Friday, November 23, 2012

(Mostly) Out today, so...

...we'll just take a quick glance at a few panels from Superman #276, "Make Way for Captain Thunder!" Written by Elliot S! Maggin, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Bob Oksner.

When young Willie Fawcett mysteriously and suddenly appears in Metropolis, and finds he seems to have maybe moved twenty years into the future; he uses his magic word and belt buckle to transform into Captain Thunder! Who is inexplicably evil, so he and Superman can fight...
Captain Thunder, of course, is a really, really thinly veiled pastiche of Captain Marvel...or Shazam, if you must. Per the Marvel Family Web, this story was originally intended to be the first DC appearance of Captain Marvel; but may have been scrubbed and CM replaced, to save up for the bigger All-New Collector's Edition Superman vs. Shazam. Which doesn't really explain how "Captain Thunder" is more fun here, fighting the awesome Monster League of Evil, than Captain Marvel would be in years of DC stories. The Monster League deserves a 52-reboot more than "Shazam" does...

Have a good Black Friday! Unless you work retail, in which case I recommend getting all your screaming out now...

3 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

That's cute how Maggin worked in reference to 1953, I think when the last official Shazam comic was published before DC won their lawsuit. Not to mention, basically making the Universal Studios roster of monsters as the main villains. Nice one.

Mike D. said...

I love this comic. A classic match up...far as I'm concerned it is Captain Marvel... If I'm not mistaken shortly thereafter DC put out the SHAZAM comics ...am I right?

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Yep. By the early to mid-70's(74' or 75') DC was publishing Captain Marvel comics.