Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: captain marvel, dc comics, shazam, teen titans academy

Today, Shazam Almost Brings Back Captain Marvel (Spoilers)

Published Tue, 25 Jan 2022 06:57:12 -0600

Last updated Tue, 25 Jan 2022 12:07:36 -0600

Captain Marvel, also known as Shazam, is a superhero originally published by Fawcett Comics and currently published by DC Comics. Artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker created the character in 1939, the alter ego of Billy Batson, a boy who, by speaking or thinking the magic word "Shazam!" (acronym of six "immortal elders": Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury), can transform himself into a costumed adult with the powers of superhuman strength, speed, flight and other abilities. Billy often shared his powers with other children, primarily his sister Mary Batson and their best friend/foster brother Freddy Freeman, who also transform into superheroes and fight crime with Billy as members of the Marvel Family, also known as the Shazam Family. Captain Marvel was the most popular superhero of the 1940s, outselling even Superman and was also the first comic book superhero to be adapted to film, in a 1941 Republic Pictures serial, Adventures of Captain Marvel, with Tom Tyler as Captain Marvel and Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy Batson.

Fawcett ceased publishing Captain Marvel-related comics in 1953, partly because of a copyright infringement suit from DC Comics alleging that Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman. In 1972, Fawcett licensed the character rights to DC, which by 1991 acquired all rights to the entire family of characters. DC has since integrated Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family into their DC Universe and has attempted to revive the property several times, with mixed success. But owing to trademark conflicts of its own over other characters named Captain Marvel owned by Marvel Comics, DC has branded and marketed the character using the trademark Shazam! since his 1972 reintroduction. DC renamed the mainline version of the character as "Shazam" when relaunching its comic book properties in 2011, and his associates became the "Shazam Family" at this time as well. Geoff Johns told the New York Times at the time "We changed his name for a lot of reasons. One of them is that Shazam is the word most associated with the character, so we just felt it made sense — a lot of people already thought that was his name, anyway." But in today's Teen Titans Academy #11 we get closer to what was once lost.

Close but no cigar. Because Shazam does not smoke. And answering the question as to how the Teen Titans Academy can continue to be named in memory of Roy Harper, who has now returned from the dead?

You drop the Rock Of Eternity on it and wipe out the problem entirely…

TEEN TITANS ACADEMY #11 CVR A RAFA SANDOVAL
(W) Tim Sheridan (A) Mike Norton (CA) Rafa Sandoval
Dane, a.k.a. Nevermore, came to the academy to become a hero, but circumstance and fate are leading him down a much darker path. To understand their future, the Titans must look into the complicated past of their most mysterious student—and unearth truths that may leave them with an impossible choice.
Retail: $3.99 In-Store Date: 01/25/2022

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