I thought Captain Marvel was this buff dude in a red Lycra leotard with gold boots, a lightning bolt across his chest, and a gold cape.
And a day job of being Billy Batson, a not-particularly-remarkable nebbish of a lad who could turn into the aforementioned buff dude by doing an impression of Gomer Pyle (“SHAZAM!”).
Now, besides the conundrum of why young Master Batson would ever NOT be Captain Marvel, I’m faced with the existence of a motion picture in which he is being portrayed by a spectacularly comely young lady.
Is this what people are talking about when they mention “retcon?” Or is it more of a “reboot” thing?
ETA: Was Captain Marvel ever “First Lieutenant Marvel” or even “Butterbar Marvel?”
The DC Captain Marvel that you are thinking of is now called Shazam. The Marvel Captain Marvel is a completely different character. Nothing to do with Shazam or Billy Batson.
Marvel has used the name Captain Marvel for both male (Mar-Vell, a Kree) and female (Carol Danvers, human or human-kree hybrid depending on which reboot you’re in) characters. Carol Danvers (USAF) has indeed been a lieutenant, and a captain, and a major, but as [grade] Danvers, not as [grade] Marvel.
Again, they are completely different characters, published by different firms. Really not sure why this is baffling to you. Have you not heard of two different people sharing a name?
As for the current Captain Marvel, She was a USAF officer, so I assume she worked her way up through the ranks. But I don’t think her “captain” moniker has much to do with that. It’s just standard superhero naming. Captain America, Captain Cold, Captain Britain, etc.
If I remember correctly, Marvel Comics gets to use the name Captain Marvel, even though DC had it first. Here’s from the Shazam wiki:
Fawcett ceased publishing Captain Marvel-related comics in 1953, partly because of a copyright infringement suit from DC Comics, alleging that Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman.[4] In 1972, DC licensed the Marvel Family characters from Fawcett, and returned them to publication. By 1991, DC had acquired all rights to the characters. DC has since integrated Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family into their DC Universeand has attempted to revive the property several times, with mixed success. Due to trademark conflicts over another character named "Captain Marvel"owned by Marvel Comics,[5] DC has branded and marketed the character using the trademark Shazam! since his 1972 reintroduction.[6] This, in turn, led many to assume that “Shazam” was the character’s name. DC later officially renamed the character “Shazam” when relaunching its comic book properties in 2011,[7] and his associates became known as the “Shazam Family” the following year.[8]
Because Marvel owns the trademark on the name Captain Marvel as used in comic books.
DC stopped making their Captain Marvel comics in the 1950s. And so Marvel created their own Captain Marvel in the 1960s and got the trademark rights. They’ve intentionally never let their Captain Marvel run out of print, even if it means changing their identity every once in a while.
So, when DC decided to pull out Captain Marvel again, they couldn’t use that name in the books or advertising. So they instead used the word he calls out to transform, “Shazam!”
For a while, including in the 1970s Shazam! TV show, they tried to keep the character’s name as “Captain Marvel,” But it was easier to just call him Shazam and not have to worry about any trademark issues.
Carol Danvers aka the current Captain Marvel, who I originally knew as Ms. Marvel back when she coexisted with Mar-Vell below. As a super hero she really first broke on the scene in 1977, though the character herself dated back to the 1960’s.
Then there is the original Marvel Kree Captain Marvel, who first appeared back in 1967.
Meanwhile the Shazam Captain Marvel you’re familiar with started in 1939, but was not created by DC. Rather he was created by Fawcett Comics who were sued by DC for copyright infringement( based on Superman )and ceased production in 1953. Then DC bought the rights and started publishing again in 1972( this is all in the wiki ). So actually the Marvel version preceded the DC version ;).
I have to admit, though, for a casual fan, keeping the various marvels straight can be a bit of a challenge. Is there an overview somewhere? There’s also the Monica Rambeaux (?) Captain Marvel, who could transform into… Light? Energy? And I think a Ms. Marvel that was a kind of female The Thing?
In the MCU Captain is the highest rank that Steve Rogers held in active service, hell he is called “Captain Rogers” almost as often as Captain America.
Same with Carol Danvers, she was a USAF officer and test pilot, and at the time the USAF did indeed limit women from flying in combat.
(In the comics Steve Rogers actual rank varies from Private to Lt Gen if memory serves).
:dubious:
Gaddaffi was a Captain, promoted by the junta to Lt Col during the revolution.
Rogers was a Private. Later commissioned as an incentive. The WW2 US Military often used promises of a commission as a sweetener for certain jobs. Lots of guys in Motion Picture Units were commissioned (like Ronald Reagan)
They were the same in that while they both had mid-level ranks on paper, I’d like to see a General try to give them orders (ignoring the fact that Libya had no generals).
Monica Rambeau could indeed transform into just about any kind of electromagnetic energy, letting her fly at light-speed, among other abilities.
Amusingly, she was not actually a captain in her normal life - she’d been a lieutenant in the Coast Guard who was passed over for promotion because of her sex and after she got her powers, she resigned and decided she’d make Captain her own way.
Amusingly, from the other end of the spectrum, I never had any clue that Shazam was originally called Captain Marvel until the current MCU Captain Marvel movie was made known to the public.
Something similar happened when DC’s Terminator (Slade Wilson) transitioned to Feathstrike the Terminator bad is now usually just called Deathstroke.
DC used the character name first but didn’t establish trademark use first. They could have kept calling him the Terminator, but couldn’t headline the name as a trademark.