Captain Marvel (DC Comics)

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Supporting cast

Marvel Family

Captain Marvel often fights evil as a member of a superhero team known as the Marvel Family, made up of himself and several other heroes:

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• The Wizard Shazam. Although he is killed, as prophesized, after giving Billy the power to become Captain Marvel, Shazam's spirit remains as the vigilant caretaker of the Rock of Eternity. In current continuity, Shazam does not die after granting Billy his powers, and was a much more active character than he was during the classic Marvel Family adventures. He attained godhood after the 1998 Genesis crossover, and was ultimately defeated and murdered by the Spectre in the 2005 Day of Vengence miniseries.
• Mary Marvel. Billy's once-lost twin sister Mary Batson (adopted as Mary Bromfield), who found she could say the magic word "SHAZAM!" and become a female Marvel. The classic-era Mary Marvel remained a teenager after saying her magic word, with a yellow on red short sleeve and skirt costume, while the modern version is transformed into an adult like her brother, with a yellow on white costume. During the run of the series The Power of Shazam!, Mary shared the title of "Captain Marvel" with Billy. In the Formerly Known as the Justice League miniseries, Mary became part of the "Super Buddies," a group consisting largely of former Justice League members, after Captain Marvel turned down his initiation.
• Captain Marvel, Jr. Attacked and left for dead by Captain Nazi, Freddy Freeman was given the power to become a Marvel to save his life. Whenever he speaks Captain Marvel's name, Freddy becomes a teenage version of Captain Marvel with a sharply contrasting yellow on blue costume. This created the odd problem that he could not identify himself without changing back to his regular form. The modern-day Junior now goes by the alias CM3 (short for "Captain Marvel Three", "CM1" being Billy and "CM2" being Mary) so that he can identify himself without transforming. He was a member of the Teen Titans during the late-1990s.
• Uncle Dudley/Uncle Marvel. During the classic era, an old man named Dudley, who claimed that he was not only a relative of the Marvels but also a Marvel himself (although neither was true). The Marvels took a liking to him and decided to humor him, and "Uncle" Dudley became Uncle Marvel, the Marvel Family's manager. In modern continuity, Dudley is simply a janitor at Billy's school who finds himself involved in Marvel Family adventures. His niece Freckles Marvel was an irregular companion of Mary Marvel's in her classic-era solo adventures.
• The Lieutenant Marvels. Three other boys named "Billy Batson" (nicknamed "Tall Billy", "Fat Billy", and "Hill Billy"—the latter because he was from Appalachia) who learned that, because they also were named Billy Batson, they could draw on the power of Shazam. They vowed only to use their power if asked by Captain Marvel, and only if all three were to say the magic word, "SHAZAM!", in unison. They have not appeared in Marvel Family stories since the early 1980s, having been retconned out of existence during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. A spin-off character generally confined to his own series, the pink funny animal rabbit version of Captain Marvel periodically assisted the human Marvels in their adventures.

Rogues gallery

Through his adventures, Captain Marvel gained a host of enemies, including the following:

