Is DC Legally Allowed To Call Billy Batson 'Captain Marvel'

[Jim Kelly]

Marvel creates a Wonder Man throwaway character in 1964, they kill him off in the same story, but DC freaks out because it's the name of the first IP that DC sued somebody over way back in 1939. In 1969 . . . Marvel suddenly decides Wonder Man ain't so dead after all.

Funnily enough, although Harry Donenfeld went after Victor Fox for the Wonder Man character (and Will Eisner testified that he was told to copy Superman), the same thing didn't happen when Ned Pines published a Wonderman (alias Brad Spencer) created by Bob Oksner. That one first appeared in THE COMPLETE BOOK OF COMICS AND FUNNIES No. 1 (August 1944)--a comic book I happen to have.

Marvel Comics took everything that wasn't nailed down: Black Cat, Black Panther, Black Knight, Black Widow, Yellowjacket, Ant Men, Daredevil, Doctor Doom, Captain Marvel, Thing, Ghost Rider, Thor, Hercules, Spider Woman, Iron Man, Brünhilde, Doc Strange, Quicksilver, Beast, Colossus, Medusa, Bulls Eye, Powerman, Hobgoblin, Nova, Hawkeye, Avengers, Defenders, Champions, Guardians, Invaders.

[Powerboy]

From the 70s up until Flashpoint, each comic centering around Billy Batson had 'Shazam' in the title, but Billy's codename was 'Captain Marvel' within the pages of the comic. This all changed from the New Fifty Two onward where 'Shazam' wasn't just the magic word it was Billy's siperhero name too.

I suspect they can still legally use the name except on the cover and in the title of a comic. But I think that to avoid confusion, they've just given up on the name Captain Marvel, especially with an MCU movie out now so that millions of people now think of another character as Captain Marvel.

I still think of him as Captain Marvel and I think of Carol Danvers as the Captain Marvel of another company.

[Jody Garland]

It is? From what I know, not that much I suppose, but what happened to him it is perfectly legal. It can be unfair, but legal.

I meant the MF Enterprises Cap is probably illegally done. There's a gray area in abandoned trademarks like the Fawcett (where Fawcett had made it clear at that point it was abandoned and not just unused at the moment), but mostly fly-by-night company like MF was able to fly under the radar long enough to skirt by. There was nothing wrong with how Fawcett, DC or Marvel acted, legally. You can definitely cry fowl about it morally, but hey. Law's different.

[Adekis]

Yeah, Captain Marvel appeared in the Thunderworld Adventures one-shot a few years ago. So DC can call Captain Marvel by the name "Captain Marvel," but... they can't sell a book called "Captain Marvel," they can't sell an action figure labeled "Captain Marvel," so they decided it was easier to usually call Captain Marvel by Billy's magic word instead.

Of course, while Cap still shows up by name in comics and cartoons every once in a while, I don't know if there could be some kind of legal escalation if Captain Marvel was the character's name in the Shazam! movies or not.

[Digifiend]

Funnily enough, although Harry Donenfeld went after Victor Fox for the Wonder Man character (and Will Eisner testified that he was told to copy Superman), the same thing didn't happen when Ned Pines published a Wonderman (alias Brad Spencer) created by Bob Oksner. That one first appeared in THE COMPLETE BOOK OF COMICS AND FUNNIES No. 1 (August 1944)--a comic book I happen to have.

Marvel Comics took everything that wasn't nailed down: Black Cat, Black Panther, Black Knight, Black Widow, Yellowjacket, Ant Men, Daredevil, Doctor Doom, Captain Marvel, Thing, Ghost Rider, Thor, Hercules, Spider Woman, Iron Man, Brünhilde, Doc Strange, Quicksilver, Beast, Colossus, Medusa, Bulls Eye, Powerman, Hobgoblin, Nova, Hawkeye, Avengers, Defenders, Champions, Guardians, Invaders.

Thor and Hercules don't count. Those names have always been public domain, being the names of characters from Norse and Greco-Roman mythology.

[DrNewGod]

I suspect they can still legally use the name except on the cover and in the title of a comic. But I think that to avoid confusion, they've just given up on the name Captain Marvel, especially with an MCU movie out now so that millions of people now think of another character as Captain Marvel.

I still think of him as Captain Marvel and I think of Carol Danvers as the Captain Marvel of another company.

