#shazam 1941

[sassylightcycle]

hulk 1985 and hulk 2021

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Tom Tyler - Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941)

[browsethestacks]

Vintage Comic - Captain Marvel Thrill Book #01

Pencils: George Tuska

Inks: George Tuska

Fawcett (1941)

[gameraboy2]

"Not for sissies!"

1941 Mechanix Illustrated ad featuring Captain Marvel

[nerds-yearbook]

Captain Marvel Jr was introduced and joined the Marvel Family in Whiz Comics 25# (cover date December, 1941). He was created by Ed Herron, C.C. Beck, and Mac Raboy. ("Captain Marvel: The Origin of Captain Marvel, Jr", "Green Arrow: Strongest Man in the World", "Spy Smasher: America-Smasher's Ski Tank", "Lance O'Casey: Red Bart's Evil Plot", "Dr. Voodoo: The Death Guards Ride", Whiz Comics 25#, Comic, Event)

[do-you-have-a-flag]

the scorpion.....

[daydreamerdrew]

Captain Marvel Adventures (1941) #80 and The Power of Shazam! (1994)

[marybatson]

BILLY BATSON & MARY BATSON-BROMFIELD

The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsey Drager / The Power of Shazam! (1994) / DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War (2022) / Captain Marvel Adventures (1941) / Lazarus Planet: We Once Were Gods (2023) / The New Champion of Shazam! (2022)

[chernobog13]

Art by Kurt Schaffenberger who, after C.C. Beck, is the only artist I ever wanted drawing these characters.

The Squadron of Justice, the Earth-S superteam made up of the Fawcett Comics characters that DC first licensed, then acquired outright. Clockwise from top left: Mr. Scarlet and his sidekick Pinky; Spy Smasher; Ibis the Invincible and his wife, Taia; Bulletman and Bulletgirl; and the Marvel Family - Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr.

The team was introduced in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #135-137 (1976) during the annual Justice League-Justice Society crossover.

The only member missing is the god Mercury, who was responsible for putting the team together. However, Mercury was never a Fawcett hero, just someone who lent the Marvel family his powers. He was included in the story mainly to serve as Earth-S's analogue for the Flash.

Unfortunately, this was the first and only appearance of this team. DC never revisited the concept, and ten years later there was that whole Crisis On Infinite Earths thing which destroyed the multiverse (and DC is still, to this day, trying to undo the damage done by that event).

BTW, this was actually the second time the Squadron of Justice name had been used by Fawcett characters. Waaaaay back in Whiz Comics #21 (September, 1941) readers were introduced to Captain Marvel's Squadron of Justice.

Cover art by C.C. Beck.

This issue introduced the three different boys each named Billy Batson. When they said "Shazam!" together along with the original Billy they were transformed into the three Lieutenant Marvels. The four Marvels then joined forces to battle a team of villains that Dr. Sivana put together.

While the Lieutenant Marvels would appear several more times over the years, the Squadron of Justice name was never used again.

[elastijubilee]

2024:

Beauty and the Beast (1946, French foreign language)

The Color Purple (2023)

Time Bandits (1981)

Mean Girls (2024)

Repulsion (1965)

The Uninvited (1944)

Rumble Fish (1983)

Alien (1979)

A Brighter Summer Day (1991, Taiwanese foreign language)

Tess (1979)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Aliens (1986)

Idiocracy (2006)

Looker (1981)

Alien 3 (1992)

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

Inside Out 2 (2024)

Super Capers (2011)

Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

Twisters (2024)

Westworld (1973)

Borderlands (2024)

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Shocker (1989)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, I decided in 2019 to keep track of every movie I'd watched for the first time each year moving forward. This year has been my biggest year!

Movies I watched for the first time in 2023:

Glass Onion (2022)

X (2022)

Pearl (2022)

The Witch (2015)

Fright Night (2011)

The Lighthouse (2019)

Knock at the Cabin (2023)

The Northman (2022)

Hereditary (2018)

Midsommar (2019)

Men (2022)

Saint Maude (2020)

The Wolfman (1941)

Psycho (1960)

The Birds (1963)

Vertigo (1958)

Psycho (1998)

Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (2023)

Suspiria (2018)

Rosemary's Baby (2014 made-for-tv 2-parter)

Poltergeist (2015)

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

ANOES 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

ANOES 4: The Dream Master (1988)

ANOES 5: The Dream Child (1989)

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Friday the 13th (1980)

It Follows (2014)

