The history of the Captain Marvel trademark is a complex one.
When Fawcett Comics created the original Captain Marvel in 1940, they had both the copyright and the trademark to the character. This means that they could use the character AND that they could publish a book with “Captain Marvel” in the title.
When DC Comics sued Fawcett for the COPYRIGHT to Captain Marvel (stating that it infringed Superman’s copyright), the lawsuit ended up costing so much money that Fawcett eventually ceased publications… in no small part because it was 1953 and superheroes were not selling anymore.
So after 1953, nobody owned the rights to the original Captain Marvel (because Fawcett stopped publications and DC Comics hadn’t purchased the rights yet), and more importantly for this review nobody owned the TRADEMARK.
Meaning that ANYBODY could trademark the “Captain Marvel” name for a new book!
Enter M. F. Enterprises: a new publisher established in 1966 by pulp magazine entrepreneur Myron Fass, who in the following year started a new series…
Captain Marvel #1 (1966)
script by Roger Elwood
pencils by Francho
“based on a character created by” Carl Burgos
…created by an industry veteran. Carl Burgos is mostly famous for creating the Golden Age Human Torch; he worked briefly at Marvel Comics in the early 60s, but reportedly he REALLY didn’t get along with Stan Lee and left.
The artist “Francho” is estimated to be Argentine artist Arnoldo Franchioni.
We begin with our character waking up… and being told he’s an android.
Yep, he’s a Burgos character alright.
Looking for answers on his missing memory of being a robot, our protagonist reaches for a book about astophysics.
Sounds legit.
Captain Marvel has the amazing power of separating his body parts when he says “split”… and pull himself together when he says “Xam”.
It’s no “Shazam”. Why one English word and a made-up one?
And he can do this with individual parts!
If this was a modern comic, you KNOW we would find out if he’s anatomically correct.
He’s not just an android, he’s an alien android!
Who has to rub his chest once a day to keep his powers.
Perfect design choice, no notes.
The artwork of the first issue makes it look like it’s integrated into his costume, which is definitely better than the real deal: it’s actually a pendant attached to a necklace.
Captain Marvel is the last survivor of his planet, which explodes soon after he leaves thanks to his Astro-Boots™.
I wonder if he’s anatomically correct anyway because for the aliens that created him rubbing their chest is… you know what, maybe some mysteries are better left unsolved.
Okay so we are combining the last survivor of an alien civilization and a kid named billy… were they TRYING to rip off both Superman and the other Captain Marvel???
Turns out that this kid is just the first one to witness the arrival of Captain Marvel on the planet, and he’s been acting as his… uhm… I want to say friend?
As an alien robot who routinely gets amnesia unless he rubs himself, Captain Marvel easily lands a job as a writer for “an important press service”.
Sounds legit.
And believe it or not, that’s ALL WE GET as an origin story!!!
The book does contain multiple short stories though.
Highlights include fighting giant stone aliens…
…and revealing that Captain Marvel has laser vision. Did they think this was a less interesting power than splitting???
He also has a force field, which debuts in the third story.
Clearly not as interesting as splitting.
But he also fights Plastic Man! I should point out that while the Quality character had stopped publications in the Golden Age, DC Comics was JUST beginning to publish him again.
Also continuing the list of powers less interesting than splitting, Captain Marvel can realease an electrical shock.
Historical significance: 0/10
This Captain Marvel is interesting EXCLUSIVELY thanks to the history of the trademark.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
In the 60s the job market was so amazing that you could land a job even without knowing who you are.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
This is bad. Embarassingly bad. The artwork is stiff, the stories are generic, and Captain Marvel himself has the charisma of mannequin.
There is SOME attempt in the very first story for some angst about his missing memory… but there’s truly nothing there.
Despite my snark, the splitting power COULD lead to an interesting fighting style.
It just doesn’t.
How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
Captain Marvel has an astounding 6 appearances in total.
In the second issue he gains his own supervillain team, which is as lame as him.
In that issue, Captain Marvel creates a sound-based time machine.
Yeah I don’t get it either.
That’s when he meets Plastic Man again… now renamed Elasticman, presumably because DC Comics noticed.
I know I keep going back for this, but once again I have to stress: his signature power is his lamest one!!! His laser vision can CUT THE TOP OFF A MOUNTAIN, why should I care if he can split???
