Captain Marvel History

In 1939, Fawcett Comics introduced a hero called Captain Marvel who was super-strong and could fly with one magic word. Then National Publications (the forerunner of DC Comics) saw him as too close to Superman and sued for copyright infringement. Fawcett stopped publishing and the hero disappeared for nearly 20 years. But then in 1966 the name ‘Captain Marvel’ became available for use once again because it fell into public domain.

And that’s when Marvel Comics got their hands on him. They licensed the old character and relaunched him as SHAZAM! He was still an alien military officer from the Kree Empire, but he ended up abandoning his homeland to fight for Earth. And he wasn’t the only one to do so. DC also had a hero called Captain Marvel who ripped off the ’40s Cap, but they had no problem with him as long as he wore a yellow and red costume and fought alongside their hero.

After a while, Marvel’s version of the character began to falter. Then in 1982, they brought on a new Captain Marvel. Her name was Monica Rambeau and she gained energy manipulation powers after being exposed to an experimental device. Rambeau was successful and held the title for more than a decade.

With the Tesseract acting as a Macguffin in the recent blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, we might see another incarnation of Marvel’s Captain Marvel appear on the big screen. And if that does happen, there’s a lot you should know about this version of the hero.