Superman vs Shazam… in Court
Throughout the golden age of comics, while plenty of punches were thrown on the page, the real fighting took place in the courts: the forerunner for DC Comics, National, was fairly aggressive in enforcing their copyright. This resulted in deep consequences for a burgeoning comic book industry, as well as the history of copyright law.
Although the natural appeal of Superman often kept him in the #1 spot, his attorneys were arguably more formidable. The most relevant of the early courtroom battles in comics was over Shazam in National Comics Publications, Inc. v. Fawcett Publications. This legal fight undermined Fawcett Publications and allowed DC comics, the successor of National Comics, to purchase several superhero properties (including Shazam) in Fawcett’s resulting intellectual property garage sale.
Shazam was first published in Whiz Comics #2 in 1939, early in the development of the comic book as a genre separate from the newspapers that it had begun in and just a year after Superman hit the stands. Originally called Captain Marvel (a name lost to Marvel’s ‘Captain Marvel,’ but that is its own story…), Shazam was brought into being by Billy Batson shouting the magic word “Shazam.” Shazam would become incredibly popular as the first child superhero, was the first comic book character to have a derivative movie, and outsold Superman at the newsstand. The commercial success of the character put it on National Comic Publication’s radar, and they started to consider their legal options.
The parallels between the properties are fairly plain to see: a large, muscular man with black hair in a skin-tight, caped costume in the same, ‘20s newspaper comic art style is pretty similar: Captain Marvel was even smashing the same make and model of green car on the cover of Whiz Comics #2 that Superman lifted above his head in his Action Comics debut, and the editors explicitly asked the creators to create a new superhero similar to Superman. However, little known fact: Superman arguably took his ability to fly from Shazam since Shazam was the first to take to the skies between the two; previously Superman had to run everywhere, and there’s a reason he was mentioned as able to leap tall buildings in a single bound (as opposed to just fly over them).
Looks exactly like the car Superman hoisted above his head in Action Comics
With the maturation of the comic book industry that we see today, similar but different superheroes/villains (Homelander from The Boys, Hyperion in Marvel, the Viltrimites in Invincible…) are distinct enough to do their own thing in a broad, established, and “genericized” genre. However, in a far less established industry with less time to allow space to develop for “generic supermen,” lawsuits were a bit more practical.
The Shazam lawsuit, National Comics Publications, Inc. v. Fawcett Publications, became a long, drawn-out affair that was fought to a verdict and then appealed. Ultimately, despite winning the original suit, Fawcett Publications agreed to pay $400,000, or roughly 4 million by today’s standards. This settlement, alongside other lawsuits against the publishers of Wonder Man, Master Man, and several other popular comic book intellectual properties, more or less kept Superman #1 on the stands throughout the Golden Age of comics by occasionally knocking out the competition. That’s not to say that Supe couldn’t do it alone, but he had some serious assistance from his litigators.
After absorbing the legal fees, settlement, and downturn of the comic book industry as it switched from the golden age to silver, Fawcett sold off all of their superhero intellectual property. Decades later, DC would license the rights to all of Fawcett’s intellectual properties, which would enable them to come out with the Shazam movie in 2019.
Shazam has since become an integral part of the DC universe, often displaying powers on par with Superman as one of the very few characters that can match him (remember, Superman is weak against magic-based attacks). While he has not been as influential, he has been significant, being one of the only superheroes besides Batman to reliably stand up to Superman on the several occasions he has gone rogue, i.e. the masterful Injustice game and comics. He has been the titular character in a recent DC movie as the company builds an alternative brand to the MCU and continues to have a unique pull with young audiences as the hero that was a child just like them mere moments before lightning struck.
As comic book media continues to define itself in film and streaming shows, the lawsuit with Fawcett continues to have lasting repercussions that are seen across the industry, up to and including the box office. Something which studios and comics should consider as they continue to negotiate the next series of movies.