Why was he forced to change his name?

Why was he forced to change his name?

Commander Lightning Wizard was a bit of a mouthful

Because after DC sued Fawcett there was a long period of time where no Captain Marvel comics were published. Marvel took advantage of this and picked up the Captain Marvel trademark for their own hero so when DC started making their own Captain Marvel comics in the 70's it had to be called Shazam

If Marvel goes too long without publishing a Captain Marvel book they could lose the trademark themselves

>Captain Marvel movie gets release, right at the same time the superhero movie bubble bursts
>Bombs in the box office
>Captain Marvel volume forty fucking one gets cancelled
>Marvel doesn't release anything Captain Marvel-related
>Sometime later, DC gets its trademark back

He was clearly a Superman ripoff, got popular, and then DC sued Fawcett over him. They then sat on the character, not doing anything with the name, so marvel snatched it up.

They could've kept it in story of course, but they knew a movie universe was coming so they went ahead and started calling him Shazam so people wouldn't be confused.

It's Capitan Thunder, you pleb.

It's Citizen Bolt, you poltroon

Well for one thing, having the rank of captain at his age is absurd.

Marvel squatting on a trademark

But he was still called Captain Marvel in the stories. Only his titles had to have Shazam in it.

I think OP means the New 52 change where Johns bent over anally to Marvel's movie plans and just called him Shazam.

Shazam is the Wizard, you cereal fuck

He can only be called Captain Marvel in his own books. Crossovers it's Shazam.

Why not call him 'Major Marvel?'

General Gollygosh.

Seriously though, Citizen Bolt sounds pretty badass.
Not sure if fitting with the charming, innocent nature of Captain Marvel.

it's not dc's trademark though

Admiral Electro

DC is calling him Captain Marvel again now?

Sounds like a speedster name.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Ampere

Only in Morrison's Multiversity Thunderworld

They named him Captain Thunder in Flashpoint so why not called him Captain Thunder?

but Billy is the wizard now

Major Miracle

Marvel will not stop publishing Captain Marvel as long as DC has Wonder Woman and they can't make a non-sidekick-or-team-member female character to stand up to her. Which means, they'll basically never stop publishing her because new characters' popularity never get anywhere CLOSE to characters introduced in the 80's or before.

Because Captain Thunder sucks as a name and sounds like an off-brand Captain Marvel, carrying none of the same connotations. The lightning in Captain Marvel is important, but it's the connotations of the lightning that make the character appealing: the marvelous. Shazam actually works as a name, ironically, only because of Captain Marvel's previous history. Captain Marvel was so popular and so marvelous that Shazam itself is treated as a word of power, even outside of comic book communities. Because of that, when you have Captain Marvel called Shazam, it still carries the same implications and message: this guy rocks.

Marvel owns the rigths to titling comics "Captain Marvel".

DC is so fucking retarded that they cannot possibly have a comic not directly titled after its hero because they think it won't sell if it's not Batman or Superman and so instead of just renaming the comics to Shazam and keeping the character named Captain Marvel they also changed the character's name to Shazam so it'd match the comic title.

Because that's DC Comics in a nutshell.

>read the first Captain Marvel story
>he foils the villain's plot
>villain taunts him through a monitor
>Captain Marvel says what amounts to "If I get my hands on you I will straight up fucking kill you" and smashes the monitor
I thought he was meant to be a jolly guy

But that's literally what they did before the New 52 you asswipe

>before the New 52

>What is
>The Power of Shazam
>The Trials of Shazam
>Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam!

What is they?

Completely irrelevant now.

I've tried and I honestly don't get what people see in him either.

It also baffles me that people think DC should lay such vehement claim to him even though DC was responsible for shuttering him in the first place, and thus responsible for letting Marvel acquire the trademark. If it wasn't for DC's meddling Captain Marvel would still be the biggest superhero in the world and Mar-Vell would have been named Captain Planet or Captain Space or some shit.

Everything bad that's ever happened to Billy Batson is directly because of DC's meddling. And he'll always play second fiddle to Superman as long as they own him.

>DC's Captain Marvel
>Marvel's Captain Marvel

Hmm... I don't know why...

I think this guy got a worse deal.

There wasn't even any other character named marvelman

He can be called Captain Marvel anywhere. DC just can't put out a book titled Captain Marvel.

He can be called Captain Marvel, it's just that his books have to be titled "Shazam!" This caused some people to just call him Shazam anyway in confusion, not knowing that it was his transformation word and the name of the wizard that gave him his powers.

DC tried to end the confusion between Shazam, their Captain Marvel, and Marvel's Captain Marvel by just renaming their Captain Marvel Shazam, but that just served to piss off longtime Big Red Cheese fans.

Hi folks, whats goin on in this thread?

DC cant publish anything with "Captain Marvel" on it, so not only his books but also his toys are labled "Shazam"

Johns is a hack with no balls that as long as he was in charge of the story behind the movie was willing to be in bed and obbey everything the suits told them,.

But Captain Marvel's popularity isn't even CLOSE to that of Wonder Woman's or of several other Marvel female heroes.

Those other Marvel female heroes are either team book stars or attached to more popular male counterparts. She's the most popular not-spinoff character they've got (even if she is a legacy, Mar-Vell is long dead and forgotten.) Marvel doesn't have anybody better to try and compete with Wonder Woman.

They just refuse to use Storm because they can't milk her for all she's worth with another hackey quip-fest movie

They've pushed Storm multiple times before, but she's always stronger as part of the X-Men than by herself. She's not Xavier or Cyclops or Wolverine or Marvel Girl, so she can't even claim to be head of her franchise. She's stuck.

the truth is heralded by dubs

Trademarks

Moore's and Gaiman's Miracleman/Marvelman is legit some of the best comics out there.

I'm reading it right now, Moore's... And I'm not as impressed as I thought I'd be. I do like how Gargunza is basically Dr. Sivanna though.