the time was a made up word, and I don't know why that
blows my mind but it does. I always figured they took the word from somewhere. But either
way, that's just a brief summary of the character just so we're all on the same page. Needless
to say, the idea of a magic word that can turn a kid into a superhero made Captain Marvel
an incredibly successful hit. You have this great cartoony art style and fun stories that
didn't take themselves too seriously, and suddenly Captain Marvel is so popular that
he becomes the first official comic book superhero starring in a live action adventure serial
in 1941 that was -- surprise, surprise -- another success.
BILLY BATSON: Shazam!
SCOTT: There was even a time when Captain Marvel books were outselling Superman, and
DC did not like that. You see, with the early success of Superman, many other comic publishers
tried to introduce Superman-like characters into their own comics but were quickly shut
down by DC. But Captain Marvel was Superman's biggest competition yet, so DC sent a cease-and-desist
letter to Fawcett saying that their character was a rip-off of the Man of Steel, and they
needed to stop publishing Captain Marvel comics. Fawcett has already dealt with DC before regarding
one of their other characters, Master Man, but they wanted to fight this one. So, they
didn't stop publishing Captain Marvel comics, and in 1941 DC sued Fawcett for copyright
infringement. The case wasn't actually brought to trial until 1948, and in that time Captain
Marvel remained super popular. There were even some months where issues sold anywhere
between 1.3 million to 2 million copies twice a month. And to put that in perspective, the
best-selling issue of 2014 was Amazing Spider-Man #1, which had only sold half a million copies
the month it came out. With superhero comics slowly dying out after World War II, Fawcett's
sales dropped significantly. So, with the trials flip-flopping back and forth in favor
of one publisher or the other, Fawcett decided that it wasn't financially smart to keep fighting
DC, and in 1952, they settled out of court and paid DC $400,000 and stopped making Captain
Marvel comics. Now, here's where the story gets interesting. Two decades later, in 1972,
DC Comics approaches Fawcett comics, interested in licensing the rights to Captain Marvel
and the entire Marvel family, and reviving them inside the DC Universe. DC eventually
bought the characters completely in the '80s, and published a miniseries called Shazam:
The New Beginning. But why isn't that book called Captain Marvel like the main character?
Well, you see, during the decade or so after the lawsuit was settled, the Captain Marvel
trademark was just kind of out there for anyone to take. Fawcett couldn't use it per their
deal with DC, and DC didn't even know that they wanted the characters yet. This led to
a brand-new Captain Marvel in the mid-'60s from a different publisher but, no, it's probably
not the one you're thinking of. It's a character created by a comic book publisher known as
M.F. Enterprises. This character is just the worst. His power is that he can detach his
limbs by yelling the word "split" and bring them back together by saying, "Xam" -- that's
X-A-M -- and that's it. I can't decide if that's better or worse than Arm Fall Off Boy.
The series lasted only four issues but legend has it that it was this character that caught
the attention of yet another company, and inspired them to create their own Captain
Marvel character, and this time file for a trademark. And yes, this company is Marvel
Comics, who in the late '60s gained the trademark for the name Captain Marvel, most likely because
they just wanted to snatch up anything with the word "marvel" in it. They released their
first comic with a hero by that name in Marvel Super-Heroes #12 from 1967, a Kree space fleet
captain named Mar-Vell. This would end up being really bad news for DC when they started
introducing Captain Marvel back into their own comics a decade or so later. They had
the copyright to the character but not the trademark on his name. This would mean that
inside the comics, they could call the character Captain Marvel, but they could not advertise
or promote the comic using that name. And this is why DC titled the comics "Shazam,"
and eventually just changed the character's name completely to that as well with the launch
of The New 52. In regards to Marvel Comics, you may have noticed that there is a butt-ton
of characters that take on the mantle of Captain Marvel. There's the original Mar-Vell, there's
the first one that I was introduced to, Monica Rambeau, who made her debut in the early '80s,
and a handful of others. But probably the most notable -- I would assume since she's
getting her own movie soon -- is Carol Danvers, who first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes
#13 from 1968. Once again, a very brief rundown of the character because it is a bit confusing.
She was a friend and love interest of Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel when a Kree device
exploded and caused her to absorb some of Mar-Vell's DNA, turning her into a human/Kree
hybrid and giving her some superpowers. She adopted the name Ms. Marvel with her own series
in 1977, and just recently adopted the name Captain Marvel in 2012, not long ago at all.
Now, like I said, Marvel has a ton of characters who have had the name Captain Marvel over
the years. So, why is that name tossed around so much? Well, it's pretty simple. When it
comes to trademarks, it's not enough just to have one. You actually need to publish
something every once in awhile to help prove that you're trying to enforce your trademark.
If you do nothing with it and you don't try to enforce it, then you could effectively
lose it, and if Marvel ever lost the trademark, you can bet that DC would jump in and grab
it as fast as they possibly could. So, in order to enforce their trademark on the name,
Marvel would release a new Captain Marvel comic at least every few years. The problem
is that none of Marvel's past Captain Marvel characters have ever been historically a huge
hit. So, Marvel kept coming up with new characters to fill that role, hoping that one would be
a big success with the readers. Now, Carol Danvers is probably Marvel's best shot right
now of keeping that trademark, which kind of makes you wonder if one of Marvel's ulterior
motives behind making the 2018 Captain Marvel film is to further protect that trademark.
It's at least interesting to think about it, I think. It probably doesn't hurt. And that
is the somewhat complicated story of the Captain Marvel name in comics from its origin in Fawcett
to where it lies right now at Marvel. I hope that was as interesting to learn about as
it was for me to research. Question, though: out of all the characters who have ever been
called Captain Marvel, who is your favorite? Let me know in the comments. I mean, it's
not really fair. We all know it's the detachable limb guy for sure. Quick announcement: next
week I will hopefully be on the weekly poll podcast live right here on YouTube, so go
check that out if you are interested in that sort of thing. I'll try to put more information
in the description if you're interested. And if this is your first time hanging out with
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you knew about comics. See ya!