Superman's first fight with Captain Marvel was a bit of a stealth affair. When a young boy named "Billy Fawcett" suddenly finds himself on a new world in 1974, he at first thinks he's traveled to the future, but then he sees Superman fighting crime and wonders if he's on another world entirely. He says the magic word "Thunder!" and his alter ego "Captain Thunder" takes to the skies, but surprisingly to help the hoodlums. (Thanks for the correction guys -- see comments.) It seems Captain Thunder was changed by his arch enemies "The Monster Society" and becomes evil when the change happens. With some help from Superman this situation is rectified and Billy and Thunder return home.
DC had already introduced the real "Big Red Cheese" into the DCU sort of slightly over a year before. He'd never really interacted with any other characters despite Superman appearing symbolically on the debut issue. And it would be a few years yet before Superman and the real Captain Marvel would meet in a clash in the pages of Justice League of America.
Thanks to its inclusion in the Superman in the Seventies paperback tome, I finally got my mitts on this yarn titled "Make Way for Captain Thunder" by Elliot S Maggin, Curt Swan and Bob Oksner with a fab cover by Nick Cardy.
NOTE: This is a Revised Dojo Classic Post.
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Just a little nitpick. Captain Thunder's magic word wasn't "Shaboom", but "Thunder" while rubbing his magic belt buckle.
ReplyDeleteWhen I bought and read this as a five or six year old kid, it flew over my head that it wasn't really Captain Marvel who went toe-to-toe with Superman. All along I thought it was the original Big Red Cheese.
Oops! Thanks for the correction.
DeleteLovely Cardy cover . It was strange that the "Shaboom" sound effect appeared everytime Billy said "Thunder"
ReplyDeleteYeah. I got that wrong. Still nifty.
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