Captain Marvel Culture: The Lieutenant Marvels

Captain Marvel Culture

by Zorikh Lequidre

Friends, Foes, and the Extended Family

The Lieutenant Marvels

As we will recall, Captain Marvel, in his original incarnation as “Captain Thunder,” was to be the leader of a team of super heroes, hence the military rank (even the gold arm bands were based on the gold braid on a 19th century military officer’s uniform). Well, it was not too long before the Captain had a “Squadron of Justice” made up of three “Lieutenant Marvels.” In Whiz Comics #21, dated Sept. 1941, three boys named Billy Batson showed up at the office of Amalgamated Broadcasting System (the network the “real” Billy worked for) to meet the young radio reporter, Billy Batson. Through the course of the adventure, the three Billy’s decided to call themselves Tall Billy (a cowboy type), Fat Billy (from Brooklyn), and Hill Billy (a descriptive moniker if there ever was one). During this adventure it seems that Captain Marvel comics existed within the world of Captain Marvel, as Tall Billy says “…all the kids who read Capt. Marvel razz me about being named Billy Batson.” The boys, however, were wary of what might happen if they were to say the magic word, so they agreed not to say the word unless Billy gave them a wink. Ultimately, they fell into the inevitable death trap orchestrated by Dr. Sivana. The four Billy’s were tied to a log in a saw mill, headed for a giant buzz saw, and “real” Billy could not shout loud enough to be heard over the buzzing of the saw. He gave the wink-signal to the other three Billy’s and all together they shouted “Shazam!” Not one, but four lightening bolts blasted down, turning “real” Billy in to our famous hero and the other three boys into grown up, Marvel versions of themselves. “I guess we’re kinda Second Lieutenant Marvels,” said "Tall" Marvel.

This team took part in only a few adventures after that, as a new collection of Marvels soon appeared.

Outline of Captain Marvel history
Chapter 1: The Captain and the Major
Chapter 2: The Big Blue Guy
Chapter 3: The Big Red Guy
Chapter 4: Early Captain Marvel
Chapter 5: Powers and Personality
Chapter 6: Going Hollywood
Chapter 7: Friends and foes: The Lietenant Marvels
Chapter 8: Friends and Foes: Captain Marvel Junior
Chapter 9: Friends and Foes: Mary Marvel
Chapter 10: Friends and Foes: Mr. Tawny
Chapter 11: Friends and Foes: Dr. Sivana
Chapter 12: Mr Mind
Chapter 13: Friends and Foes: Other Foes
Chapter 14: Enter the Binder
Chapter 15: Superman V. Captan Marvel
Chapter 16
Acknowledgements
About the Authors

Links

Go to the homepage of Captain Marvel Culture
Go to Zorikh's Creating Comics tutorial
Go to a list of Comic Book movies
Watch This Space Enterprises home page
Go to Zorikh's homepage

Go to the home page of Captain Marvel Culture
Go to Watch This Space Enterprises
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Content of this web page is copyright 2003 by Zorikh Lequidre
All characters named herein are copyrighted by their respective copyright holders.
This project is not sponsored or endorsed by the holders of any of these copyrights or the creators of any of these characters.