Captain Marvel was created by C.C. Beck. Hist first appearance was as Captain
Thunder in an ashcan comic titled Thrill Comics #1. His name was changed
shortly afterward because Captain Thunder was already being used by another company.
As a result, in Whiz Comics #2 Captain Marvel appeared, and he became more popular than Superman.
Why was this? Well, there were many reasons.
First, young readers could relate to Captain Marvel because he was a boy
with superpowers. Young Billy Batson just had to say "Shazam" and he would
become the powerful Captain Marvel. At this time, most of the comic readers
were young boys, who after reading comics would fantasize about becoming
a superhero themselves.
Additionally, the stories were much better. The writers for Captain Marvel
were much more creative than those who scripted Superman. A good example
would be the villain Mr. Mind. Originally appearing as a voice over a
radio, we would later find out that Mr. Mind was really a super intelligent
worm from another planet! It was a shocking and more exciting villain than
the typical robot or mad scientist that Superman was fighting.
So successful was Captain Marvel that his title Captain Marvel Adventures
would almost circulate 1.4 million copies per issue, on a bi-weekly
basis in 1946. The Captain Marvel phenomena also expanded to his
relatives. There was a Mary Marvel (sister), a Captain Marvel Jr., an Uncle
Marvel, and even Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, as well as many others.
Still, Captain Marvel had all sorts of legal troubles in his early years.
They began in 1941 when DC filed a lawsuit against Fawcett Comics (publisher
of the Captain Marvel titles). DC claimed that Captain Marvel was a copyright
infringement on their character Superman. This case would finally come to
trial in 1948; the courts decided in Fawcett's favor. The court stated that some of
Superman's appearances were not published with the proper copyright material.
However, the court did say that there were some similarities between the two
characters. DC Comics appealed this decision and got a new trial in 1951.
This court decided that because DC had no intention of abandoning the
Superman character, their copyright was still intact, despite their earlier
errors in publishing the proper copyright notices. In 1953, the case was
finally settled out of court when Fawcett agreed to quit using the Captain
Marvel character(s) and pay DC the sum of $400,000.
A new hero called Captain Marvel was published in 1966 by M.F. Enterprises.
This was a totally new character, and the title only lasted 5 issues with
another one-shot appearance in 1967. Later in 1967, Marvel Comics would
come up with their own Captain Marvel. This was also a completely different
character, but an important one, because: 1) He would die of cancer, and
2) He remains dead to this day (an amazing and astonishing occurrence in the
comic book world).
In 1973, DC themselves revived the original Captain Marvel, but they were forced to call this title Shazam because Marvel Comics now held the trademark to the Captain Marvel name. Drawn by co-creator C.C. Beck, Shazam would last 35 issues. He would later re-appear in the Legends mini-series in 1986, then in his own Shazam mini-series in 1987, and now in a title called The Power of Shazam, begun in 1995 and currently still in circulation.
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