Shazam! The Rise and Fall of Captain Marvel
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- The original Captain Marvel came from Fawcett Comics and was pretty much the most popular superhero throughout the 1940s. He spawned a bunch of spinoffs and even outsold Superman. His creators, Bill Parker and CC Beck, made something special that younger readers loved. Writer Otto Binder brought it to new heights.
This episode breaks down the history of the rapid rise and equally fast decline of Captain Marvel in the Golden Age, taking special care to explain what was best about the books by looking at the serialized story, Mr. Mind and the Monster Society of Evil.
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Comic books change lives. When I was kid in the 70s, I loved Captain Marvel so much that I wore a pin with a lightning bolt on it which said "ZAP!" and insisted people call me by that name. I grew up in a tough part of town, right beside the projects, at a time when kids were expected to know how to fight. Thinking of myself as the Mighty Zap actually helped me when I had to stand up to bullies. _I_ might have been afraid when I had to throw punches while surrounded by three older kids trying their best to kick my skull in, but the Mighty Zap was fearless.
Are ... are you Rowsdower?
th-cam.com/video/4cN8RgFYrQg/w-d-xo.html
Comics have made me a better person and gave me my moral
u on dumb my man
I know as a kid in the 70's I watched Captain Marvel, and one time my sister was out side in the front yard and I came out of the house wearing a towel like a cape and I said, SHAZAM! Then I ran like Captain Marvel on the show and jumped like was flying, and my sister after seeing that went around the other side of the house and I laugh hard over it.
The hero we need.
“You caught me engaging in wish fulfillment.”
That’s a great line.
Got a like just for that intro.
And people complain that Wonder Woman had an origin related to bondage fetishes!
They probably never heard about the origin of Shazam/Captain Marvel, poor boy was getting tied and gagged all the time 🤣
Don't give DC any ideas. We'll wind up getting a "deconstructed" modern version of the characters where they're a couple running a BDSM club on the moon or something. Hmmm. Maybe a crossover appearance from Empowered? :)
@@richmcgee434 In Alan Moore's unpublished Twilight of the Superheroes miniseries, there was a scene with a now adult Billy (still stuck in the body of a young boy) visiting a dominatrix....so something like that ALMOST happened
New one on me. They do love playing around with the "boy in a man's body" and vice versa with the character, don't they? Seems like Moore would probably object to you saying it only ALMOST happened, I'm sure in his cosmology any idea he's had is reality somewhere whether published or not. I like to think somewhere there's a superhero whose secret ID is an author whose books are all about the "fictional" lives of crazy comic book writers like Moore and Morrison. Hmmm. Come to think of it, what's Ambush Bug doing these days?
@@richmcgee434 Empowred seems like the only way it would be good. Hey, Adam Warren you want to write for DC again...? lmao
Well, I'll admit that doesn't seem likely. He's too busy raking in the cash drawing pinup art on commission these days to go back to DC. :)
I've always found it interesting that DC sued Fawcett because Shazam was too similar to Superman, yet, now that they own the character, they spend all their time pointing out the differences between the two.
Another reason they did that at the time because shazam was out selling superman comics
@@kevinmcc3147 Thanks. That makes a lot of sense.
@@kevinmcc3147 And published monthly and for a while every third Friday as compared to Superman who was published bi-monthly for all the '40s.
@@infantinofan are you a fanboy ?
@@kevinmcc3147Why would that make him a fanboy, Superman haters at everywhere
I love that Mr. Mind was brought back as the final villain of 52.
Captain Nazi, I don't know man. The character's name is to subtle for me. 😅
His deal is that he's an Ashkenazi Jew with super powers, and he fights Hitler's forces. And the swastika on his chest is there to remind you who his enemies are. In retrospect, there was room for confusion.
@@kingbeauregard Just... utterly terrible branding...
Agreed. Years later he changed his name to Trump. Hahaha Hahaha Hahaha
Keith Riley Orange man bad.
Still waiting for the Nazi Family- Captain Nazi, Kid Nazi, Nitzi Nazi, Grandpapa Nazi and Swatstika Hund
Imagine making profit off of someone's hardwork and ideas, taking advantage of creators and having the audacity to accuse someone of copying you.
