The only ones I recognize are Ms Marvel and Supergirl. ^^ Why they're related? They're both enormously strong? (Just guessing; I'm mainly an X-Men fan myself.)
All right. Here's a bit of comics history - some of it rather unheroic, I'm afraid. In the nineteen-forties, Fawcett Publishing created a superhero comics line focused on Captain Marvel - the "SHAZAM!" one, who looked really too much like Superman, even though his back story was all different. National Comics, the future DC, took them to court for violation of copyright. The case lasted for years, till eventually Fawcett decided that the game was not worth the candle, and just quit, shutting down the whole comics line - to the great displeasure of CC Beck, main creator and a rather better artist than anyone at National. National, BTW, is the future DC Comics. Cut to the nineteen-sixties. Marvel Comics, which never had any character with "Marvel" in its name, is starting some serious success with its new superhero line. They add a character called Wonder Man to their Avengers. DC write to point out that they own Wonder Woman, who is also a member of their version of The Avengers - the Justice League - and that they would really not rather have to try the case in court. Marvel folds, and Wonder Man is killed off within a few issues of being introduced. About 1968, however, DC buy the rights of the Captain Marvel character and universe from Fawcett and start their own series. Marvel write to point out that they own the name Marvel, they really like it, and is central to their business. DC ignore them. Marvel take them to court. I'd love to have the lawyer who worked for them, because he, whoever he was, managed to make the following claims stick: one, that Marvel owned the name Marvel; two, that it owned the name "Captain" - thanks to Captain America; and three, that the two names together amounted to Captain Marvel and that Marvel had a right to THAT. Only a lawyer could present an argument like that with a straight face, but the upshot was that while DC got to keep the character, Marvel got property of the name. From then on, all the successive series of the DC Captain were titled "Shazam". What follows is even weirder. Owning the name Captain Marvel, Marvel decided to create a Superman rip-off itself. Captain Mar-vell of the Kree was an alien who gained superhuman powers because of the earth's lower gravity and so on. He came to EArth as an adult and brought his own enemies with him, but otherwise the similarities were obvious. Later Jim Starlin was to move the character brusquely away from the Superman imitation - although he also brought in some other DC imitations, mainly from Jack Kirby's Fourth World titles - but Marvel never forgot the link between Captain Marvel and Superman: when they came up with Miss Marvel, they hired Jim Mooney, an artist best known for his work on Supergirl, to draw her.
Are you beginning to see the connection, now? The first Miss Marvel was meant to be a Marvel version of Supergirl, like the first Captain Marvel was meant to be a Marvel version of Superman. Both characters were moved away from their origins, but Marvel had still evidently not forgotten the link between Capt.Marvel and Superman, as between the Kryptonians and the Kree, when, two decades later, they came up with Ultra Girl - another mysterious super-powered heroine who did not herself know that she was a disguised Kree. This was a thoroughly charming and very promising mini-series by Barbara Kesel, which, in typical Marvel fashion, was wholly wasted.
Finally, in the lower right-hand corner, we have Suprema. This is Alan Moore and Rob Liefeld's version of Supergirl, in Moore's comparatively long-running Supreme comic.
So, Ms.Marvel, Ultra Girl and Suprema are all derived one way or another from Supergirl.
Well, a few corrections here. First, DC didn't revive Captain Marvel until the early Seventies. The Captain Marvel who came out in the mid-Sixties was a lousy version by M.F. Publishing which lasted six issues and was related in name only to the original Cap. Nonetheless, Marvel felt that readers might think it was a Marvel comic from the name (heck, Archie's "Mighty Comics Group" openly copied Marvel's name and corner trademark), and thus they came up with the 1967 Captain Marvel in MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #12. (At about the same time, M.F. came up with a last-gasp CAPTAIN MARVEL VS. THE TERRIBLE FIVE, to no avail.) The impeti behind DC acquiring Fawcett's Captain Marvel may have been the publication of Steranko's HISTORY OF COMICS, V2, which covered the Marvel Family in detail with copious illoes and got fans who were not old enough to know about Cap and company interested in them. Also, Jack Kirby is said to have suggested it. Whatever the case, DC licensed it, which led to Marvel bringing back their Captain Marvel (who had never sold very well and, for all intents and purposes, had sacrificed his existence to save Rick Jones by merging with him permanently in the Kree / Skrull War) and sniping at DC with "Dr. Mynde" and "Professor Savannah". That need to keep the Captain Marvel name in Marvel's corner is what causes Marvel to come out with a new CM title every so often...I doubt it's for sales. And probably the inspiration for Supergirl, outside of the early Superboy story, may just have been copyright coverage and Mary Marvel.
