CBR's Comic Urban Legends: Vol. #1

Here's some interesting little tid bits from CBR that I found amusing

Here we go...enjoy.

Let’s begin!

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: DC almost had a black Captain Marvel.

STATUS: True

As I discussed in the second installment of Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed, after a lengthy lawsuit with DC Comics and with sales dwindling, Fawcett Comics decided to simply cease publication of their comic book superheroes, putting such notable heroes as Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. into mothballs.

This is where they remained for many years, until the late 60s, when rumors began circulating that DC was interested in dusting the old Fawcett Comic characters out of the mothballs and publishing them again.

Earlier in the 60s, Marvel began trademarking various titles that had the word Marvel in it, but it was not until they heard that DC was interested in bringing Captain Marvel back, that they rushed out their own title, called Captain Marvel, to establish their trademark (this was all detailed in a previous Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed installment here).

Still, DC continued to consider publishing the Fawcett characters, and by the early 1970s, DC pretty much had determined that they WOULD give licensing Fawcett’s superheroes a shot (DC was in a pretty strong bargaining position - as who ELSE would try to license Captain Marvel from Fawcett and risk a DC lawsuit?), but they were unsure as to HOW to do the comics.

Ultimately, DC decided to just bring the character back the same way he appeared 19 years earlier, as Captain Marvel. They just decided to title the new book Shazam!, after the magic word Billy Batson says to become Captain Marvel.

The new title debuted in early 1973.

After the book ended, newly arrived at DC writer/editor, Roy Thomas had a proposal for a revamp of the character in the very early 80s. Along with artist Don Newton, Thomas suggested that, since they could not call Captain Marvel Captain Marvel, they rename him Captain Thunder. This was a reference to the Golden Age origin of Captain Marvel, as the character was ORIGINALLY named Captain Thunder, but Fawcett discovered before publication that another hero was going by that name, leading to the name change. Thomas presumably felt that it only made sense to return to the original name, if Captain Marvel was unavailable.

The twist, though, was that Thomas thought that the character should be black! Yep, an African-American Billy Batson and Captain Marvel!!

In the Comics Buyer’s Guide #16, in 1982, Thomas told the story, and (courtesy of the amazing Marvel Family website - the premiere website for Captain Marvel information!) here are some unpublished drawings of Billy and the good Captain from the proposal!!

cool, huh?

The Marvel Family website also had the little tidbit of information that the inker of the above Newton piece was none other than future Power of Shazam! writer/artist, Jerry Ordway!