Something I don’t like about modern Captain Marvel/Shazam is the more modern depiction of Dr Sivana. I always thought Sivana worked better as a looney mad scientist instead of the Lex Luthor knock off a lot of writers tried to turn him into.
What did you think about him in the movie?
He was alright. I got really worried when I saw "Sivana Corp" but was pleasantly surprised when they subverted expectations and had his father and brother be the ones who owned the business. I still prefer him as a scientist over the wizard they made him in the movie but I'm happy he wasn't just a Lex Luthor knock off.
If you didn't like the Luthor inspiration I cannot imagine what you thought about the movie interpretation which was really completely different. A tall good-looking guy that wasn't even a scientist but some guy that had used to have Shazam powers. lol
The biggest problem was that he was basically Black Adam power wise.
@@zakunick1 Scientific Black Adam
Golden Age Captain Marvel is in the public domain. Time to reprint them as back up stories in my small independent comic book.
You can seriously do that?
@@ralphjosephacobo8014 Yes, actually. If I recall correctly some newspapers print old public domain comics as a cost-cutting method.
You can also buy the rights to works where the copyright expired and do what you want with the stuff related to the copyrighted work that you purchased.
The funniest example of this was when Universal sued Nintendo over the similarity between King Kong and Donkey Kong, but their copyright on the character had expired. So, Nintendo bought the rights to King Kong and won the lawsuit.
75-year-old stories are in public domain, the character is not (like the Fleischer superman cartoons). Look up Gwandanaland on amazon.con. They reprint lots of public domain comics in affordable volumes. They had to withdraw some recently, though, when DC renewed the copyrights on a bunch of Fawcett stories.
DC bought rights to old Captain Marvel from Fawcett comic company and now call him Shazam because Marvel got copyright on name Captain Marvel when it wasn't in use.
Captain Marvel/Shazam is such an interesting character. Love his whimsical original stories, it's the epitome of a superhero and I can totally see why kids would love him. In many ways, I wish more superhero comics focused their stories for kids. There are so many "adult" storylines in a lot of modern mainstream comics that it can be difficult to know what to recommend to kids. The fact that he had this golden age of (relatively) kid-friendly and wacky stories makes me way more interested in the character now!
Also, now I'm really curious what that noise was in the "after credit scene".
Captain Marvel is just so fascinating to learn from. He was so important to the superhero genre, since he was the first superhero to have a live-action adaptation, and the first one to have a serialised story arc.
Mr Comictropes, there is no doubt you are my favourite youtuber. Your blend of optimism, dry humour and knowledge is irresistible!
I know right
Cap stood out because the creators reached for newspaper strip-level quality, world building and continuity. Some of the stuff they did would not be equaled until the official start of the Silver Age...where Binder ended up! Hmm.
With Fawcett's aspect of wish fulfillment in the creation of Captain Marvel, that should make him the OG Spider-Man in the respect of making the reader feel that he\she could be this character .
the screams in the serial, lmao...
Aw Yeah, a episode about the BIG RED CHEESE himself.
Power Of Hope is everything I love about not just Captain Marvel, but super heroes over all and what they mean to me. There's one panel that gets me in the feels everytime ❤️
Captain Marvel is the man. Superman couldn't hold a candle to the Big Red Cheese.
CC Beck was a brilliant illustrator. I love his stuff.
As was Kurt Schaffenberger who also drew the Big Red Cheese. You can see his CM style when he later drew the Lois Lane comic.
Jeff Smith's Monster Society of Evil was an amazing story as well.
I absolutely despise your intro, but please, never change it. It is a relic of how TH-cam used to work in 2006-2008. Kinda like a love letter to the very first TH-camrs.
Hard agree with this comment
DC has forever held SHAZAM down because they don’t want him to surpass the popularity of Superman
Thank you so much for putting me down the rabbit hole of Otto Bindir!!
I have always adored Legion of Superheroes, they are my favorite comic run, and that era of DC always charmed me. I also love Captain Marvel, and that whimsical era of friendly comics in general.
So cool to do further research after watching this show and to realize that pretty much everything I love about that era of Comics was so heavily influenced by one man.
