Created in 1942, Mary Marvel predates Supergirl by almost a decade.
And MM has gone through a LOT of changes.
Or she *did* go through a lot of changes.
The New 52 kinda wiped all that out.....
Superman has Supergirl, Batman has Batgirl and Captain Marvel (I am not calling him Shazam) has Mary Marvel.
(Or should it be Mary Shazam now DC?)
Though actually, Mary beat most of the other female counterparts.
Supergirl first appeared in 1959 and Mary appeared in 1942.
Mary was created by Otto Binder and Marc Swayze and was actually
based on Judy Garland, and if you look at old pictures of Judy and
Mary's original appearances, you can see that.
From 1945 to 1953, Mary was pretty popular with her own comic for many years.
Then came the DC lawsuit thing and the Marvel family went into limbo until 1973.
She reappeared in comics in 1973 because DC bought the rights and started up the "Shazam!" comic book.
Of course all of this is moot because of the New 52 and never happened.
Now Mary is part of Billy's foster family and she becomes MM when
Captain Marvel directs his power into her during a fight with Black
Adam.
Originally Mary had her own female pantheon that she drew her powers from like Billy did....
Selena for grace.
Hippolyta for strength.
Artemis for skill.
Zephyrus for speed and flight. (actually...HE is the Greek god of the west wind...ooops)
Aphrodite for beauty. (I really didn’t know beauty was a superpower...but okay)
Minerva for wisdom.
Mary has appeared on TV a few times...
She was in the 1981 Shazam! Saturday morning cartoon, she appeared in Batman: The Brave and the Bold twice, she was
supposed to be between seasons one and two of Young Justice as Sergeant Marvel.
But her coolest "kind of" appearance was in the 2010 film Justice
League: Crisis on Two Earths.
In that...the hot (and crazy) Superwoman, voiced by Gina Torres, is a
grown up Mary Marvel and a member of the Crime Syndicate of America.
