Two Different Movies Featuring Captain Marvel Are Being Released by Marvel and DC but That Is Just the Beginning of the Many
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Community Community H-Pylori Bazm-e-Urdu infection Qatar and P4is more P16 its aff iliated common in countries or group Guzergah-e-Khayal communities that lack organises ‘Remembering clean water or good Mirza Ghalib: A Lecture sewage systems. and Poetry Night’. Friday, March 1, 2019 Jumada II 24, 1440 AH Doha today 200 - 220 COVER STORY Two diff erent movies featuring Captain Marvel are being released by Marvel and DC but that is just the beginning of the many Marvels to come. P2-3 CUISINE SHOWBIZ Mysore Bonda, a Stop asking actresses about fi lm wholesome snack. comebacks: Madhuri. Page 6 Page 15 2 GULF TIMES Friday, March 1, 2019 COMMUNITY COVER STORY The many iterations of Captain Marvel PRAYER TIME Fajr 4.41am Shorooq (sunrise) 5.57am Zuhr (noon) 11.46am Asr (afternoon) 3.07pm Maghreb (sunset) 5.38pm Isha (night) 7.08pm USEFUL NUMBERS Emergency 999 Worldwide Emergency Number 112 Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Qatar Airways 44496000 Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444 Humanitarian Services Offi ce (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 Qatar Airways 40253374 SUPERHERO: Brie Larson shows off superpowers in the MCU Captain Marvel trailer. Superman. And Billy Batson became a That would be his ability to break apart By Andrew A. Smith journalist (a radio reporter), an element into six discrete parts by yelling the word te Unqu he shared with Clark Kent. The publishers “Split!” His arms, legs and head would uo ot of Superman, the forerunners of today’s separate from his torso, and all those parts Q e t’s time to discuss Captains Marvel. DC Comics, decided that was enough would go into battle separately. “If you have Yes, Captain Marvel in the plural to sue The World’s Mightiest Mortal for Yeah. The awful image that just crossed – because there have been a lot copyright infringement. your mind is entirely accurate. Somebody only one smile in of them. Ironically, the character The lawsuit dragged on into the 1950s, actually thought that was a good idea. you give it to the starring in Shazam, premiering April and eventually Fawcett threw in the As noted, though, the M.F. Enterprises I5, started out as a Captain Marvel. And towel. They got out of the comic book biz Captain Marvel didn’t last long. But people you love.” the character starring in Captain Marvel, altogether in 1953. maybe it lasted long enough to alert premiering March 8, did not. Without anybody protecting it, the Marvel Comics that the name Captain — Maya Angelou But given those movies, the long trademark for the name Captain Marvel Marvel was up for grabs. And if you’re strange history of the name “Captain fell into public domain. Anybody could Marvel Comics, wouldn’t you want that Marvel” must be addressed. And it’s a use it. And the fi rst company to do so was name? doozy. a tiny fi rm called M.F. Enterprises. And they got it. According to the book The Shazam guy, it should be noted, The new Captain Marvel launched in Slugfest, Marvel actually nudged M.F. was the fi rst, original Captain Marvel. his own eponymous title in 1966. It only Enterprises to get out of the Captain Debuting in Whiz Comics No. 2 (1939), lasted four issues, though, because the Marvel business, and threw in a $4,500 Community Editor from Fawcett Comics, young orphan Billy whole concept was utterly terrible. sweetener. Batson was able to turn into the adult, For one thing, he wasn’t a he – he was And lo, a Marvel Captain Marvel was Kamran Rehmat super-powered Captain Marvel by saying an it. The new Captain Marvel was an born. An anthology title, Marvel Super- e-mail: [email protected] a magic word: Shazam, the name of the alien robot, sent to Earth to escape the Heroes, introduced Captain Mar-Vell in Telephone: 44466405 wizard who gave him his powers. nuclear destruction of his home world. 