I See Posts Before My Eyes

Anonymous asked: Why do you think Mar-Vell has stayed dead for so improbably long?

brevoortformspring:

The reason, I think, is because dying was the best thing he ever did.

Though a lot of good creators tried mightily, Mar-Vell was always a dull character. He sometimes had interesting things going on around him, but he himself wasn’t all that engaging.

But the story in which he succumbed to cancer was moving, it was relevant, it was real. Suddenly, a character for whom very few felt anything (apart from admiring his cool costume design) was generating empathy from the readership.

And the longer he stayed dead, the more his legend grew, the more people became interested in him.

If you brought him back tomorrow, people would take notice—and then, very quickly, they’d likely grow bored again. Because he’s no more interesting today as a character than he was in 1981.

Mar-Vell in specific, but IMHO Captain Marvel has been a dull character all along.  He was created solely because someone noticed the trademark on the name had lapsed.

For those who aren’t aware, THIS is Captain Marvel.

He was the target of a LONG battle between DC and his publisher, Fawcett comics.  DC claimed he was nothing more than a ripoff of Superman.  There were several lawsuits over two decades, and Fawcett eventually just gave up, not because DC had a case, but because comics’ popularity were starting to wane, and it didn’t pay to keep the suit going.

decades later, DC licensed the character from Fawcett and started publishing it themselves.  But in the years between, Marvel grabbed the name, which meant that Captain Marvel stories could still be done, but they couldn’t call the comic “Captain Marvel”.  So it became “Shazam”.  

And now we’re in the ridiculous position where The World’s Mightiest Mortal has been re-named to “Shazam”, because according to DC, “That’s what most people think his name is”.  

There’s been like five different characters named Captain Marvel at Marvel now.  And Kelly Sue’s book is great, don’t get me wrong, but the point is she’d have a great book no matter what the character’s name is.  Monica Rambeau was Captain Marvel for a while, and now she’s…I don’t even know her name now, and I don’t care enough to look it up..  It was Photon for a while, right?

Jim Starlin took the original one and basically hung a lampshade on the irony by actually giving Mar-Vell a guy to swap bodies with (Rick Jones, yet). 

Of course, he’s not the only person to do a Captain Marvel ripoff. When Fawcett stopped publishing, Mick Anglo was asked to come up with something similar to take his place.

And now he too is being published by Marvel.