Lieutenant Marvels
| Lieutenants Marvel | |
|---|---|
The cover of Whiz Comics #21, the first appearance of the Lieutenants Marvel (left to right, Fat Marvel, Tall Marvel, and Hill Marvel; alongside Captain Marvel). Art by C. C. Beck.
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher |
Fawcett Comics (1941-1953) DC Comics (1972-1985) |
| First appearance | Whiz Comics #21 (1941) |
| Created by |
C. C. Beck (writer unknown) |
| In-story information | |
| Base(s) |
Fawcett City Rock of Eternity |
| Member(s) | Lt. Tall Marvel ("Tall" Billy Batson) Lt. Fat Marvel ("Fat" Billy Batson) Lt. Hill Marvel ("Hill" Billy Batson) |
The Lieutenant Marvels are fictional characters, a team of superheroes in the Fawcett Comics and DC Comics universes. They first appeared in Whiz 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).
The Lieutenants appeared periodically in the adventures of Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family through the early 1950s, and also when the characters were revived by DC Comics in the 1970s under the title Shazam!, although rarely. They were retconned out of existence during the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. Some people, such as Jonathan Woodward in his Annotated Crisis on Infinite Earths website, suggest that the Lieutenant Marvels died in the last battle of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, although Who's Who in the DC Universe claims they survived but lost their powers.
The characters were reintroduced in Trials of Shazam! #2 (2006), only to lose their powers in the same issue. They also appeared as inhabitants of Earth-5 in Grant Morrison's The 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 the Western United States and one from the Southern United States, to visit the "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.
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Wikipedia