Captain Marvel (DC Comics) Mary Marvel appeared together as a team in another Fawcett publication, "The Marvel Family". In addition, there was a funny animal spin-off character, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, which was created in 1942 for Fawcett's "Funny Animals" comic book and later given an eponymous series as well. With Bill Parker having been drafted into World War II, chief writing duties on the Captain Marvel-related comics stories went to Otto Binder by 1942. C.C. Beck remained as lead artist, and he and Binder steered the Captain Marvel stories towards a whimsical tone that emphasized comedy and fantasy elements alongside the superhero action.
Captain Marvel (DC Comics) low-print run in the fall of 1939 as an ashcan copy created for advertising and trademark purposes. Shortly after its printing, however, Fawcett found it could not trademark "Captain Thunder", "Flash Comics", or "Thrill Comics", because all three names were already in use. Consequently, the book was renamed "Whiz Comics", and Fawcett artist Pete Costanza suggested changing Captain Thunder's name to "Captain Marvelous", which the editors shortened to "Captain Marvel". The word balloons in the story were re-lettered to label the hero of the main story as "Captain Marvel". "Whiz Comics" #2 (cover-dated Feb. 1940) was published in late 1939.