The movie has me obsessed w/Shazam! Cool to discover new things
The only issue with Shazam being the character's name is he can't tell people who he is! It really showed in the new movie.
That's a pretty major handicap they just introduced! Ha haa LOSERS! Shoulda left it as it was.
That was a running gag with Captain Marvel Junior....he couldn't say his own name without reverting to Freddy Freeman.
Since I don't read comics anymore because DC had destroyed everything, I found out from a friend that Captain Marvel is called Shazam now and he *can* now say "his name" without transforming. He has to have the *intention* to transform when he says "Shazam!"
@@carpelinguae9097 I think he has to scream it.
You know the causal racism you mentioned is something that was fairly common in media in general of the time. The best example of this is, of course the Looney Tunes cartoons of the same era. When they released to collections of those cartoons, unedited, they not only included a disclaimer with them, but got a well known celebtity (Whoopie Goldberg), to say a few word about the subject as well. Perhaps such a disclaimer would be something that DC could included at the beginning of any reprinting of the stories so that younger readers that are not familiar with the time period would understand the context those portrayals come from.
I really like how Warnwr Bros handled the situation. They didn't censor the cartoons but they also made it clear that just because it was more common/accepted at the time doesn't mean it was right (because people of color/Jewish people back back sure as heck knew it was wrong!)
Otto BInder also created Mary Marrvel, Cap's superpowered kid sister. Later on he went to DC and created-Supergirl.
"... stuffed and mounted in a museum..." Yikes! So dark, I guess this is why Captain Marvel ended up in the DC Universe ;)
I've always had a soft spot for Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family (including Alan Moore's version, of course). The art style of the original is probably a big part of that; rather reminiscent of Basil Wolverton's Spacehawk, though, without his slightly more cruel and mental edge.
When you say Alan Moore's "version"..., i assume you mean Marvel/Miracle Man? I'm aware of the history behind it, but just to clarify for me please.
@@youraveragecrownofthorns8919Yep, that's the one. It was a real eye-opener when it first came out. Very grim for the time.
@@euansmith3699 indeed it was!... have you heard anything further concerning Marvel's continuation of the character...with Gaiman?
I always smash that like button. Got a big supply of mice and keyboards from the goodwill
Outselling Superman.....that's a mighty feat. Your channel's the nuts( Hi from the UK!) 👍👌
One of the reasons why DC sued them.
As a history teacher I find this very informative. I think I will share this video to students in Google Classroom so they can watch it.
So you're telling me there's TWO Captain Marvel movies releasing this year? I can't wait for the good one to come out
It is so refreshing to see a supervillain go to trial and get the death penalty. Something that really ought to happen more often in superhero stories _and_ in real life.
The 1950s film The Good Humor Man features Captain Marvel references as the protagonist played by Jack Carson is a big Captain Marvel fan who is even a member of a kids Captain Marvel fan club. The film was directed by Frank Tashlin who was also an animator whose other comic book related film was Artists And Models starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis that features a comic book heroine called The Bat Lady and makes reference to the comic book controversy of the time.
There is a small cameo in The Good Humor Man by George Reeves(Superman from the 50s TV series.)
The Beatles referenced Captain Marvel. I think the song was called Bungalow Bill. The lyrics are "...then Captain Marvel zapped him right between the eyes. ZAP!"
@@richardranke7878 it was more than a cameo actually since he played the boss of the Good Humor Man's girlfriend and appears in more than a few scenes. Richard Egan who plays one of the polucemen who interacts with the GHM would have been TVs Prince Namor if the proposed Sub Mariner series had not been scraped. It was going to be a competitor with the Superman show.
@@hexum7 I never knew that! Captain Marvel even crossed his way into the Beatles!
Could you at some point do a comic tropes episode about Bruce Timm?
I always loved the name captain marvel over Shazam. I always thought naming yourself your weakness was a bad idea.
Not to mention that he can't even tell people who he is without turning into Billy Batson.
@@NoJusticeNoPeace I wonder how he told the Justice League his name without revealing his identity? Did he have special cards or something?
His other name was Captain Thunder
NoJusticeNoPeace custom lightning-bolt shaped business cards.
