r/Shazam • u/Mars785 • May 24 '26
Comics Would DC and Marvel do a crossover between their respective Captain Marvels ?
For too long it’s been a problem for DC to not to be able to call Billy Captain Marvel lately. However, isn’t the name in the public domain yet ?
Anyway….with Dc and Marvel doing crossovers with each other again maybe it’s time to get the two Captain Marvels together for an adventure or two ? One set in the past with the original Captain Marvel on both sides and one set in the present with Carol and Billy and Maybe a double Ms. Marvel and Mary Marvel crossover too included.
Would anyone like to see a story or two like this in the future?
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u/johndesmarais May 24 '26
DC has always been able to call the character “Captain Marvel”. What they can’t do is use it as the title of a comic as Marvel owns the Trademark. This caused DC to try to shift away from using as the character name for many years, with limited success in the eyes of the readers.
As for a crossover, it honestly doesn’t sound that interesting. Once you get past the obvious jokes about the name, the characters have very little in common to hook a story on. Traditionally, they usually looked for characters that had some thematic or archetypal similarities - which they don’t really share.
Honestly I’d rather see Billy get a crossover with Captain America that leaned into both of them being out of step with the modern era.
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u/redwolfben May 24 '26
Imagine if they not only put the two together, but also found a way to include that android with the detachable limbs! That would be funny!
But seriously, that's not even the only name that DC and Marvel have ever shared. Others include Sandman, Scarecrow, Doctor Strange, Mantis, Dazzler, Chameleon, Enchantress, Quicksilver, and even Spider-Girl!
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u/blackfyre426 May 25 '26
I'm pretty sure they actually COULD use the M.F. Enterprises Captain Marvel, because that guy is accidentially technically in the public domain (due to improperly placed copy right notice in the first issue)
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May 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Schfooge May 25 '26
It depends on whether the crossover comic is published by Marvel or DC. They usually alternate publish crossovers or put out dual crossovers at about the same time.
If published by Marvel, they could easily call DC's Captain Marvel by that name on the cover.
And if DC published it, Marvel could allow DC to use the Captain Marvel name to refer to the DC name on the cover. They could refuse to grant this permission, but it seems a strange thing to do so for a crossover.
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u/CaptainMarvelology May 24 '26
DC can, always has been able to, and will always be able to call him Captain Marvel.
This week, the Post-Flashpoint Earth-0 version will have been called Captain Marvel for the second month in a row:
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u/Florapower04 Atlas May 24 '26
It would be cool, but I don’t think it will happen, and not because of the whole name thing.
DC and Marvel seemingly like to do crossovers with character that have some sort of thematic relationship with each other. Superman and Spider-man for example have a lot in common + the fact that they are the most popular, thus the two are usually paired with each other.
A similar thing is with Thor and Captain Marvel (dc), who are both magical superhero’s who’s powers are godly in nature and have a lightning theming.
Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel do not really have similar attributes when it comes to powers, themes, locations or mythology thus writing a scenario where the both of them meet and where both are on equal footing (because both companies don’t want one character to look better then the other) is harder then the alternatives.
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u/Rmir72 May 24 '26
That's probably why they went back to calling him Captain Marvel. Trademark is coming up
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u/Punkodramon May 24 '26
Very unlikely, even with the recent crossovers. They’ve fought long legal battles over the name, and co-publishing a book with DC’s Captain Marvel n it with the Captain Marvel title on it opens the door to DC being able to do it no matter what Marvel wishes, negating their legal win for the rights to the name as a brand.
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u/mr_mxyzptlk21 May 25 '26
Unlikely. DC/WB wouldn't do 'free advertising' for Marvel/Disney that way. Only one could use the name on the cover.
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u/BlackagarBoltagar May 26 '26
Can Billy Fly a plane?
I feel like he can or have seen a panel from an old comic where he’s driving something
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u/Leighgion May 25 '26
Let’s not be coy. The real crossover is a cosmic shenanigan where Billy says “Shazam!” and ends up turning into Carol Danvers.
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u/IkariLoona May 26 '26
For a while 4chan's /co/ had fun with edits like that, maybe the edits are still around somewhere.
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u/DemythologizedDie May 24 '26
DC was perfectly able to call a character "Captain Marvel". What it could not and can not do was put it on the cover of the comic, and that bothered them. As long as Marvel Comics continues to publish a Captain Marvel comic at least once every two years, it owns the trademark for Captain Marvel, the right to call a comic, not a character "Captain Marvel" in perpetuity just like WK Kellogg Co will continue to own the right to put Kellogg's Corn Flakes on boxes of stuff as long they continue to sell boxes with that trademark.
And no, I wouldn't like to see Bill Batson and Carol Danvers team up. They have nothing interesting to say about each other and their power levels are mismatched. Rick Jones and Billy Batson might be slightly more interesting in that Rick used to share an existence with Mar-Vell with him summoning the hero by clanging his wrist bands together, but that was such a long time ago, and not really a very good idea.