[positronic1]

A couple of notes re: Captain(s) Marvel. DC did not "buy out" Fawcett's interest in the character in 1973 when they brought out SHAZAM! -- for years, they licensed the character(s) associated with the original Marvel Family from Fawcett. It is indeed ironic that Captain Mar-Vell began as a "strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men", and evolved into an imitation of Fawcett's Captain Marvel. BUT one who had super-strength, could fly, and wore a blue and red costume! One would think that DC had far more of a valid case in suing Marvel for their Captain Marvel than they did back in the Golden Age suing Fawcett for the original Captain Marvel. Both Superman and Captain Mar-Vell were aliens with super-strength who could fly, and wore blue-and-red (or red-and-blue) costumes!

Link to the comment: Tales That Astonished 2

[paw broon]

Good stuff positronic.
Could you post your comments to the 'zine as a loc? All welcome.
Chris and I have a face to face lined up to chat about the next issue and what'll be in it.
I'd like to do something on PC49 from Eagle.  A lovely strip, especially when the "good artist" was at the controls.
But will His Editorship go for it.  Those who don't know PC49, go and look it up.  Or don't, cos there wont be any point in my doing it.

[SuperScrounge]

DC had far more of a valid case in suing Marvel for their Captain Marvel than they did back in the Golden Age suing Fawcett for the original Captain Marvel.

Yeah, but Fawcett's Captain Marvel outsold Superman, Marvel's Captain Marvel didn't, so wasn't much of a threat.

[The Australian Panther]

positronic wrote,

A couple of notes re: Captain(s) Marvel. DC did not "buy out" Fawcett's interest in the character in 1973 when they brought out SHAZAM! -- for years, they licensed the character(s) associated with the original Marvel Family from Fawcett. It is indeed ironic that Captain Mar-Vell began as a "strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men", and evolved into an imitation of Fawcett's Captain Marvel. BUT one who had super-strength, could fly, and wore a blue and red costume! One would think that DC had far more of a valid case in suing Marvel for their Captain Marvel than they did back in the Golden Age suing Fawcett for the original Captain Marvel. Both Superman and Captain Mar-Vell were aliens with super-strength who could fly, and wore blue-and-red (or red-and-blue) costumes! 

DC did not use [not license - they eventually bought those characters] the Fawcett characters until after Marvel appropriated the name.
https://blog.primelegal.in/navigating-intellectual-property-rights-the-legal-battle-over-captain-marvels-trademark-and-copyright/

Fawcett agreed with DC to never publish Captain Marvel stories until “Kingdom Come,” [?] thus by 1967, the character’s name had vanished from circulation. Marvel Comics thus seized the opportunity to register the trademark on their own.

After five years, DC finally bought the rights to Fawcett’s Captain Marvel in 1972, hoping to reintroduce and purge several of the character’s long-forgotten superhuman abilities.

However, Marvel Comics had already released Captain Marvel-themed comics for a while before that point. Long since out of use by DC, trademarks operate under the maxim “use it or lose it.” Once “Captain Marvel” appeared in Marvel Comics, they were granted exclusive usage of the title. Therefore, [DC] were unable to use the term Captain Marvel in merchandise or call the book that same. Rather, DC released Shazam! Billy Batson says this to change into Captain Marvel. For a long time, a lot of people who weren’t comic book readers thought the Fawcett/DC Captain Marvel was called Shazam.

However, as the trademark rights are clear, this hasn’t resulted in a protracted legal battle between Marvel Comics and DC Comics over the usage of “Captain Marvel.” DC was forced to give up using the name eventually.

Stan and Roy Thomas were particularly good at appropriating the names of characters which were out of trademark. Daredevil and Quicksilver being just two who of many who come  to mind. 
Hope that clears that up.
Cheers!

[SuperScrounge]

DC did not buy the rights to the Fawcett heroes until, I believe, 1991, before that they licensed the rights from Fawcett.

[bowers]

 This is very well worth reading, Paw! Great choice of well-written articles (I especially liked your article about Herbie!) An awful lot going on in these pages- even a photo of our own Mr. Montgomery!
Of course I had to download issue one from Starscape Comics- also well worth reading. Hopefully there will be a third issue! Cheers and thanks to Paw and Chris, bowers

[positronic1]

Yes, of course DC's SHAZAM! did not appear until 1973... but that's irrelevant, since if DC (in conjunction with the then-owners of the original Captain Marvel, Fawcett) were going to sue Marvel, it wouldn't have been over the use of the *name* Captain Marvel, since the trademark on the original had lapsed, and Marvel picked it up and re-trademarked it, perfectly legal. What they -in theory- *could* have sued over was the similarity of the Marvel Captain Mar-Vell to both Superman (alien with super-strength who can fly and wears a red-and-blue costume) AND to Fawcett's Captain Marvel (the whole alter-identity switch with a teenage boy, plus villains named Dr. Mynde, Dr. Savannah, and Dr. Minerva... it was a bit much). And of course there would be no point in suing Marvel *before* 1973 -- but guess what? Even though Marvel wasn't making much money off CAPTAIN MARVEL, if DC and Fawcett had teamed up to get a court-ruled "cease and desist" order against Marvel, they wouldn't win any damages... but they could have gotten the trademark back again!