Great episode! Those clips from the Captain Marvel/Shazam movie were hilarious, all those screams lol. Find it a little disheartening to see how much we can't accept our sociatal history. Yes it's a shame that people were portrait in such a racist fashion. However, if you just push it aside and try to act like it didn't happen, you risk repeating those mistakes.
Yes people will complain about the issues if they were republished, but in all honesty these days, they're going to complain anyway. It's sad that human history is littered with hate, racism, fascism, anti-Semitism, etc. But looking back on it shows us how far we've grown, or how little we've grown.
Imo one of the worst things we can do as a society is assume that we're inherently good, it takes work for a single person to be good, let alone an entire society.
Sorry to ramble but with this excessively sensitive society we're moving towards, these things have been on my mind.
Anyway, great video Chris, thanks for the hard work as always!
Even before the recent controversy, the Big Red Cheese was the only Captain Marvel I cared about.
Oh god, that scream! If I was a film maker I'd totally try to slip that into my soundtracks.
Thought you might like to know DC is reprinting the "Monster Society" storyline in a nice-looking deluxe edition around the time the Shazam movie comes out. I don't know if it includes a forward like you described, but I wouldn't be surprised if it does.
Benjamin Kellog They canceled that a couple weeks ago.
I have an old book which reprints the entire Monster Society storyline. I think it was from England.
Damn, if I knew this was about a superhero fighting a super smart cartoony worm that indirectly caused the holocaust and ended up being sentenced to death and having a musem display his stuffed body for future generation to see I would have jumped in years ago, shit's insane.
I kind of like how they used Billy Batson/Shazam in Kingdom Come. It kind of made sense what happened to him.
I cracked up at the montage of the film serial Captain Marvel repeatedly throwing people to their deaths.
Captain Marvel was so popular that for a time he was published every third Friday instead of bi-monthly like Superman. In fact, Superman wasn't even published monthly until long after the last Captain Marvel issue came out in 1953.
Thank you for an excellent primer, sir! It really helped me enjoy my viewing of “Shazam!” much much more.
If this channel gets any more popular, over half the video is going to be dedicated to fan art.
God dammit Chris...you deserve every sub ever and I thank you every time for continuing to do this! It’s insanely amazingly incredibly fantastically fun. Keep going man. The comic industry needs this voice as a constant. A positive one.
Captain Marvel, Captain Nazi, who's handing out these titles?
Captain Obvious, obviously.
Jun Imai, you win the internet today.
The Wizard Shazam and Adolf Hitler respectively. XD
Your an idiot. Your first thought isn't 'get Captain America'?
@@ridhosamudro2199with orders from Colonel Oblivious...
Captain Marvel is one of those characters whose real-life creation story is almost as interesting as his fictional stories. A complex character origin story indeed. It got to be a real mess with Fawcett, DC and Mavel Comics all getting involved. I recently managed to win a small set of DC's Shazam The Original Captain Marvel comics at online auction and am really enjoying reading through them. I'd love to have some Whiz comics as well, but they are getting a bit pricey in good condition.
My favorite superhero will probably always be Batman as he was my first favorite and I really identified with his brooding, loner nature as well as his brilliant mind for solving things and his amazing gadgets, but a close second has become Captain Marvel (I don't call him Shazam - that's the magic word). The idea of having a kid turn into a big, powerful superhero by using a magic word is the best idea in all of comics. The ultimate in wish fulfillment.
It’s is sad that Shazam did so many things first but doesn’t get a lot of respect.
Captain Marvel stopped an erupting volcano by sitting on it? Now that's what I call a hot seat!
I always loved Captain Marvel, the amazing illustrations, campy OTT stories and characters, and it was immensely fun. One of my favourites
Shazam!
Intros: *exist*
Comictropes: oh,hi!!!
I really enjoy those golden age Captain Marvels. I wish they would be republished or released in high quality digital format.
