Captain Marvel, the Big Red Cheese, made his debut in Whiz Comics #2, published by Fawcett. Fawcett had earlier published the humor magazine Captain Billy's Whiz Bang. The Captain was Billy Batson, a boy who worked for radio station WHIZ. An ancient wizard gave him the ability to become adult Captain Marvel by saying the word "SHAZAM." Captain Marvel, often drawn by CC Beck, was Superman's greatest competitor until National Periodicals (DC) won a lawsuit alleging that Captain Marvel infringed on Superman's copyright. At the same time, most superhero titles were dead or declining. DC revived Captain Marvel in the 1970s.
Here he tortures a Nazi. Spy Smasher, another Fawcett hero, also appears on the cover.
Captain Marvel appeared in a 1941 Republic serial:
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2011/09/dvd-adventures-of-captain-marvel.html
The image is from the wonderful site CoverBrowser (
http://www.coverbrowser.com/)
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