top of page
Search
godboe

Mr Marvel vs Mister Mxyzptlk: Who Would Win in a Battle of DC Comics' Tricksters?



Nick studied his passions of comics and film at the School of the Art institute of Chicago, television at iO Theatre, music from his DJ father, and pro-wrestling from his late superfan grandmother. Nick is currently serving up hot takes and washing them down with cold facts.


However, once the first Fantastic Four comic, The Fantastic Four #1 released in November 1961, it was Mr Fantastic that ruled the charts and conversations around comics. Mr Elongated was confined to a very small corner of the comicverse, almost forgotten.




mr marvel dc comics




Superman or Clark Kent is the most popular superhero in DC comics, and everyone knows this hero in a blue suit with an iconic red cape. Superman came from planet Krypton, and the destruction of their planet was the reason why his father sent him to Earth.


Superman is literally one of the most powerful and notable superheroes in DC comics. On the other hand, Captain Marvel took the storm when she was introduced to the Marvel Universe. Both heroes contribute and have a strong edge in winning a battle in the ongoing series of Detective comics and Marvel comics.


They tasked writer Bill Parker and artist C.C. Beck with sketching out the basics of a superhero named "Captain Thunder." But by the time he first appeared in 1939's Whiz Comics #2 -- yes, that's a year after Superman arrived -- the name had changed, even if his rank remained the same. He was now "Marvel," which would prove to be something of a magic word in the history of American comics that followed.


During the superhero gold rush of the Golden Age of comics, superheroes were quite literally a dime a dozen. Dozens of new publishers seemed to spring up over night, throwing every conceivable idea for a masked man or caped crimefighter type at the wall and seeing what if anything stuck.


Captain Marvel stuck. He survived those early years' rather brutal natural selection, becoming one of the relatively few Golden Age heroes to survive into the successive Ages of comics and to still have his adventures published in some form or another today.


Having won one and lost one, and with the superhero market drying up anyway, Fawcett settled with DC (by this time known as National) out of court: They gave their rivals $400,000 and promised never to publish any comics with any of the Marvel characters again. DC technically won that round, but the damage they did the franchise would be a burden they would ironically end up carrying around to this very day.


Marvel Comics had more success. In 1967, Stan Lee and Gene Colan created Marvel's Captain Marvel in Marvel Super-Heroes #12...and they also trademarked the name, which meant two things for comics: 1) DC could never use the name "Captain Marvel" as the title of a comic book, which is why their title always feature the name of the wizard instead of the hero, and 2) Marvel would have to occasionally publish books entitled Captain Marvel, to re-fresh their trademark.


Because the book was canceled, it's easy to dismiss it as a failure, especially if you were paying attention to the comics industry at the time. But then, everything gets canceled or at least rebooted eventually-even Action Comics and Detective Comics, it turns out!- but that's an awful long time, outlving DC's '70s version of the charcter's title.


Originally announced along with Tiny Titans and Super Friends as part of a reinvigorated "Johnny DC" line of kids comics, this was to continue the story from Smith's series, and each issue was to be written and drawn by Mike Kunkel.


Captain Marvel is a comic book superhero originally created by C. C. Beck and Bill Parker for Fawcett Publications, now owned by DC Comics. Whenever young boy Billy Batson utters the word "Shazam!" he turns into the World's Mightiest Mortal, Captain Marvel. He debuted in 1940 and soon sold more comics than Superman.


A lawsuit from National Comics (not yet DC in name) which began in 1941, alleging that Captain Marvel infringed on the Superman copyright as a mere facsimile, lasted for years. In 1952, the court found in favor of National, Fawcett settled, and Captain Marvel was retired in 1953. In 1972, DC bought all of Fawcett's characters, including the Captain, but in the intervening years, Marvel Comics had trademarked the name "Captain Marvel" for their own purposes. Thus DC typically used Shazam! (the name of the word of power, and of the ancient wizard who bestowed it on Billy) as the title for the comics, and in media adaptations (including a 1974-1976 live-action series) before ultimately renaming the character "Shazam" in 2011.


Black Adam was a Captain Marvel antagonist, published by Fawcett until a legal case by National Comics, the forerunner to DC Comics, sued them for similarity to Superman, a case which still rather baffles the mind, but that's the law for you. On his blog, Paul Levitz writes about how, in the seventies, sales for Superman comics had been dropping year by year, while Marvel's sales were starting to grow.


One of the attempt to stem the tide from publisher Carmine Infantino, Paul Levitz explains, "was to get a license for Captain Marvel, the only super hero who significantly outsold Superman at points in the Golden Age. His publisher, Fawcett, had given up the comics business in the mid-50s when the whole field was shrinking, and had settled its long litigation with DC by agreeing not to publish the character any more. Fawcett had concentrated on its magazine business, and in the years since been sold to CBS, and was rebranded as the CBS Magazine Group. Since the Big Red Cheese couldn't be published without DC's consent (and it's not clear that there would have been any other bidders, as the super hero category shrunk after the Batman craze faded), it wasn't a tough deal to negotiate. DC Business Manager Bernie Kashdan did a license with the publishing terms largely on their traditional basis, and off they went. But uniquely, DC would also control all the licensing and media rights, sharing proceeds with CBS."


And it was Paul Levitz who came up with the solution that led to the current situation. "By now I was managing the business side of DC, so after discussions with Jenette Kahn and Dick Giordano, off I went to solve this. The most practical solution was to simply buy out CBS' interest in the property: they weren't going to ever go back into the comics business (in fact, they'd sell off their magazine division not long after), and while it was nice to get a modest royalty check every year, it seemed a do-able deal. I negotiated with an only slightly older accountant for their magazine division, David Pecker. David would go on to an illustrious career in magazine publishing, ending up running American Media, the publishers of NATIONAL ENQUIRER, where his exploits would come to a controversial end."


Paul Levitz concluded, "We worked out a buyout, and not only of Captain Marvel but of all of the remaining Fawcett comics assets, including stacks of comics that would find their way to the DC library." And although the success over the years has been relatively limited, the Shazam and Black Adam movies, and upcoming sequels, will have more than paid for any risk Levitz may have taken. And may be one of the smartest moves he made at the publisher, and earned Warner Bros. many, many millions. You can read more at Paul Levitz' blog, right here.


Shazam, despite his technical status as a villain he (along with The Flash), is by far the nicest member of The Regime. He is often very polite and amiable, only following the Regime because he is genuinely trying to do the right thing and believes the regime is doing so, as well as the one most against using violence except for other criminals. He is shown to be good friends with The Flash, as they spend most of the game together, get along well, and Shazam's death is what causes The Flash to defect. He is also good (and maybe more) friends with Harley Quinn in the comics. He is also shown to greatly respect and idolize Superman which is part of the reason why he stuck with him for so long even after he turned evil and created the regime as he thought Superman could do not wrong. Although, he told Harley that he joined the Regime to keep Superman in check in the comics. 2ff7e9595c


0 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Baixar jogos java 2021

Baixe o Java Games 2021: os melhores jogos para jogar no seu PC, celular ou navegador Se você está procurando jogos divertidos e...

Comments


bottom of page