With Captain Marvel making her big screen debut, there’s been a lot of talk about Carol Danvers (played by Brie Larson) as the titular hero. She might be one of the most famous of Marvel Comic characters to take on the mantle, but she’s far from the only one. In fact, not every Captain Marvel even hails from Marvel Comics and Carol didn’t officially take on the name until 2012!
The original Captain Marvel was actually created by Fawcett Comics. National Comics (which would eventually become DC) thought the character was too similar to their Superman and took legal action. Years later, DC became the owner of the character, but Marvel Comics wanted the name Captain Marvel for themselves. As a result, all three publishers, as well as a few others, have characters who use the name.
For Marvel Comics, many of those characters are tied to story-lines involving a Kree spy infiltrating Earth. For DC Comics, many of those characters are tied to Billy Batson and his foster family. Each publisher created their own Marvel family, as it were. Of course, with so many comic books exploring alternate timelines, there are also a few surprising Captain Marvels who don’t belong to either family.
With all of that in mind, we’ve rounded up all of the Captain Marvels we could find to bring you 20 Characters Named Captain Marvel (That Aren’t Carol Danvers).
Mar-vell
The original Marvel Comics version of the character, Mar-vell was a Kree spy. Sent to Earth to evaluate the planet, Mar-Vell came to ire human beings and live among them.
When Mar-Vell was introduced to readers, he took on the human guise of a scientist working for NASA. Only in battle did he change back to his Kree form, trying to blend in with the inhabitants of Earth. He became the superhero Captain Marvel as he tried to help the planet he’d grown to love so much, using devices called nega bands to activate his powers.
It’s this version of Captain Marvel that fought in the massive Kree-Skrull War, had Carol Danvers as an ally, and eventually inspired her to become a superhero as well.
Billy Batson
The very first Captain Marvel came to the page through Fawcett Comics, though DC eventually gained the rights to the character. He was a hero who used the body of a teenage boy named Billy Batson to save the day.
Billy gained power by using the word “Shazam,” which transformed him into Captain Marvel. The two were actually distinct personalities, with Billy calling on Captain Marvel to perform heroic deeds. Billy eventually shared his power with several of his foster family , expanding his heroic Marvel Family.
Eventually, after disputes with Marvel Comics, DC stopped using the title Captain Marvel, instead sticking with the hero’s catchphrase. Billy Batson provides the inspiration for the Warner Brothers live action movie Shazam.
Janet Van Dyne
Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe know Janet Van Dyne as mother to Hope and wife to original Ant-Man Hank Pym. Likewise, Janet was the original Wasp in the comics, not to mention a founding member of the Avengers. An alternate timeline saw her as a different hero.
In a version of the Marvel comic book universe that spun out of Age of Ultron, a time traveling Wolverine wanted to stop Ultron before the artificial intelligence was ever created. He sought to stop an apocalyptic future for the planet. To do that, Wolverine ended Hank Pym’s life, preventing him from creating Ultron. The timeline changed drastically, resulting in Janet taking on the mantle of Captain Marvel instead of the Wasp.
Marvelman
Miller & Son reprinted Fawcett’s Captain Marvel comics in the United Kingdom. They had nearly two dozen issues released when they hit a snag. When National Comics beat Fawcett Comics in their lawsuit over the character’s similarities to Superman, the UK based company found themselves without American comics to use as a base. They had to change their strategy beginning with issue #25.
The publisher changed Captain Marvel to Marvelman. Likewise, his sidekicks also changed. No longer was Billy’s foster sister Mary known as Mary Marvel in their pages. She became a young boy named Kid Marvelman. The publisher ran stories featuring their adaptations of the characters until 1963. In the 80s, the character was revived, but with another name change: Miracleman.
Genis-Vell
As his name might suggest, Genis-Vell is the son of Marvel’s original Captain, Mar-Vell. Genis-Vell took an interesting journey to his father’s title.