The Flash (2023)

Oppenheimer (2023)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)

The Little Mermaid (2023)

The Red Shoes (1948)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

The Blob (1988)

Paint (2023)

Mafia Mama (2023)

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Uncut Gems (2019)

The Green Knight (2019)

The Last Airbender (2010)

The Dark Crystal (1982)

The Fog (1980)

They Live (1988)

Office Space (1999)

Fifty Shades Freed (2018)

Teen Titans Go to the Movies (2018)

John Wick Ch. 1 (2014)

Super Mario Bros (2023)

Muppets From Space (1999)

Scream 6 (2023)

12 Monkeys (1995)

Bottoms (2023)

Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

The Craft (1996, fully through)

I Married a Witch (1942)

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, French foreign language)

Friday the 13th, Part 2 (1981)

Barbie (2023)

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

The Color Purple (1985)

Violent Night (2022)

The Stepford Wives (1975)

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2022:

Staten Island Summer (2015)

Nobody's Child (1986)

This is Spinal Tap (1984)

Shawn of the Dead (2004)

The Wiz (1978)

Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Licorice Pizza (2021)

Fifty Shades of Gray (2015)

Fifty Shades Darker (2017)

Cyrano (2021)

The King and I (1956)

Carrie (2013)

Carrie (2002, made-for-tv)

The Batman (2022)

Firestarter (1984)

Frozen 2 (2019)

The Fury (1978)

Firestarter (2022)

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999)

The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022)

The Deadzone (1983)

Sparring Partner (2022, short)

My Fair Lady (1964)

The Untouchables (1987)

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

The Black Phone (2022)

Barbarian (2022)

Nope (2022)

Flashdance (1983)

Crimes of the Heart (1987)

Don't Worry Darling (2022)

The Exorcist (1973)

Child's Play (1988)

Scream 3 (2003)

Scream 5 (2022)

The Fablemans (2022)

Halloween (1978)

Black Panther (2018)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Return to Oz (1985)

Newsies (1992)

National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)

National Lampoon's Las Vegas Vacation (1997)

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2021:

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Dark Phoenix (2019)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

The Wolverine (2013)

Logan (2017)

Deadpool (2016)

Deadpool 2 (2018)

Watchmen (2009)

Wonder Woman (2017)

Aquaman (2018)

Shazam! (2019)

X-Men: New Mutants (2020)

Cruella (2021)

Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Reminiscence (2021)

My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising (2019)

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (2018)

My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission (2021)

Dune (2021)

Poltergeist (1982)

The Babadook (2014)

A Silent Voice (2016)

Rockdog (2016)

Rockdog 2: Rock Around the Park (2021)

Lion King (2019)

Terminator (1984)

Hot Fuzz (2007)

West Side Story (2021)

Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)

Spiderman: Far From Home (2019)

Spiderman: No Way Home (2021)

Looper (2012)

Brick (2005)

Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

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2020:

Mr. Mom (1983)

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Pretty Baby (1978)

Private Benjamin (1980)

The Color of Pomegranates (1969, foreign language)

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Cunningham (2020, documentary)

And Then We Danced (2019, Georgian foreign language)

The Young Girls of Rochetfort (1967, French foreign language)

Love on a Leash (2011)

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999, fully through)

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002, fully through)

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

The Producers (1967)

Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog (2007)

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Captain Underpants (2017)

X-Men (2000, fully through)

X-Men 2 (2003)

Dust in the Wind (1986)

Phantasm (1978)

The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

I Eat Your Flesh (1971)

Serenity (2005)

Juice (2017, short, Indian foreign language)

Earth (1998, Indian foreign language)

Protocol (1984)

Voices Within: The Many Lives of Trudy Chase (1990, 4 hr full version)

Clue (1985)

Unleashed (2016)

Fright Night (1985)

Moll Flanders (1996, BBC 2-parter)

Parasite (2019)

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)

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2019:

Irreconcilable Differences (1984)

The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)

A Very Brady Sequel (1996)

Frozen Assets (1992)

Knives Out (2019)

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Santa Claus With Muscles (1996)

Jack Frost (1997, dog sh*t horror)

Home (?, Indian foreign language film)

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Pinjar (2003, Indian foreign language)

Interstellar (2014)

Shock and Censorship (1993)

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Beetlejuice (1988)

Gypsy (1962)

The Shape of Water (2017)

The Favorite (2018)

A Small Circle of Friends (1980)

A League of Their Own (1992)

Shock Treatment (1981)

Empire of the Sun (1987)

[watchingeverydcmovie]

Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941)

I am watching every movie based on a DC publication in release order, for more information, see my pinned post.

