Never one to give up on a good thing, Fawcett Comics soon added more members to the Marvel family. The first was designed to appeal to girls.
In Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (December 1942) Billy Batson hosted a quiz show on station WHIZ for young people, whose contestants included Freddy Freeman (guessing he represented all poor children) and a young beautiful heiress, Mary Broomfield (representing ”the girls”). Billy was smitten by Mary, but during a commercial break got a message to visit a dying nurse. The nurse told Billy how he had a twin sister whom she had given to a wealthy couple when their daughter died. She gave Billy a broken locket as she died, saying that his sister had the other half. Billy returned to the radio station and Mary won the contest. As she left, Billy mused that perhaps she could be his sister, and then realized that she had been holding a broken locket. He and Freddy changed into Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr, to follow Mary’s car, catching up to her just in time to see her being kidnapped. They stopped the kidnapping, confirmed that Billy and Mary’s locket pieces matched, and then revealed to her the secret of “Shazam.” There was some question between the three of them as to whether Mary would have the same ability as Billy to become a Marvel. Just then, the kidnappers came to, grabbed Billy and Freddy, binding and gagging them. In a passionate outcry, Mary said “They’re gagged…Billy can’t say Shazam!”
“Boom!”
In the place of Mary Bromfield stood Mary Marvel, the World’s Mightiest Girl. She looked the same, but had a little red dress version of the Marvel suit, with a short skirt and short sleeves.
From the beginning, Mary was established as a very feminine super hero. As she dealt with the kidnappers in that first story, she would say things like “I’m only a girl so…I must have my dancing lesson” (and then kicked the bad guy in the chin). Not only did her powers come from female gods, several of them were very much “feminine” qualities. The Shazam pantheon for Mary Marvel was as follows:
What, no power of Zeus? No courage of Achilles? No stamina of Atlas? And isn’t Zephyrus really a male god?
Mary Marvel became the lead feature in Wow Comics starting with #9. She later had her own comic that ran from September 1945 to September 1948. At the same time as the first issue of Mary Marvel Comics came out, so did the first issue of Marvel Family Comics. This book had the three marvels teaming up to fight against evil every month and was the last Marvel comic released by Fawcett, cover dated January 1954.
Mary Marvel was not the first female super hero (Don Markstein’s Toonopedia says “that honor could belong to Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, The Woman in Red or any of several others”. Nor was she ever the most popular female super hero, for Wonder Woman takes that prize easily. However she was unique for several reasons.
Mary Marvel was the first and for a long time the only teenage female super hero. Like her fellow Marvels she was normal Mary Bromfield/Batson who could change into the super powered Mary Marvel by saying a magic word. But she did not transform into a grown-up, and she did not have an infirmity as her normal self. She looked exactly the same.
Wonder Woman was created by psychologist William Moulton Marston (who used the pen name “Charles Moulton”) and drawn by artist Harry G. Peter. She was said to be created to be “a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman" (Marsten, quoted in a 1943 issue of The American Scholar, as reported in Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Woman). However, her skimpy, patriotic outfit, golden lasso, and tendency to be involved in stories in which women (including herself) were often tied up, chained, shacked, or otherwise restrained, most certainly played into someone’s prurient interest. Whether this was deliberate, or if it was Marston’s prurient interest is a mater of eternal debate. Mary Marvel, however, would never be a subject of such a debate.
Although on occasion Mary Batson would find herself bound and gagged, Billy was much more often in that predicament. Mary was originally drawn as a practically pre-pubescent young teenage girl (being the same age as Billy would make her about 12-14 years old). The stories were generally light hearted. There was no romance, no sex; it was all good clean fun. Mary was strong and independent, but never faced up against sexism, male chauvinism, or anything that she could not handle in a manner that anyone would consider “unladylike.”
Mary's costume and overall look was designed by Marc Swayze. His idea was to create a character whose physical type was as different from Captain Marvel as possible...
Swayze did not draw Mary Marvel for long, though. His pencil was needed to keep up with the demand for Captain Marvel Stories. Jack Binder, brother of writer Otto Binder, took over the drawing duties of Mary Marvel's stories for most of the rest of the run of her comic book. Under his pencil, Mary matured physically, both in her Batson and Marvel personas. Her costume and hair changed too, reflecting changing styles of the times...(to be continued)
Bibliography and websites
Superman on the Couch by Danny Fingeroth
http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=596&si=126
http://www.billscustoms.com/anim_marymarvel.htm
http://www.toonopedia.com/marymarv.htm
Chapter 1: The Captain and the Major
Chapter 2: The Big Blue Guy
Chapter 3: The Big Red Guy
Chapter 4: Early Captain Marvel
Chapter 5: Powers and Personality
Chapter 6: Going Hollywood
Chapter 7: Friends and foes: The Lietenant Marvels
Chapter 8: Friends and Foes: Captain Marvel Junior
Chapter 9: Friends and Foes: Mary Marvel
Chapter 10: Friends and Foes: Other Friends
Chapter 11: Friends and Foes: Dr. Sivana
Chapter 12: Mr Mind
Chapter 13: Friends and Foes: Other Foes
Chapter 14: Enter the Binder
Chapter 15: Superman V. Captan Marvel
Chapter 16
Go to the outline of Captain Marvel history
Go to Zorikh's Creating Comics tutorial
Go to a list of Comic Book movies
Watch This Space Enterprises home page
Zorikh Lequidre's home page
Go to Watch This Space Enterprises
Go to Zorikh's homepage
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