Captain Marvel Jr. character as resembling Tiny Tim as Freddy Freeman, and Peter Pan as Captain Marvel Jr.). Junior, Captain Marvel, and Mary Marvel began appearing together in "The Marvel Family" comic book beginning in 1945. That title and Junior's own ran until 1953, when Fawcett Publications discontinued all the Marvel Family comic books as the result of a lawsuit brought by National Comics (later DC Comics). After Fawcett Comics folded, Captain Marvel Jr. remained unpublished, alongside the rest of the Marvel Family, for years. In 1972, DC Comics purchased the rights to the Marvel Family characters and revived them in a new
Captain Marvel (DC Comics) "The World's Mightiest Mortal", starting with "Shazam!" #15 (December 1974). As all subsequent toys and other merchandise featuring the character have also been required to use the "Shazam!" label with little to no mention of the name "Captain Marvel", the title became so linked to Captain Marvel that many people took to identifying the character as "Shazam" instead of "Captain Marvel". The "Shazam!" comic series began with "Shazam!" #1 (Feb. 1973). It contained both new stories and reprints from the 1940s and 1950s. Dennis O'Neil was the primary writer of the book. His role was later taken over by writers