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• Dr. Sivana (and the Sivana Family). Captain Marvel's very first and primary foe. Sivana, a bald, diminutive mad scientist, often attempts to take over the world or destroy the Marvels using his inventions. In classic-era continuity, Sivana's teenage children Georgia and Sivana, Jr. often joined their father in his evil schemes; the three of them were collectively known as the Sivana Family.
• Black Adam. An older Egyptian renegade Marvel who crossed Shazam, and was punished by either exile (classic version) or death (modern version). He returns to Earth (or life) after Shazam appoints Captain Marvel his new successor, and was soon established as Captain Marvel's most powerful foe. In current DCU continuity, Black Adam, claiming that he and his murderous host Theo Adam are separate personalities, joined the Justice Society of America, claiming to be a hero as he had once been in Egypt. Adam eventually turned on the JSA, wanting to be a hero on his own terms. He later forcefully overthrew the tyrannous government of his old homeland of Khandaq, appointing himself ruler.
• Captain Nazi. Adolf Hitler's champion, created through science as the "perfect specimen" of a soldier. Obviously inspired by the events of World War II, Nazi continued to appear in classic-era Marvel Family stories into the 1980s. In the Power of Shazam! series, Nazi was brought back into action after having been in suspended animation for fifty years, and quickly became an enemy of the Marvel Family.
• Ibac. A frail thug named "Stinky" Printwhistle who was empowered by Lucifer himself with the powers of four of the most evil men to walk the face of the earth. When he says the name "IBAC", he becomes a large, muscular brute with super-strength. Saying his name again transforms him back into Printwhistle (therefore, like Captain Marvel, Jr., Ibac also cannot say his own name).
• Mister Mind. Arguably the most notorious classic-era Captain Marvel villain, the at-first unseen Mister Mind started and headed a supervillain team known as the Monster Society of Evil. After two years of masterminding tyranny with a team of hundreds of villains and criminals (including several previous Marvel Family adversaries like Captain Nazi and Ibac), Mister Mind was revealed to be a two-inch, myopic, mind-controlling worm from another planet. The evil worm was placed on trial, convicted of killing 186,744 people, and placed in the electric chair. Mind survived his execution and escaped; he would go on to battle Marvel Family many other times until the Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the Power of Shazam! series, Mind was reimagined as the leader of a race of millions of mind-controlling Venusian worms, who irregularly appear across the DC Universe attempting to control potential human hosts.
• Mister Atom. An artificially intelligent nuclear-powered robot created by Dr. Charles Langley. In the Power of Shazam! series, Mister Atom, under the control of Mister Mind, destroys Fairfield, a town near Fawcett City where Mary Bromfield lived with her adoptive parents, with a nuclear explosion.
• Blaze and Satanus. Only present in the modern-day Marvel Family stories, the demoness Blaze and her brother Lord Satanus, originally appearing in the Superman books, are the illegitimate children of the Wizard Shazam, who was bewitched by their mother during his superhero days in Biblical Canaan. Blaze has attempted to spread her evil influence throughout Fawcett City since the 1940s, requiring Shazam and his allies to work together to stop her.
• Oggar. The self styled "World's Mightiest Immortal", he was a major recurring enemy of the Marvels in the Pre-Crisis DC stories. His magic enabled him to do nearly anything, but it cannot be directly cast against a female target. Thus Mary Marvel was usually called upon to deal with him.

Other characters

• Beautia and Magnificus Sivana. Dr. Sivana's beautiful adult daughter Beautia shared her father's passion for world domination until meeting, and falling for, Captain Marvel. She has an unrequited crush on the shy Captain, not realizing that he is actually only a young boy. Her brother Magnificus is also generally depicted as a Marvel Family ally, although in his only Golden Age appearance, Magnificus had super powers and fought Captain Marvel hand-to-hand.
• Mister "Tawky" Tawny. A humanoid sapient tiger who, in classic-era continuity, wishes to live among the humans in civilization instead of in the wild or the zoo. As such, he is typically dressed in a tweed business suit and usually carries himself in a formal dignified manner. The modern-day Tawky Tawny was a stuffed tiger doll who was animated by Lord Satanus to assist the Marvel Family in their battle against Satanus's sister Blaze. He only appeared as an animate being to Billy, Mary, and later Dudley at first (a la Hobbes in Calvin and Hobbes), but later was made permanently real by the power of Ibis the Invincible.
• Mr. Sterling Morris. The president of WHIZ radio and Billy's employer.
• Miss Wormwood. In modern-era comics, Billy's schoolteacher (and later principal), presented as the typical "mean teacher" stereotype. Her name is another reference to the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, where Calvin's schoolteacher was also named Miss Wormwood.
• Cissie Sommerly. Billy's girlfriend in classic-era continuity.
• Nick and Nora Bromfield. In modern continuity, Mary Batson's adoptive parents, who adopted her through illegal means after their maid, Sarah Primm, brought the child to them (Primm saved Mary from her kidnapper, Primm's brother Theo Adam). Nora Bromfield was a cousin of Billy and Mary's mother, but chose not to tell Mary about her real family. The Bromfields would eventually gain the rights to legally adopt both Mary and Billy, giving the children a traditional family structure again.