The young Kree was genetically engineered using Mar-Vell’s DNA to carry on his family’s legacy. He was artificially aged, so his maturity level wasn’t exactly where one would expect if they interacted with him. Genis-Vell also didn’t exactly have the same values as his father, though he wanted to do good in his father’s name.
He frequently ended up on the opposite end of the conflicts compared to the heroes readers knew, leading to many viewing him as a villain. Eventually, Genis-Vell lost out on the title of Captain Marvel. His sister decided she wanted it for herself, thinking she could preserve the legacy better.
Amalgam Captain Marvel
In recent years, readers saw DC Comics crossover with the Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, and even Looney Tunes characters. The Marvel and DC comic book universes might not cross over much these days, but they certainly used to.
One of those crossovers created a whole new universe. In it, existing characters in each universe combined to create new heroes and villains. For example, the Riddler and the Kingpin were combined to create the Big Question. DC’s Captain Marvel was combined with the Marvel comic book version to create the aptly named Captain Marvel.
This version of the character had the original green and white color scheme of Marvel’s version of the character, but the lightning bolt insignia of DC’s, giving the hero an interesting new look.
Mahr Vell
In Marvel Comics, some series take place in alternate universes, giving fans a look at familiar characters in a whole new way. The Ultimate Universe launched lines of X-Men, Avengers, and more that gave readers new story-lines and relationships for the characters.
In the Ultimate Universe, the normal continuity’s Mar-Vell became a renegade Kree named Mahr Vell instead. He was originally supposed to simply observe the state of Earth as it was annihilated by another villain. Instead, he grew to love Earth, dated that universe’s Carol Danvers, and began helping the planet.
Captain Marvel isn’t his formal name, but arises because his human friends can’t pronounce his name correctly. In fact, Carol never pronounces his name correctly at all. Only Falcon and Thor were able to do it.
Alternate Future Billy Batsons
While Marvel Comics enjoyed seeing many different characters take on the Captain Marvel mantle, the same wasn’t true for DC Comics. Instead, DC often had different versions of Billy Batson in new universes.
One of those existed in the alternate timeline of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. In its sequel, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, an older version of Captain Marvel existed, one who was able to exist independently of Billy Batson. He itted Billy was long gone before using his own lightning to destroy himself as well while stone crumbled down around him.
Kingdom Come also saw Billy as a puppet of super-villain Lex Luthor. The Elseworld’s story Superman: Distant Fires saw a Billy obsessed with Wonder Woman, and driven insane by his hatred of Clark Kent’s relationship with her.
Phyla-Vell
The daughter of Marvel’s Mar-Vell, Phyla-Vell’s existence is a complicated one. She didn’t actually exist in the original timeline. Instead, she was “born” when her brother Genis-Vell destroyed the universe, and then rewrote it. His interference actually brought his mother back to life, creating a new sister for him.
Phyla-Vell found her brother as an incompetent Captain Marvel, deciding he “tarnished” their father’s good name. She took on the mantle instead. Of course, she also has a litany of other code names in the comics, like Quasar and Martyr.
While indulging in heroics, she was a Guardians of the Galaxy member engaged in a romantic relationship with Moondragon. When she turned more villainous though, her soul wound up trapped in the Soul Stone following a confrontation.
Unnamed Elseworld’s Version
DC Comics has an alternative universe series of books referred to as Elseworlds. The books act similarly to Marvel’s “What If” line, exploring how different decisions change the outcome of events, altering whole timelines. One such Elseworld volume was Elseworlds Finest: Supergirl and Batgirl. The title was a play on World’s Finest, a classic DC story. In the volume were a few familiar characters in new guises.
We don’t know much about this particular version of Captain Marvel. What we do know is that he was newer to the job. In a flashback, the Captain Marvel with the Justice Society looked the same as the main continuity. This new Captain Marvel was an African American man with no hair.
Readers didn’t even get the chance to learn his real name!