I just saw this video today (3/3/20). In 1989, in cooperation with DC, American Nostalgia Library, an imprint of Hawk Books, released an oversized (10.5"x 14") slipcased, hardcover reprint of the 25 issues comprising the Monster Society of Evil. It's on slick, heavy paper and the white background of the comic pages has been replaced with black, causing the colors to pop off the page. It's beautiful. There's a handful of pages with history and pictures, along with a gallery of the twenty-five covers of the story. It was a limited edition of 3000 copies, I have number 453. I have no memory of what it cost then (comics.org say $95, I may have paid $80), but there's one on Amazon for about $850 and a bunch on eBay as I write this. Some other company has also issued lesser-quality reprints for much less. And another search shows me DC may have reprinted it as "Shazam! - The Monster Society of Evil". But I prefer his original name.
He will always be Captain Marvel to me till I die.
There were movie serials in the 40s, a Saturday morning tv show, a Saturday tv cartoon in the 70s. Now a movie.
In my house we call him Captain Marvel.
The Real Captain Marvel is gonna show everyone why DC and Marvel resorted to courtroom chicanery to keep him down. He speaks to the heart of what is important about these characters and their stories.
I have the Adventures of Captain Marvel serial on LaserDisc and I absolutely love them. I'm a big Captain Marvel fan, and I really wish Marvel Comics had not copyrighted the name so that he could still be called that. Shazam is the name of the wizard, not the hero!
I did not realize that Shazam, aka Captain Marvel was actually pretty interesting. i might have to check these out
Very cool. Any chance you could profile Joe Kubert and his brilliant work on Hawkman, Enemy Ace and The Unknown Soldier?
Wait a second, so Captain Nazi was sent to steal two black pearls that allow people to see far away things? Holy cow, he was trying to steal palantirs!
I'm writing this comment while standing near a cliff. This is a great vi......aaaaaaahhhhhhh!
your skateboard metaphor really put things into context, thanks!
My hope is mr mind is part of the teaser for Shazam 2
Shazam was the first super hero I remember as a kid thanks to The Kids Super Power Hour with Shazam". Silly cartoon, but a lot of fun at the time
Captain Marvel has always been one of my favorites since the days of the Shazam TV show in the 70's.
Your channel makes me happy. Love this show. Thank you, man.
The marvel DC fiasco over the rights is the biggest tragedy in media besides Daredevil. Great show.
I laughed WAY harder than I should have at that "900" joke. So bad it's genius!
Awesome show! I heard that Mickey Dolenz (of the monkees) was actually up for the part of Uncle Marvel but it didn't happen (in the current Captain Marvel movie.)
Dude, I appreciate you so much! You have such a positive vibe! I've definitely subscribed and will share this video in the Captain Marvel groups on Facebook in which I'm a member!
I always learn something I didn't know about comics from you, your wealth of knowledge is nothing short of amazing. I think it is a mistake to judge our past by current standards. We didn't get to see the first 26 issues of Detective Comics (pre-Batman) because of the same reason. We are really missing out on some historical comics due to DC changing their mind about reprinting those issues.
I remember the 70s live action TV show Shazam and then his spin off of Isis. Looking back it was cheesy because he couldn't really punch because it was a Saturday morning show when I watched it (kinda like Super Friends). But I still remember it fondly.
They created the Shazam character based upon Captain Marvel. They are two separate characters. They don't have the same Immortals or the same powers. Apparently OG Captain Marvel is still alive out there somewhere in World 5 or something. Great vid! I grew up with Cap in the 70s and stayed one of my all time favorites.
I'd really like to see the entire Mr. Mind saga put out in book form (with, as you note, a preface that helps explain and contextualize the racial caricatures, as well as giving the reader some war background information). That series was just so utterly bizarre and inventive it truly deserves to find a far more prominent place in comic history. (CM was soooo different from Superman in a lot of ways that I just don't see it as some terrible "infringement" on DC's much blander, middle-of-the-road super hero. )
The serial of the Republic was initially designed for Superman. I wonder if those scenes of violence will not have been thought for him. In some early Superman comics he says "It's well deserved" when some villain dies horribly.
I enjoyed the 1941 serial from Republic Pictures with Tom Tyler as Captain Marvel. BTW: i met Otto Binder a few times in the late 1960s. He was also the co-creator of Supergirl.
The bits with the live action serial was pretty funny, especially when they tossed the bad guys over the cliff and the men all had girly screams...I guess the 'Wilhelm Scream' wasn't available then.