Having learned his lesson with Plastic Man, now Captain Marvel faces… the scientist Doctor Fate.
You know if they couldn’t secure the name Captain Marvel, this book could have been titled Copyright Infringement Monthly.
The unevenness of Captain Marvel’s powers in two panels.
Next, on Copyright Infringement Monthly #3:
The Bat is a hypnotist with a wingsuit, so he’s not TECHNICALLY a ripoff of Batman, but… come on, after Plastic Man and Dr. Fate, not to mention the title character, this CAN’T have been a coincidence.
The series mercifully ends with issue 4.
He does redeem the supervillain Tinyman though. That’s rare in the early Silver Age.
In fact, given his backstory as a former villain and a versatile power (he can shrink at will), I would say that Tinyman is a FAR more interesting protagonist than Captain Marvel!
Not that it’s a high bar, but still.
That was mercifully the last issue, but there are also two issues of “Captain Marvel Presents The Terrible Five”, named after his villains.
Don’t get too excited by the first issue mentioning “Dr. Doom” is here… he’s actually just PROFESSOR Doom in the story.
Also, you might have noticed that at some point Captain Marvel started using a mask.
Because out of the premise of the book, how Captain Marvel dresses was definitely the part that HAD to be explained the most.
I suppose the character is currently either in legal limbo or in the public domain.
Aside from a visual gag in 1997’s “The Power of Shazam #27”, I couldn’t even find a single other mention of homage to this Captain Marvel.
So what’s the deal with the trademark stuff?
This is when things get interesting. Something rarely said about trademarks, which tend to be incredibly tedious affairs, but this one is WILD.
Because you see, trademarks have to be registered. And considering that the Fawcett trademark on the “Captain Marvel” name expired, publisher Myron Fass actually bothered to pay for a new trademark.
Since this was 1966, Marvel Comics had existed with that name for the previous 6 years… and it wasn’t too keen on another publisher having a character with “Marvel” in its name.
According to various sources, Marvel publisher Martin Goodman offered 6,000 dollars (that’s 61,836 dollars today!!!) to buy the trademark off Myron Fass.
Considering Goodman had the reputation for being cheap, that’s a lot of money!!! But it’s well-documented, even showing up in an article of the Wall Street Journal.
(click to enlarge)
Fass actually turned down the offer for 6,000 dollars, and Goodman… just carried on publishing a new Captain Marvel, who we identify today as Mar-Vell, in 1967.
This happened despite M.F.Enterprises still having the trademark over the Captain Marvel name (!!!), so they sued Marvel Comics.
Considering the Fass book was losing tons of readers (reportedly it fell from 300,000 copies for #1 down to 70,000 copies for #6, but sources vary)… they settled out of court, and Marvel Comics was able to secure the trademark for 4,500 dollars (46,377 dollars today).
With this settled, Marvel was able to settle the Captain Marvel trademark by 1970. Notice that it was filed in October 1967: since that’s before the lawsuit was settled, it’s almost certain that Marvel filed the trademark without waiting for the trial.
(also, while this specific trademark expired in 2001, it’s since been replaced by newer ones)
While the 1967 Captain Marvel wasn’t exactly Marvel’s biggest hit, acquiring the trademark proved to be a smart move for Goodman.
Because back in 1953, while Fawcett Comics did agree to stop publishing Captain Marvel comics after the DC lawsuit, it still retained the copyright to the character… they simply stopped publishing.
In 1972, DC Comics received from Fawcett the LICENSE to publish new Captain Marvel comics… but because of Goodman’s move, they couldn’t buy the TRADEMARK.
That’s why DC Comics has NEVER been able to publish a book titled “Captain Marvel”: they could use the name in the story itself because they had the copyright, they simply couldn’t advertise the name on the cover because they lacked the trademark!!!
That’s also why, after purchasing the full copyright in 1994, DC Comics eventually decided in the 2012 to just calling the character Shazam.
And it’s the reason why, whenever a specific Captain Marvel failed to meet expectations, Marvel Comics simply gave the codename to another one (there have been FOUR characters keeping the name “Captain Marvel” for years) and why at this point they will never, EVER let that copyright expire.
Credit to the above image to https://www.deviantart.com/johntrumbull/