Shazam In DC Comics Once Went By Marvel’s This Famous Superhero ( Photo Credit – Poster from Captain Marvel, Shazam)
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Marvel and DC Universe have had their fights on many occasions from the past, up until now. One such controversy that we will be talking about today would be about Captain Marvel, but the one from the DC universe. You heard it right, Captain Marvel was first introduced in the DC Universe but the origin of this character was not in the DC or MCU Comics. Let’s check it out.
Both the superhero universes have been in a long-term battle of comparison between their superheroes having the same attributes. A few instances over the topic would be Iron Man and Batman, Quicksilver and the flash, Thor, and Wonder Woman.
Coming back to our topic, yes, Shazam was originally known as Captain Marvel when the DC comics originally came out. But the origin of Captain Marvel came from the Fawcett Comics. Back in 1939, artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker created this comic showing a small boy who turns into a superhero when he yells out the word “SHAZAM” which is a mix of powers from the “immortal elders” namely Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury.
This Fawcett Comic collection went on to become the most famous one in the 1940s and was even able the grow more popular than Superman. Later in 1953, Fawcett stopped making Captain Marvel-related content as the comic book company was charged with copyright infringement by DC, claiming that Captain Marvel was somewhat similar to Superman. In 1972, Fawcett sold the character rights to DC and by 1991 the latter managed to buy rights to the entire family of the superhero.
Well, it so happened that Marvel was aware that Fawcett Publications had lifted its trademark rights from Captain Marvel. So in 1967, years before DC got the right on the character, Stan Lee and Gene Colan, created their own superhero under the name of Captain Marvel. This brought up the trademark conflicts between Marvel and DC which ended up in the favour of Marvel. Since Marvel had used the title Captain Marvel at least once in 2 years, they got the upper hand in the case. Since then, the DC series of Captain Marvel was named Shazam.
It was in 2011, when DC relaunched the comic books with the name Shazam, introducing the Shazam family as well.
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