DC might be able to put the name on a cover, probably not in a cover's title, and definitely not in the comic's indicia. Of course, DC ain't poking that bear with Disney behind it over one of their B-Listers (even if he did have a hit movie); they've changed the name and moved on.

[Jim Kelly]

Thor and Hercules don't count. Those names have always been public domain, being the names of characters from Norse and Greco-Roman mythology.

For you, sure. But my counting is different from yours. I wasn't trying to make a legal argument that Marvel couldn't use them. I was just saying that Marvel will use any and every name they can get their hands on and then slap their trademark on them. Thor and Hercules were both names that had been used by other publishers, before Marvel.

[MajorHoy]

For you, sure. But my counting is different from yours. I wasn't trying to make a legal argument that Marvel couldn't use them. I was just saying that Marvel will use any and every name they can get their hands on and then slap their trademark on them. Thor and Hercules were both names that had been used by other publishers, before Marvel.

You also listed "Black Widow"

. . . Marvel Comics took everything that wasn't nailed down: Black Cat, Black Panther, Black Knight, Black Widow, Yellowjacket, Ant Men, Daredevil, Doctor Doom, Captain Marvel, Thing, Ghost Rider, Thor, Hercules, Spider Woman, Iron Man, Brünhilde, Doc Strange, Quicksilver, Beast, Colossus, Medusa, Bulls Eye, Powerman, Hobgoblin, Nova, Hawkeye, Avengers, Defenders, Champions, Guardians, Invaders.

but who else used that name for a comic book feature prior to Marvel?

[Jody Garland]

Both Fox and Holyoke had characters named Black Widow. Neither predate the Claire Voyant Black Widow, though.

[Powerboy]

For you, sure. But my counting is different from yours. I wasn't trying to make a legal argument that Marvel couldn't use them. I was just saying that Marvel will use any and every name they can get their hands on and then slap their trademark on them. Thor and Hercules were both names that had been used by other publishers, before Marvel.

Although anyone can use Thor or Hercules. Though they best not include anything specific to the Marvel versions.

I wonder how Douglas Adams got away with having a Thor who threw his hammer and held onto the thong to fly since that is specific to Marvel.

[Jim Kelly]

Both Fox and Holyoke had characters named Black Widow. Neither predate the Claire Voyant Black Widow, though.

You got me there. I didn't take her into account.

[Holt]

Certain names that are just common phrases or words can have that happen. It’s been remarked before on merchandise that for legal reasons, certain characters have “Marvel’s” or “DC’s” in front of their names. This was also problematic for Bumblebee from the Teen Titans when Hasbro went after WB for selling toys of a character with the same name as one of their Transformers.

[Jody Garland]

Yup, I'm not sure when it got introduced into trademark law, but nowadays certain words are deemed too generic to trademark in some circumstances. Transformers is a good place to illustrate this- they have to append Jazz or Bumblebee, for example, with Hasbro or Transformer's to secure trademark when they don't want to make up a more unique name. It's a good move, IMO, since most of the time it prevents trademark squatting on words like Jazz or what have you.

Marvel Comics took everything that wasn't nailed down: Black Cat, Black Panther, Black Knight, Black Widow, Yellowjacket, Ant Men, Daredevil, Doctor Doom, Captain Marvel, Thing, Ghost Rider, Thor, Hercules, Spider Woman, Iron Man, Brünhilde, Doc Strange, Quicksilver, Beast, Colossus, Medusa, Bulls Eye, Powerman, Hobgoblin, Nova, Hawkeye, Avengers, Defenders, Champions, Guardians, Invaders.

I wanna highlight these two if, for no other reason, because they're some of the more fun stories of Marvel grabbing every name they could.

Ghost Rider was originally created for Magazine Enterprises by Dick Ayers. Later, after ME had failed, Marvel picked up the rights to the name and design for Ayers as a gift. It is a swanky design.

Spider-Woman, meanwhile, is the inverse, since they quickly created a Spider-Woman to acquire the trademark to prevent Filmation from using it in an obvious Spider-Man ripoff cartoon, which ended up using the name Web Woman instead.

[MoneySpider]

The discussion in this thread made me think of how Marvel and DC are both able to have a character named Enchantress:

[DrNewGod]

The discussion in this thread made me think of how Marvel and DC are both able to have a character named Enchantress:

Same as Sandman. One is a title character and the other isn't.