First movie, Adventures of Captain Marvel from 1941.

Release Date: 3/28/1941 (This is the offical release date but also confusingly not the date the film was released, but instead the date that the sixth chapter was made available to film exchanges.) IMDB Rating: 7.2 Age Rating: Passed Runtime: 3 Hours, 36 Minutes/12 Chapters

GENERAL -

Adventures of Captain Marvel is considered the first comic book character adaptation ever. Captain Marvel (now known as Shazam) was not owned by DC at the time of this serials released.

In general, the plot is about Billy Batson going on an archological expodition with a team, meeting a wizard, gaining superpowers, and then his team steals this artifact and then they're hunted down by a masked villan called the Scorpian who they very quickly realize is a member of their own group.

MY REVIEW -

Is this movie good? Questionable.

It has not aged well, and I wasn't expecting it to have, but oh boy, is there a lot of rascim in this thing. Otherwise, it's engaging enough, if repetative, and it's very often uninentionally funny. The format that serials of the time used means that every chapter ends with a cliffhanger, which often leads to unnecessary drama being added that you can guess the resolution to before watching the next part. This also didn't need to be as long as it is, and there are often plot points that were definitely added just to add runtime.

That being said, I think Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy is an extremely likeable lead. He's generally sweet and charasmatic, and I like the movie most when Billy, the female lead Betty, and their friend Whitey are together.

I think the action scenes are well choreographed if a little silly, and all of the actors are pretty good overall.

Final Rating: 4.5/10

Would I watch this again? No. Maybe if it was shorter.

RANDOM THOUGHTS -

Billy Batson spends this entire movie getting knocked unconcious. In fact, all of the characters do. There is so much head trauma in this movie, it's unreasonable, but extremely unintentinally funny. I wish I had coutned how many scenes end with or contain a character just getting knocked on the head and going unconcious, it has to be upward of twenty. Also, when Billy wakes up, he's always gaged, even if other charcters who are with him aren't. This makes sense considered that he has to say the word "Shazam" in order to turn into Captain Marvel. However, it absolutely *doesn't* make sense when you add the knowlege that absolutely nobody knows he's Captain Marvel or that Captain Marvel needs to speak to use his superpowers.

There's one scene where Captain Marvel rescues Betty from a group that kidnapped her and then turns back to Billy before she wakes up. Before she got kidnapped, she was attempting to get to a certain location before the bad guys, and Billy assures that he'll get there faster on his plane, and then brushes her off when she attempts to go with him. I saw this and was thinking "Ah, yes, Billy Batson, who is Captain Marvel, who can fly, does not actually own a plane, and will instead turn into Captain Marvel and simply fly there with his superpowers." Imagine my surprise, when Billy then goes to airport and gets into an actual fucking airplane. Why did that do that?? What was the point??????? The man can FLY.

I think I am far to used to modern superhero comics and movies where, like, "should the hero kill the villain" is posed as a tough moral quandry and the answer is usually "absolutely not", because Captain Marvel kills SO MANY PEOPLE. And not even the main villain, someone else kills the main villain, Billy just throws a henchman off the roof of a parking garage at some point. He gets his powers and immidiately goes lethal.

I'm also extremely used to the Captain Marvel/Shazam narrative of "very young boy gets superpowers and looks like an adult", which means that this movie's "young adult man gets superpowers and turns into a just slightly older but different man" is very funny.

FUN FACTS -

To achieve the special effect of Captain Marvel's transformation, the production team apparently put a trough of flash powder in front of Frank Coghlan, Jr. who played Billy and ignited it, which apparently lead to Frank Coghlan, Jr. losing a few eyebrows if the wind was particularly unfavorable.

Frank Coghlan, Jr. also apparently did not know who Captain Marvel or Billy Batson were before getting the role.

They used a paper mache dummy to achieve the flying effects from far away. It is incredibly obvious when they do this and also very funny.

[sassylightcycle]

1985 old movie and 2020 movie

[weirdstuffthathappens]

Public Domain Forecast

There's a good amount of hubbub about Mickey Mouse entertaining the public domain next year, and it made me think, so what is the forecast for charters entering the public domain in the next twenty years, with a disclaimer that these only apply to the characters original appearances and you still need to dodge trademarks and this is for US copyright. And of course this is just a highlights list that will mostly be cartoon and comic characters.