I had a horrible hangover one night and was heading into my night job. Stopped off at the gas station for some Tylenol and Mountain Dew. My hangover must have been much worse than I thought, because the Mountain Dew tasted awful. Turns out it was a DIET. Straight up poison.
Cool Silver Surfer: Parable in the back there.
16:00 . Wow, the movie serial version of Capt Marvel didn't think twice about killing his enemies. lol
Great show. You did an excellent job explaining the history of Captain Marvel. Very well done, thanks!!
Owwwwww! That skateboarding pun hurt. :)
I watched the advanced screening of Shazam! yesterday and all I can say is I already want a sequel!
C.C. Beck wasn't the only artist to draw the World's Mightiest Mortal in the 1940's. Towards the end of Cap's run at Fawcett, Kurt Schaffenberger was the primary artist for a few of the Marvel family titles. And in what was essentially the first issue of Captain Marvel Adventures, the artwork was by none other than Jack "King" Kirby.
As you said, Otto Binder wrote most of Cap's adventures and created Mary Marvel, Cap's sister. At DC, he created Supergirl, Superman's cousin.
Just fantastic. And a nice unspoken mini-documentary on the world before Wilhelm.
The intro was hilarious.
Otto Binder's weird & whimsical. Hope they bring some of it to the next Shazam! movie. It's the only era of the Captain Marvel books that appeals to me.
What, no mention of FATMAN THE HUMAN FLYING SAUCER?
Maybe because this Binder/Beck feature only lasted three issues.
Between your show and the iFanboy Pick of the Week podcast, Sunday has become just as big of a comic book day for me as Wednesday.! Keep it up sir!
And thanks for recommending Comicbook Kayfabe! The good natured banter between Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg (and sometimes Tom Scioli) is really great and has given me a new appreciation for a lot of 90's stuff that I had almost written off
6:15 If I had been taking a sip of my drink when Captain Nazi showed up, I would have done a classic Danny Thomas spit-take!
Billy Batson was ten to twelve, not a young teen, and why many forget he lived on his own with his own career escapes me...
Ten to twelve is often considered a young teen.
@@Frankenstein077 Ten to twelve is referred to as Tween, as in "in between childhood and teenagerhood". Which only started being a phrase in the 90s I think. Before that ten to twelve year olds were just referred to as kids.
Teenagerhood is the years that have "teen" in the number, 13-19.
@@WildBluntHickok You think? You're on the _internet,_ look it up. Kid simply refers to someone who is younger than you are, kid.
I do love Captain Marvel!!!!!!!! My favorite superhero by far!!!! Of course being a fan of film, I easily on the histories world's first superhero movie!!!!! I have No idea where those fake screams coming from in this videos. In that old black-and-white movie, there are no screens that sound like that
Welp, I never got into this comic before and now I definitely will. That artwork is right up my alley! thanks so much for making these videos man
I would love to Mr Mind in the Shazam sequel.
"In the beginning everyone was jumping onto the comic book bandwagon. There was no question that Captain Marvel derived from Superman . . . We had our Superman-type character just like everyone else had theirs. So why did Superman's publisher pick on us? Simply because we were beating them in sales! The lawsuits dragged on for years; there were three of them: We won the first, lost the second, won the third . . . but then there was a problem. One artist, I don't know who, took either a page or a panel from Superman comics and traced it exactly . . . and simply inserted Marvel where Superman was. That killed us. We settled out of court. We paid them $400,000. The settlement said that we do not admit to copying Superman but promised never to publish Captain Marvel ever again."
Roscoe K. Fawcett
P.C. Hamerlinck, "The Fawcetts Could Do It As Well, Or Better, Than Anybody": The Roscoe K. Fawcett Interview, in Fawcett Companion: The Best of FC 13 (Paul Hamerlinck, ed., TwoMorrows Publishing 2001) (quoting Fawcett circulation director Roscoe Kent Fawcett).
D.C. were angry that their golden boy was being outsold by a character whom they thought was an infringement and dc didn’t like their competition
Britta: “I can excuse the racism...”
Shirley: “...you can excuse the racism?”
Man, that was really cool! We saw Shazam today, and this helped decipher some of our questions, thanks.