Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941)

The very first superhero to make it to the big screen wasn’t Superman or Batman...it was Captain Marvel.
(Or as he is know today...Shazam...)
And they did a pretty darn good job for 1941.
It was a serial produced by Republic Pictures and ran for twelve episodes.

The series was closer to the comics than a lot of modern day adaptions with Tom Tyler as Captain Marvel and Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy Batson.
They even had the old wizard Shazam and Billy's origin was pretty much intact.
Although this did beat Superman to the screen by ten years, interestingly, the story was written to be a Superman film.
When DC backed out, Republic went to Fawcett Comics and got the rights to Captain marvel.
A few script changes and they were on their way.

Movie critics both then and now have said this film was one of the best serials ever made.
And for a long time, one of the best live action superhero adaptions.

The dummy on a wire dressed in a Captain Marvel uniform looked pretty bad...okay...REALLY bad, but the other Captain Marvel flying shots looked really good for the 1940s.

With a new Captain Marvel film..sorry...it's "Shazam" now, film coming out in 2016, we can hope it is the modern day equivalent of it's ancestor.
A really well made film.

Chapter One of Adventures of Captain Marvel

Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) - Marvel Comics

Ms. Marvel aka Kamala Khan.Kamala caused a little bit of a stir because she is a teenage Muslim-American from Jersey City, New Jersey.

I know right?
A superhero from Jersey?

No...actually the interest was that Kamala was a Muslim-American.
Now this is not by any means Marvel's first Muslim superhero.
Dust showed up in 2002, the mutant M way before that in 1994 and The Arabian Knight way, way back in 1981.
So Marvel has had Muslim heroes.
But this is the first Muslim character in Marvel to have her own comic book.

The character is not bad and if you removed the religious ties, you have a hero worthy of the 1960s Marvel style.
Teenager, doesn’t fit in, is different because of something, is VERY different because they have superpowers.
It's the classic Spider-Man template.

And to make sure the stories are authentic, she was created by Muslim-Americans Sana Amanat and G. Willow Wilson.

Pushing religion aside, we come to the meat and potatoes of every superhero.
Powers.
Well...before that, let me state that she does have a pretty well done costume...and that is very important.
Anyway, Kamala has an Inhuman heritage (see Medusa) and because of that has shape-shifting abilities.
Which is kind of a letdown for me because I have never really been a big fan of that power.
And yes I know that Mister Fantastic is a great hero, but who yells, "I wanna be Reed!" when kids play superheroes?
Kamala is kind of a cross between Reed and Mystique.

By the way, she came by her name honestly, having been a huge fan of Carol Danvers, the original Ms. Marvel.

Ms. Marvel - Marvel Comics

Marvel character Carol Danvers has been through a lot. She was created by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan and first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 in 1968. At that time she was a supporting character in the Captain Marvel (later Mar-Vell) saga. Carol was injured when a Kree device blew up and was in a coma. And since this is comic books, explosion + alien radiation + coma = (you guessed it) superpowers!

Yes Carol emerged from that coma like a butterfly from a cocoon. The explosion had her into a human-Kree hybrid, with that hybrid being Mar-Vell. So this was a seriously butt-kicking butterfly. She called herself Ms. Marvel (it was the 70s) and she did some serious superheroing.

But like most superheroines, the writers just seemed to like to mess with her. I really think a LOT of them are grown men with the mental capacity of adolescents. Or worse.... In Avengers #200, Ms. Marvel was kidnapped, brainwashed and raped. Yep. What did the Avengers do? Not a damn thing. The story line got so much attention that comic book critics all over went after the writing staff for it. Of course they kinda shrugged, wondering what all the fuss was about. It took over a year and comic book writer Chris Claremont to fix it. He retconned the whole incident in Avengers Annual #10 in 1981.

Chris also gave us the story where Rogue permanently absorbed all of Carol's abilities and memories. This is what originally powered Rogue in the comics. Flying, smashing Rogue is brought to you courtesy of Ms. Marvel.

As female characters are run through the wringer, Carol was Binary and then Warbird before finally winding back up with her powers and the name "Ms. Marvel".

Now the Ms. Marvel name is gone and she has a new costume, haircut and name....Captain Marvel.

As far as powers go...Carol is a pretty tough lady. She has superhuman strength (she can lift 70 tons), enhanced durability, she can fly at around 400 mph and she has a "Seventh Sense" kinda like Spider-Man's "Spidey Sense". She can also fire power blasts out of her hands. Her ability to absorb energy allows her to boost all all of these powers...with possibly no upper limit... Oh yeah and due to her military and SHIELD training and hanging out with the Avengers, X-men etc, Carol is a pilot, marksman and very good hand to hand fighter.

Mary Marvel - DC Comics

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.

Why comic books scared us so

Public Arts : Why comic books scared us so (2008-05-10):

"In his 1953 novel 'Fahrenheit 451,' named after the temperature at which paper catches on fire, Ray Bradbury painted a picture of a society beset by book-burning. In his vision, the censors didn't bother to throw comic books on the pyre because they just weren't worth worrying about.

Not so in mid-century America. For more than a decade, countless parents and teenagers made bonfires of comic books, reducing everyone from Captain Marvel to Archie to ashes."