Captain Marvel (DC Comics) Marvel's protégé, Captain Marvel, Jr., who was the alter-ego of Billy and Mary's best friend, the disabled newsboy Freddy Freeman. Before DC's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" comic book miniseries in 1985, the Marvel Family also included part-time members such as Mary's non-powered friend "Uncle" Dudley (Uncle Marvel) and three other protégés (all of whose alter egos are named "Billy Batson") known as the Lieutenant Marvels. A pink rabbit version of Captain Marvel, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, appeared in his own stories featuring a funny-animal cast. The current-continuity version of Shazam has a Shazam Family made up of his five foster
X-Men (comic book) X-Men (comic book) X-Men is a comic book ongoing series a namesake team of superheroes, published in various incarnations by Marvel Comics, beginning in 1963. The first series was eventually renamed "The Uncanny X-Men" with issue #114 (October 1978). In 1991, a second, companion series debuted, marking the first time, that more than one "X-Men" series would be published. This series took the simpler, earlier name "X-Men", thought it would later be titled "". Volume 3 began publication in September 2010 and for most of its run featured team-ups between the X-Men and other Marvel characters, ended at issue #41