Number 2039: The original, marvelous Captain Marvel

Here is the original Captain Marvel: the young boy, Billy Batson, given the power of a magic word, Shazam!, which changed him into a fully grown man with super powers. There is a usurper Captain Marvel coming soon to theaters, a woman no less. I have nothing against her except this Captain Marvel I present today is the one I recognize. (If you came here looking for her, you are now disappointed.)

The stories are taken from the UK version of Captain Marvel Adventures #125 (1951. Grand Comics Database tells us that C.C. Beck and Pete Costanza did the artwork for “The Return of the Ancient Villain,” and Beck did the art chores for “The Mechanical Man Mystery.” Otto Binder wrote both stories. Otto also created the sentient robot, Adam Link, in Amazing Stories, so he knew a bit about mechanical men with personalities.

I presume Binder also knew that Robert E. Howard created a character called King Kull, but by the time Binder used the name Howard was dead, and Binder could have thought that his young audience would probably not notice. I noticed when I saw the first reprinting of the story in the volume Shazam from the Forties to the Seventies, which Harmony Books published in 1977

Here is a Marvel Family story I especially enjoyed, posted in 2012. Just click on the thumbnail.

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