425 – Captain Marvel is not Billy

From Whiz Comics #112 (June 1949), Fawcett Comics continues to draw a hard line between Billy Batson and Captain Marvel – which are still clearly different people, I was surprised to learn that this did not change until well after Fawcett went under and DC acquired the rights to the character. In fact, it wasn’t […]

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301 – Black Adam!

Marvel Family Comics #1 debuts in November 1945, bringing Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel and Uncle Marvel together for the first time, In addition to telling the origin story of each character, it also introduces the Marvel Family’s greatest enemy: Black Adam. 5000 years ago in Egypt, Shazam created the world’s first champion, […]

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276 – Captain Marvel Shenanigans

Well here we are closing out the tenth year of comic-book-dom and Captain Marvel continues to keep things light in the super-heroics department in Whiz Comics #61 (December 1944). Unlike Superman, his DC counterpart, Fawcett’s Captain Marvel had almost zero regular supporting cast, love interests, recurring villains, backstory, or continuity. The stories always stayed far […]

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224 – Billy is not Captain Marvel

A neat story in which Billy Batson is transported 1000 years into the future results in a mixup when he tries to change into Captain Marvel by saying Shazam! I thought it was interesting is the clarification that Captain Marvel seems to be a completely different persona than Billy, and is just “answering” Billy’s call. […]

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179 – Captain Marvel, Jr

In Whiz Comics #25 (November 1941), Fawcett introduces Captain Marvel Jr, aka Freddy Freeman, a crippled boy who became the second official member of the Marvel Family. It seems like Fawcett began to realize how big of a hit Captain Marvel was starting to become and had plans to spread it around with new characters, […]

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107 – Beautia Meets Shazam

In Whiz Comics #3 (February 1940), Doctor Sivana gains a new ally, Beautia from the planet Venus. This story also marks the first time that Sivana learns that Billy Batson is Captain Marvel.

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97 – New Whiz Kid on the Block

In December 1939, we finally get a new company, that is not DC, creating a superhero character that has an impact outside of comic books, with the introduction of Captain Marvel in Whiz Comics #1 (actually #2 because of the ash-can edition) by Fawcett Comics. Captain Marvel, sometimes confused with the wizard Shazam, who gave […]

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