re: The Official Comic Book hero Tournament Round [Voting Now Open!]

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how has he lost in the past? i imagine it takes another telepath

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Flash is immune to telepathic attack. I know it's ridiculous but true.

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Flash is immune to telepathic attack. I know it's ridiculous but true.

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The frick is even the point?

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Yep, he'd definitely beat Supes. Actually, he has beat Supes. But I actually didn't know that he was both stronger and faster than Supes until I was forced to study him for this tournament. I actually love the concept of his character. A teen/pre-teen that gets such massive powers. I'm kind of surprised that his character never took off like some of the other DC characters.

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well there are a few reasons for that.

first primarily being that Captain Marvel was not originally a DC creation.

He was made by Fawcett Comics and actually outsold Superman for a time. (probably b/c being a kid that magically becomes a super being is a bit more relatable than an alien being).

Anyway, DC decided to sue Fawcett for copyright infringement. Due to over 10 years of litigation costs and the sharp decline in super hero comics post WW2 Fawcett eventually settled and shut down their comic division.

A few years later, Marvel trademarked the Captain Marvel name which would eventually make it a pain in the arse to market the original Captain Marvel character. In fact, Marvel seems to only publish their version of CM often enough to keep the trademark.

Once the Silver Age boom for super heroes hit Fawcett wanted to publish again but couldt per their agreement with DC. DC decided to license the characters to publish themselves but since Marvel now had the rights for the Captain Marvel name they started calling the series Shazam which made it somewhat confusing for average Joe Blow who didn't grow up with the character.

On top of that, up until the 90s Power of Shazam series DC tended to use Captain Marvel as a joke character spoof of Superman. Cap has beaten Superman before but its generally rare and usually Superman wins by something as simple as putting his hand over Billy's mouth when he is trying to say Shazam.


Fun facts

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In pop culture, Billy Batson/Captain Marvel's magic word, "Shazam!", became a popular exclamation from the 1940s on, often used in place of an expletive. The most notable user of the word "Shazam!" in this form was Gomer Pyle, a character from the 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show and later Gomer Pyle USMC. In the 1961 movie West Side Story, Baby John says that Captain Marvel doesn't need to use guns. Foxxy Cleopatra in the 2002 film Austin Powers in Goldmember is also fond of the word.

Captain Marvel is mentioned in a verse of the 1968 song "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" by The Beatles in the line: “So Captain Marvel zapped him right between the eyes”. This marks the only occasion in which a comic book character is mentioned in a Beatles song. In a scene of the movie A Hard Day's Night, Paul McCartney shouts the word "Shazam!"

In the 2002 film adaptation of Spider-Man, Peter Parker tries a variety of catchphrases/magic words – among them "Shazam!" – in an attempt to activate his new-found web shooting abilities. For many years, Phoenix Suns play-by-play announcer Al McCoy has said "Shazam!" when a Phoenix Sun player makes a three-point field goal, and has acknowledged that it came from Captain Marvel comics.

The Academy of Comic Book Arts named its Shazam Award in honor of the character.

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LINK

Also, Elvis was a huge fan of the sidekick character Captain Marvel Junior and modeled many of his outfits after his suit.



I'm still sad that proposed Captain Marvel movie with the Rock as Black Adam went into development hell.