Marvel Comics’ Shazam v. DC’s Superman... 0

[bronze johnny]

In retrospect, would Marvel Comics be in a better place if Stan and company had taken Shazam and agreed to let DC Comics have the Captain Marvel title? Could Fawcett’s original creation have fared better competing against Superman from the House of Ideas? I sometimes wonder whether Marvel Comics would have put much more than DC did to bring back the rivalry that existed between the Original Captain Marvel and Superman. DC may have recognized this and worked at keeping the Big Red Cheese away from the House of Ideas. Marvel had Spiderman to match up with DC’s Batman. Imagine a Marvel Comics Shazam matched against DC’s Superman? Would have been interesting to see where Shazam would be now when compared to his DC “rival” if he were at Marvel Comics.

Best,

john

Edited October 20, 2020 by bronze johnny

[theCapraAegagrus]

Huh...? How would Marvel have been able to use Shazam if DC was allowed to keep using Captain Marvel as the comic title...?

[the blob]

Captain Marvel had become generic by then. There were other comics companies using the name, I believe. Didn't Dell try? Maybe DC decided to use the name "Shazam" in the 70s when they re-booted to avoid confusion. The phrase was catchy enough to get a TV show....

[the blob]

https://seanhowe.tumblr.com/post/142724446157/wall-street-journal-november-13-1967-on-the

I have a few of the MF enterprises captain marvels. funny how the article talks about it being a bust with only sales of 100k copies... I assume marvel comics wound up winning or bankrupting MF enterprises in the process... so I guess it wasn't generic, I dunno...

 

[the blob]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Captain-Marvel-1-1966-Silver-Age-Comic-M-F-Enterprises-/274529174072    man o man, a lot of original thought, they even had a plastic man backup feature