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Date: 2011-07-09 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-11 10:49 am (UTC)In the nineteen-forties, Fawcett Publishing created a superhero comics line focused on Captain Marvel - the "SHAZAM!" one, who looked really too much like Superman, even though his back story was all different. National Comics, the future DC, took them to court for violation of copyright. The case lasted for years, till eventually Fawcett decided that the game was not worth the candle, and just quit, shutting down the whole comics line - to the great displeasure of CC Beck, main creator and a rather better artist than anyone at National. National, BTW, is the future DC Comics.
Cut to the nineteen-sixties. Marvel Comics, which never had any character with "Marvel" in its name, is starting some serious success with its new superhero line. They add a character called Wonder Man to their Avengers. DC write to point out that they own Wonder Woman, who is also a member of their version of The Avengers - the Justice League - and that they would really not rather have to try the case in court. Marvel folds, and Wonder Man is killed off within a few issues of being introduced.
About 1968, however, DC buy the rights of the Captain Marvel character and universe from Fawcett and start their own series. Marvel write to point out that they own the name Marvel, they really like it, and is central to their business. DC ignore them. Marvel take them to court. I'd love to have the lawyer who worked for them, because he, whoever he was, managed to make the following claims stick: one, that Marvel owned the name Marvel; two, that it owned the name "Captain" - thanks to Captain America; and three, that the two names together amounted to Captain Marvel and that Marvel had a right to THAT. Only a lawyer could present an argument like that with a straight face, but the upshot was that while DC got to keep the character, Marvel got property of the name. From then on, all the successive series of the DC Captain were titled "Shazam".
What follows is even weirder. Owning the name Captain Marvel, Marvel decided to create a Superman rip-off itself. Captain Mar-vell of the Kree was an alien who gained superhuman powers because of the earth's lower gravity and so on. He came to EArth as an adult and brought his own enemies with him, but otherwise the similarities were obvious. Later Jim Starlin was to move the character brusquely away from the Superman imitation - although he also brought in some other DC imitations, mainly from Jack Kirby's Fourth World titles - but Marvel never forgot the link between Captain Marvel and Superman: when they came up with Miss Marvel, they hired Jim Mooney, an artist best known for his work on Supergirl, to draw her.
Are you beginning to see the connection, now? The first Miss Marvel was meant to be a Marvel version of Supergirl, like the first Captain Marvel was meant to be a Marvel version of Superman. Both characters were moved away from their origins, but Marvel had still evidently not forgotten the link between Capt.Marvel and Superman, as between the Kryptonians and the Kree, when, two decades later, they came up with Ultra Girl - another mysterious super-powered heroine who did not herself know that she was a disguised Kree. This was a thoroughly charming and very promising mini-series by Barbara Kesel, which, in typical Marvel fashion, was wholly wasted.
Finally, in the lower right-hand corner, we have Suprema. This is Alan Moore and Rob Liefeld's version of Supergirl, in Moore's comparatively long-running Supreme comic.
So, Ms.Marvel, Ultra Girl and Suprema are all derived one way or another from Supergirl.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-21 06:27 pm (UTC)First, DC didn't revive Captain Marvel until the early Seventies. The Captain Marvel who came out in the mid-Sixties was a lousy version by M.F. Publishing which lasted six issues and was related in name only to the original Cap. Nonetheless, Marvel felt that readers might think it was a Marvel comic from the name (heck, Archie's "Mighty Comics Group" openly copied Marvel's name and corner trademark), and thus they came up with the 1967 Captain Marvel in MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #12. (At about the same time, M.F. came up with a last-gasp CAPTAIN MARVEL VS. THE TERRIBLE FIVE, to no avail.)
The impeti behind DC acquiring Fawcett's Captain Marvel may have been the publication of Steranko's HISTORY OF COMICS, V2, which covered the Marvel Family in detail with copious illoes and got fans who were not old enough to know about Cap and company interested in them. Also, Jack Kirby is said to have suggested it. Whatever the case, DC licensed it, which led to Marvel bringing back their Captain Marvel (who had never sold very well and, for all intents and purposes, had sacrificed his existence to save Rick Jones by merging with him permanently in the Kree / Skrull War) and sniping at DC with "Dr. Mynde" and "Professor Savannah". That need to keep the Captain Marvel name in Marvel's corner is what causes Marvel to come out with a new CM title every so often...I doubt it's for sales.
And probably the inspiration for Supergirl, outside of the early Superboy story, may just have been copyright coverage and Mary Marvel.