Adventures of Captain Marvel Adventures of Captain Marvel Adventures of Captain Marvel is a 1941 American 12-chapter black-and-white movie serial from Republic Pictures, produced by Hiram S. Brown, Jr., directed by John English and William Witney, that stars Tom Tyler in the title role of Captain Marvel and Frank Coghlan, Jr. as his alter ego, Billy Batson. This serial was adapted from the popular Captain Marvel comic book character then appearing in Fawcett Comics publications "Whiz Comics" and "Captain Marvel Adventures". "Adventures of Captain Marvel" was the 21st of 66 film serials produced by Republic and their first comic book character adaptation (not counting
Captain Marvel (DC Comics) Shazam placed a spell on the city (broken in later issues) that slowed time to a crawl in 1955. This phenomenon was used to explain the Marvel Family's sometimes anachronistic approaches to life and heroism compared to many of their contemporary heroes in the DC Universe. In 2012, writer and then-DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns revised Billy Batson's origin for DC's "New 52" universe, also renaming the character's alter-ego as "Shazam" at this time. In his new origin story, Billy Batson is a moody and troubled 15-year-old foster child living in Philadelphia who has gone through several foster homes.