Andrew A. Smith
Scripps Howard News Service
Marvel Entertainment announced a new Captain Marvel at WonderCon March 17, a character with a lot of strikes against her. But most fans are cheering.
The major problem is that the character can be confusing. To most folks, “Captain Marvel” means an entirely different character from a different company: Billy Batson, the boy who shouts “SHAZAM!” to become a light-hearted adult superhero in a red costume. He was really big in the 1940s, rivaling Superman in sales.
Which was his doom. National (now DC) Comics, publishers of Superman, sued Fawcett Publications, publisher of Captain Marvel, for copyright infringement in 1940. It appeared to be a weak case to us non-lawyers, based on both characters having similar powers (although Captain Marvel’s were magical, and based on ancient gods and heroes) and similar civilian identities (Clark Kent was an adult reporter for the Daily Planet newspaper; Batson was a boy reporter for radio station WHIZ-AM). Neverthless, the case dragged on until 1953, when Fawcett settled out of court and got out of the comics business.
With the original Captain Marvel kaput, the name was up for grabs. MF Enterprises used the name for an android superhero in 1966, whose power was to split his head, legs, arms and fingers off his body, to fly off independently and fight bad guys. That’s a really stupid super-power – how do disembodied limbs fly, anyway? – but also really creepy, and that Cap only lasted four issues.
Also in 1966, Marvel Comics decided to appropriate the name for a new superhero from outer space – a captain in the alien Kree military, whose real name was Mar-Vell. That character died in 1981 (and, amazingly, remains dead), but the name was used again at Marvel for his son Genis-Vell (now dead), his daughter Phyla-Vell (also now dead), an unrelated light-based superheroine named Monica Rambeau (now code-named Pulsar), another Kree named Noh-Varr (now code-named Protector) and a Kree historian named Medi-E-Vell. OK, I’m kidding about that last one, but you can see the name gets around.
Before most of that, DC had obtained the rights to the original Captain “Shazam” Marvel, and began publishing his adventures in 1971. Ironically, they were unable to name their Captain Marvel comic book “Captain Marvel,” because Marvel held the trademark. So, while DC could still use the name “Captain Marvel” for the character, they had to use something else for the title of his books – usually “Shazam!” or a variant thereof. Recently, mirroring the actions of Fawcett almost 60 years ago, DC has simply given up on the Captain Marvel name and just renamed the character “Shazam.”
Meanwhile, a supporting character in the original Marvel Captain Marvel series (I told you it’s confusing), got super-powers and her own book in 1977, Ms. Marvel. This character, named Carol Danvers, had previously been an Air Force captain, an espionage agent and Mar-Vell’s girlfriend. When Ms. Marvel got canceled, she got new powers and called herself Binary, then lost those powers and became Warbird, then shifted back to Ms. Marvel for a recently canceled series. And it is THAT character that will once again be Marvel’s Captain Marvel in July.
Another strike against Captain Marvel is that titles starring females traditionally have a hard time in the male-dominated comics landscape. Currently Marvel has no solo titles – zero – starring women.
There aren’t a lot of female writers in comics, either, but the new Captain Marvel has one: Kelly Sue DeConnick, best known for manga translations. On Marvel.com, she described the character this way:
“My pitch [to Marvel] was called ‘Pilot’ and the take can pretty much be summed up with ‘Carol Danvers as Chuck Yeager. Carol's the virtual definition of a Type A personality. She's a competitor and a control freak. … She'll have to figure out how to be both Captain Marvel [ital] and [end ital] Chuck Yeager – to marry the responsibility of that legacy with the sheer joy being nearly invulnerable and flying really [expletive] fast.”
And the pluses for Captain Marvel? First, the more non-whiny, unapologetically strong women in comics, the better -- as a role model for girls, and an education for boys. Also, Marvel needs an iconic female standard bearer like DC’s Wonder Woman, and what could be better than one with “Marvel” right in the name? Also, the old “Ms. Marvel” handle always seemed a little archaic to me – a throwback to the ‘70s that makes her sound like a spinoff.
Finally, Carol Danvers is just a great character. Like other fans, my reaction to her solo book is “It’s about time!”
Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.
Art:
1. Cover for July's "Captain Marvel" #1, by Ed McGuinness. Courtesy Marvel Entertainment.
2. Cover for July's "Captain Marvel" #2, by Ed McGuinness. Courtesy Marvel Entertainment.
3. Cover to 1940's "Whiz Comics" #2, the first appearance of the original Captain Marvel. Courtesy DC Entertainment.
4. Interior art for "Captain Marvel" #1. Courtesy Marvel Entertainment.
Comments
Any resemblance between Carol Danvers' pose (above) and Rosie the Riveter is PURELY coincidental, of course.
