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Captain Marvel is a comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and now owned by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C.C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2 (Feb, 1940). With a premise that taps into adolescent fantasy, Captain Marvel is the alter ego of Billy Batson, a youth who works as a radio news reporter and was chosen to be a champion of good by the wizard Shazam. Whenever Billy speaks the wizard's name, he is instantly struck by a magic lightning bolt that transforms him into an adult superhero empowered with the abilities of six mythological figures. Several friends and family members, most notably Marvel Family cohorts Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr., can share Billy's power and become "Marvels" themselves. Hailed as "The World's Mightiest Mortal" in his adventures (and nicknamed "The Big Red Cheese" by archvillain Doctor Sivana, an epithet adopted by fans as a nickname for their hero), Captain Marvel was, based on sales, the most popular superhero of the 1940s, since the Captain Marvel Adventures comic book series sold more copies than Superman and other competing superhero books during the mid-1940s. Captain Marvel was also the first superhero to be adapted into film in 1941 (The Adventures of Captain Marvel). Fawcett ceased publishing Captain Marvel-related comics in 1953, dure in part to a copyright infringement suit from DC Comics alleging that Captain Marvel was an illegal infringement of Superman.