What The--?! works that spoof some of their all-time greatest successes. For example, in issue #2, Byrne creates a tale pitting his work on the Fantastic Four franchise against his work with Superman. The issue goes so far as to have the Lex Luthor character complain about the changes Byrne made to the Superman legend after DC Comics' "Crisis on Infinite Earths". Though it carried the Marvel Comics label on the front left corner, "What The--?!" touted itself as being published by "Marble Comics". "What The--?!" parodied Marvel institutions such as the legendary Marvel Comics fan mail page, with staged articles called
Captain Marvel (DC Comics) adventures feature him as a solo hero, he also fought evil on a regular basis accompanied by several other kids who share his powers to make up a superhero team called the Marvel Family (later referred to as the "Shazam Family" due to the issues DC Comics faced over the "Marvel" and "Captain Marvel" trademarks). The first members of the family, introduced in "Whiz Comics" #21 (Sept. 1941) and used sparingly afterwards, were the Lieutenant Marvels: three other boys from various parts of the United States who are also named "Billy Batson" and discover that, if they all say "Shazam!"