Here ya go!
I can only say - MORE references to anything and everything from the wider culture beyond superhero comics! Cram every frame with them if possible! (Especially if it can be done unobtrusively, like here.) Rosie brings a raft of associations to Ms Captain Marvel that only sharpens the focus of what they should be doing with her.
Rosie is a good signal from them that they might be on the right track this time.
When I mentioned the Miracleman connection before, I wasn't really being snide. It looks like Marvel have bought Miracleman - the once and future MARVELman, don't forget, so why shouldn't they profit from their connection to it? Marvel haven't announced that they may be reprinting Moore's and Gaiman's Marvelman yet, so Carol's new look here could be a tangential cash-in on that.
I've always thought that it was a shame that Marvel couldn't make more of their home-brand heroes who should be headliners, considering that 'Marvel Comics' is a household name.
Maybe Marvel too are hoping to tap into that Alan Moore magic to give their sales a boost. Alan's a very central marginal figure these days!
That's well-spotted, George.
You could post the link whole using the comment box "LINK" button, if you want to try again.
I like the best Fawcett Captain Marvel stories very much, but I see him as a close imitation of Superman. Visually he's very like the early Superman (cape, chest insignia, no mask, skin-tight costume once he lost the flap,(1) mostly red instead of mostly blue), down to the squinty eyes.(2)
Whether this should constitute legally actionable plagiarism, I don't know. One wouldn't be likely to confuse him with Superman. A measure of influence from earlier creators seems legitimate: we don't consider all other detective heroes plagiarisms of Sherlock Holmes, or Holmes a plagiarism of Dupin or Lecoq (although Doyle was certainly influenced by their stories, and referenced them in A Study in Scarlet).(3) But anyone can see how much Captain Marvel is like Superman. As I said once before, that's why creators keep pitting them against one another - going back as far as Mad's Superman parody!
(1) His initial costume was apparently supposed to look like a European dress uniform. Fawcett dropped the cape in a couple of stories early on (but it didn't disappear from the covers. I can't recall if it did from any splash pages.)
(2) I think the association of squinty eyes with toughness comes from the fact that you squint when out in the bright sun. A guy whose job includes hard, physical outdoor work might acquire the habit of squinting.
(3) Dupin appeared in three stories by Edgar Allan Poe ("The Murders in the Rue Morgue", which is a locked room mystery, "The Purloined Letter", which has a famous solution, and "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt".) Lecoq appeared in novels by Émile Gaboriau; the book Holmes and Watson discuss in Scarlet is Monsieur Lecoq. Incidentally, the structure of Scarlet (and The Valley of Fear) - mystery/detective story followed by separate story explaining what lies behind the events - was used by Gaboriau.
On an unrelated note:
I once ran across a website dedicated to the National vs. Fawcett lawsuit over Captain Marvel that showed several pages from those early Captain Marvel comics that were direct swipes from various issues of Superman and Action Comics. Not the occasional pose or panel, either -- these were blatant, unabashed copies of entire pages. Unfortunately, for the life of me I can't find that site again.
So there was more to National's claim than the similarities cited above.
At first glance, that picture of The All New, All Different But Not Really Captain Marvel confused me, because it looks like it came from a revival of Miracleman. But sure, yeah, Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel -- why not? Good luck, and I hope she can have a long run. After all, the Ms. Marvel book had a pretty good ride, didn't it?
When I first heard the news, I thought, "About time!" I've been a fan of the Carol Danvers characters since the debut of the "lightning bolt" outfit back in the 70s. I'm hoping for the best for the title, and I'll be there to try it out for a few issues. As far as the costume goes, I like it. I think it should have a military feel to it.
Oh dear. I'm getting an Image vibe from that page...
It's says Cap Marvel 2013 on those scans, so maybe we won't see this for a while.
Apparently, the interior art will be by Dexter Soy. The lower right image above is his work.
I love McKelvie's work there. He is a marvelous artist, who knows how to give the images room to breathe. The costume is a pretty good one. She looks like she means business.
I might buy it if the art is by McKelvie. Ed McGuinness can also be a wonderful artist, but needs to choose his projects better.
Jamie McKelvie has posted that he designed the costume, and that her helmet forms when she needs it. He also has images of the costume by himself (I believe) and Terry and Rachel Dodson where I think it comes off better than in the covers in the above article, which are apparently by Ed McGuinness. See the posts for 17-31 Mar 12.
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