2024 (1928): Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, Tigger (Winnie the Pooh)

2025 (1929): Popeye, Tintin, Buck Rogers

2026 (1930): Blondie and Dagwood, Nancy Drew, Pluto (Disney)

2027 (1931): Babar the Elephant, Dick Tracey, Wimpy (Popeye)

2028 (1932): Goofy, Bluto (Popeye), Conan the Barbarian

2029 (1933): King Kong, The Lone Ranger, Perry Mason

2030 (1934): Donald Duck, Flash Gordon, Mary Poppins

2031 (1935): Porky Pig, Bride of Frankenstein, Little Lulu

2032 (1936): The Phantom, Green Hornet, Ferdinand

2033 (1937): Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Bilbo Baggins, Huey, Dewey, and Louie

2034 (1938): Superman, Bugs Bunny, The Adams Family,

2035 (1939): Batman, Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer, Casper the Friendly Ghost , Captain Marvel (Shazam)

2036 (1940): Tom and Jerry, Horton the Elephant (Dr Seuss), Woody Woodpecker, Captain America, Robin (Batman)

2037 (1941): Wonder Woman, Aqua Man, Plastic Man, Archie

2038 (1942): Mighty Mouse, Thumper (Disney), José Carioca

2039 (1943): Chip 'n' Dale, Droopy, Alfred Pennyworth

2040 (1944): Screwy Squirrel

2041 (1945): Moomins, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester the Cat

2042 (1946): Foghorn Leghorn,Thomas the Tank Engine, Snufkin

2043 (1947): Scrooge McDuck

[browsethestacks]

America's Greatest Comics (1941-1942)

Art by Mac Raboy

[gameraboy2]

Stuntman Dave Sharpe in The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941)

[ectonurites]

Do you know if DC owns the rights to other Fawcett characters or just Captain Marvel and friends? I ask because Grant Morrison did use Bullet Man.

Alright so the tldr is they own the rights to at least some amount of the other Fawcett characters, but not necessarily all of them.

The abridged timeline of relevant events is:

1940: Captain Marvel Debuts in Whiz Comics #2.¹

1941-53: DC Comics sues Fawcett over similarities between Captain Marvel and Superman. This court battle goes on for a long time until eventually being settled in 1953.²

Late 1953: Due to both the lawsuit and a general decline in comics sales, Fawcett sells off many of its characters to Charlton Publications, and ceases producing comics for several years.²

1967: Marvel introduces their own Captain Marvel character in Marvel Super-Heroes #12, thus claiming the title/trademark. This was possible because despite DC winning the earlier court case, nobody was using Fawcett's Captain Marvel at the time.³ However, despite the trademark title belonging to Marvel, this did not mean that the previous Captain Marvel character could no longer be called Captain Marvel if used again—just that the title could not be used for his book.

1973: DC acquires the rights to Fawcett's Captain Marvel, and begins to publish stories with him & his family under the 'Shazam!' title to comply with Marvel's trademark on the 'Captain Marvel' title.⁴

1983: DC buys the rights to all of Charlton's superhero characters, and not long after in 1985 Charlton closes down.³

So it's like... DC specifically acquired the rights to the Captain Marvel family & related characters, plus characters that Fawcett had previously sold to Charlton.

From minimal cross-referencing between some of the well-established Fawcett characters and one of the DC Encyclopedias, DC seems to have utilized a decent chunk of them (I found mention/reference to Bulletman like you mentioned, Bulletgirl, Ibis the Invincible, Spy Smasher, Mister Scarlet and Pinky, and Minute-Man)⁵ but they're definitely not using every Fawcett character. It's possible that DC does/did own the rights to more Fawcett characters, but just chose not to use them.

Otherwise though, I believe that any other Fawcett characters that weren't sold to Charlton (and thus were then acquired by DC) would just be in public domain at this point due to Fawcett being defunct.

—

¹ A Complete History of American Comic Books (2008) by Shirrel Rhoades. Available free on the Internet Archive.

² The Comic Book in America: An Illustrated History (1989) by Mike Benton. Available free on the Internet Archive.

³ Comics, Between the Panels (1998) by Steve Duin. Available free on the Internet Archive.

⁴ DC Comics: A Celebration of the World's Favorite Superheroes (2003) by Les Daniels. Available free on the Internet Archive.

⁵ The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe, Updated and Expanded (2008). Available free on the Internet Archive.