1967. A spy for the Kree Empire, Mar-Vell Fax: 44350474 Those powers included fl ight, super- He had jet boots and laser eyes, but that was assigned to Earth, specifi cally to Cape strength and invulnerability – which he wasn’t his main, or most memorable, Canaveral, where he took the disguise of shared with another famed superhero, super-power. dead rocket scientist Walter Lawson. Friday, March 1, 2019 GULF TIMES 3 COVER STORY COMMUNITY “Shazam was the first, original Captain Marvel. Debuting in Whiz Comics No. 2 (1939), from Fawcett Comics, young orphan Billy Batson was able to turn into the adult, super-powered Captain Marvel by saying a magic word: Shazam, the name of the wizard who gave COMIC HERO: Zachary Levi will be playing Captain Marvel in their upcoming DC movie Shazam. For the longest time, Shazam bore the name of Captain him his powers” Marvel in comics. Unfortunately for Mar-Vell, Marvel again. Marvel wasn’t about Marvel. A cynical mind might Lawson had a criminal past, and he to let it get away, especially since DC assume Marvel was just assigning the immediately became an object of Comics had acquired the original name to one character after another suspicion for the Cape’s tough head Captain Marvel. Unable to use the to protect the trademark. of security, USAF Captain Carol name on covers due to Marvel’s But now it’s fi nally stuck. Danvers. More on her, anon. trademark rights, DC had begun Remember Carol Danvers? You Needless to say, Mar-Vell didn’t publishing the fi rst Captain Marvel in should, because she has claimed stay a bad guy for long; he came to all his glory in a series titled Shazam the mantle, and with her upcoming love Earth and began fi ghting for in 1973. movie, is unlikely to ever give it up. her in his green-and-white Kree So Marvel created another Captain But she didn’t get the name right uniform, which we gullible Earthlings Marvel in 1982: Monica Rambeau, a away. She surfaced as a superhero assumed to be a superhero costume. police lieutenant in the New Orleans in 1977 with her own comic book Going by the name Captain Marvel harbour patrol. Able to transform and Captain Marvel-related super- – a corruption of his actual name herself into any kind of energy, powers. Unfortunately, Mar-Vell and rank – Mar-Vell graduated to Rambeau has been poorly used in wasn’t dead yet, so she settled his own series, where he fought comics, ceding the name Captain on the name Ms. Marvel. Various aliens, met Avengers and was given Marvel in the ’90s and taking in adventures saw her changing her super-powers by mysterious cosmic succession the names Photon, Pulsar name again and again, but Captain entities. and Spectrum before more or less Marvel was never available when Oh, wait, that last part probably fading into comic book limbo. (A she did. She became Binary, then deserves explanation. A cosmic character named Monica Rambeau Warbird, then Ms. Marvel again. intelligence named “Zo” informed will appear in the Captain Marvel Finally, in 2012 she was again ready Mar-Vell that he was destined to movie, so she’s got that going for her.) to change her name, and nobody was be the “balance” of the universe, And to whom did Monica cede using “Captain Marvel.” So now she’s and in concert with the Supreme the legendary name? Why Genis- got it. Whew! Intelligence – an amorphous blob Vell, Mar-Vell’s formerly unknown Meanwhile, over at DC Comics, of minds that leads the Kree – biological son. Despite the blood Captain Marvel struggled along remade Mar-Vell. He gained fl ight, connection, though, he didn’t last without being able to use his name on super-strength, great resistance in the role either, taking the name a cover. With one series after another to injury and “cosmic awareness,” Photon (again, from the hapless using some variation of Shazam as a sort of universal clairvoyance or Monica Rambeau) before dying, a title, fans began calling him that precognition. being dismembered and having – and now it’s offi cial. With its 2011 He also gained a snappy red, his parts spread throughout the reboot, DC gave up on “Captain blue and gold super-suit –and his Darkforce Dimension so they can Marvel” and renamed Billy Batson’s own Billy Batson, sort of. Writer never be reunited. (It’s true that no other self Shazam. Roy Thomas tipped his hat to the one is ever really dead in comics, but And that’s why when you say original Captain Marvel by sending this comes pretty darn close.) Captain Marvel to a comics fan, he or the new version to the Negative Did I mention Genis had a sister? she will inevitably say “which one”? Zone, where he could only be freed He did, and his sibling Phyla-Vell It’s a storied title, but the stories star when ubiquitous sidekick Rick Jones also became Captain Marvel for a a lot of diff erent people! – TNS changed places with him. Instead spell, before changing her name to of yelling “Shazam,” teenage Jones Quasar, then Martyr, and apparently Captain Marvel: The Most would clang together cosmic wrist dying (although we’ve seen her soul Cosmic Super-Hero of All jewellery called Nega-Bands – in an infi nity stone, so don’t count “Ktang!” – and be replaced by the her out).