| Lieutenant Marvels | |
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 Captain Marvel and his three Lieutenant Marvels (left to right: Lt. Hill Marvel, Lt. Fat Marvel, and Lt. Tall Marvel) on the cover ofWhiz Comics #29 (April 1942) byC. C. Beck. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Fawcett Comics (1941–1953) DC Comics (1972–1985) |
| First appearance | Whiz Comics #21 (September 1941) |
| Created by | C. C. Beck |
| In-story information | |
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TheLieutenant Marvels are fictional characters, a team ofsuperheroes in theFawcett Comics andDC Comics universes. They first appeared inWhiz Comics #21 in 1941. The physical appearance of the three characters was based on three real-life members of the Fawcett Comics staff: Paul Peck (Tall Billy), Ed Hamilton (Hill Billy), and Frank Taggart (Fat Billy).[1]
The Lieutenants appeared periodically in the adventures of Captain Marvel and theMarvel Family through the early 1950s, and also when the characters were revived byDC Comics in the 1970s under the titleShazam!, although rarely. They wereretconned out of existence during theCrisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. Some people, such as Jonathan Woodward in hisAnnotated Crisis on Infinite Earths website, suggest that the Lieutenant Marvels died in the last battle of theCrisis on Infinite Earths,[2] althoughWho's Who in the DC Universe claims they survived but lost their powers.
The characters were reintroduced inTrials of Shazam! #2 (2006), only to lose their powers in the same issue. They also appeared as inhabitants ofEarth-5 inGrant Morrison'sThe Multiversity miniseries in 2015.
Brooklyn,New York City, has its own Billy Batson, and he travels to the W.H.I.Z. radio station with two other Billy Batsons, one from theWestern United States and one from theSouthern United States, to visitthe "real" Billy. To prevent confusion, the western Billy suggests he be called "Tall" Billy, the southern Billy is renamed "Hill" Billy and Brooklyn's Billy is given the title "Fat" Billy. At the "real" Billy's suggestion, all four Billys form the Billy Batson Club. Billy reveals he is Captain Marvel to them, and says they should only say "Shazam!" when he gives them a wink.
The nefariousDr. Sivana hatches a plan to kill the "real" Billy Batson and sends his three henchmen to find out where Billy lives. Sivana's goons mistakenly find the other Billy Batsons instead and capture them. The mysterious Captain Death captures Tall Billy, Nazi Agent Herr Geyer captures Fat Billy, and bandit "Biggy" Brix captures Hill Billy. Sivana uses them as bait to trap the real Billy after hearing he is their friend, having Brix deliver a note, and demanding he comes to the Mill as Billy. When this happens he is knocked out and captured.
Sivana and his henchmen gag Billy and tie him and the other Billys to a log heading towards a buzzsaw, then leave. Billy is able to remove his gag on the buzzsaw, but his shout of "Shazam" can not be heard over the roar of the buzzsaw. With seconds to spare, Billy enlists the aid of his club members and they all shout "Shazam!" together.
When the smoke clears, Captain Marvel sees that the other Billys have transformed as well, into Tall Marvel, Hill Marvel, and Fat Marvel. Hill Marvel remarks that they have each changed into Captain Marvel but Fat Marvel counters that by saying that there is only one Captain Marvel. Tall Marvel suggests that they are reallyLieutenant Marvels, hence the trio's name.
The Captain and his three Lieutenants easily defeat Sivana and his henchmen, knocking their plane down and apparently killing all the villains except Sivana. After shouting "Shazam!" and transforming back into their civilian identities, the three Billys head back home. The Lieutenants returned from time to time during the Fawcett Comics era to aid their hero. InCaptain Marvel Adventures #4 they are again kidnapped by Sivana's henchmen. Captain Marvel follows the kidnappers to Sivana's base. The three Billys are tied up under three sharp pendulums. However Billy transforms with them and they defeat the henchmen. They hear a noise in a shed, and find Sivana's daughter Beautia bound and gagged inside. They release her and she reveals Sivana did this. They fly away before Sivana detonates tons of dynamite under the house, then defeat him. They were probably put in suspended animation until 1973, along with many Marvel characters, by the Sivanas. They make their first DC appearance inShazam! #30, when the whole Marvel Family is called upon to destroy Sivana's steel menagerie, which is threatening to wreckPittsburgh. Incongruously, the three are able to transform on their own, while in a later story, "Assault on the Rock of Eternity" inWorld's Finest Comics #267, Captain Marvel has to gather the three Billies together so they could simultaneously say the magic word in order to transform.
The Lieutenant Marvels exist, without powers though still helping the Marvel Family to fight crime, on Earth-5, as seen inThe Multiversity miniseries by writerGrant Morrison.
By shouting "Shazam!", the Four Billy Batsons are transformed into the Lieutenant Marvels. In this form, they each have the powers of Captain Marvel: the wisdom ofSolomon, the strength ofHercules, the stamina ofAtlas, the power ofZeus, the courage ofAchilles, and the speed ofMercury. Since they have to share the power, they are each only one-third as powerful as Captain Marvel.
In thedirect-to-videoanimated filmJustice League: Crisis on Two Earths, three superpowered henchmen with powers similar to the Marvels are employed bySuperwoman, a criminal, parallel universe incarnation of Wonder Woman,[3] and referred to as her Lieutenants. However, instead of the "classic" Lieutenant Marvels, the trio appear as criminal counterparts of Captain Marvel,Captain Marvel Jr., andUncle Marvel (listed in the film's credits as, respectively, "Captain Super", "Captain Super Jr.", and "Uncle Super").
In the TV seriesYoung Justice,Freddy Freeman andMary Bromfield, under the names Lieutenant Marvel and Sergeant Marvel, joined the Team AND left the Team in between Seasons One and Two.[4] Mary appears in the fourth season, having given up the Sgt. Marvel moniker.[5]
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