Mary Marvel

Revision as of 10:06, 18 January 2020

Mary Marvel is a female comic superhero that features in DC Comics.

Biography

Fawcett

Mary Marvel in Wow Comics v1 #27.

Mary Batson was born to the Batson family as the twin sister of Billy Batson. Her parents had died at the time of her birth leaving Mary and her brother as orphans. The pair were under the care of the hospital nurse Sarah Primm. She was worried about the future of the two newborns. At the time, the rich Bromfield had a baby girl who had died unknown to them. The nurse Sarah Primm decided to substitute Mary for the dead Bromfield baby so she could live with the rich family. Meanwhile, her twin brother Billy was given away for adoption leading to the siblings being separated and unaware of the others existence. The only clue to her brother was half a broken locket that the nurse had left with Mary. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #18)

One day, she heard a call from help and found the Gingerbread Man who had come from Fairyland to Earth. He had come with three wishes and wanted to become human but his wish never manifested. Mary came to save him from dogs that tried to eat him and she later took him to shelter when it rained as it could his body to fall apart. Left along with one last wish, he faced the choice of returning back to Fairyland but instead used it to save a child who fell into the bay and was drowning. The Good Fairy then manifested revealing that the condition for him to become human was that he had to perform a good deed and thus Mary Marvel witnessed as the Gingerbread Man was turned into a human being where he lived the life a baker. (Marvel Family v1 # #16)

She later pursued Diavlo who was a master of black magic that attempted to flee capture by her. To do so, he went to a nearby town and cast a spell making everyone appear as him preventing Mary Marvel from knowing who the real Diavlo was allowing him to conduct crimes. This was until she queried each town member on their real name and compared them to the list of names in the town register whereupon she captured Diavlo. (Marvel Family v1 #58)

Mary came to attend the Whiz Kids radio program that was being hosted by Mr. Andrew Answer where she met Pinky who was also taking part in the quiz. During this time, they received strange questions on how to commit seemingly hypothetical robberies. The two later turned to their heroic identities to investigate the home of Mr. John Pinchdime whose residence resembled the scenario in the question card. Once there, they found a masked criminal by the name of Mr. Question who was using the solutions of the Whiz Kids to commit crimes. Despite the heroes presence, Mr. Question fled and the next day the Whiz Kids received a new hypothetical crime scenario with Mary giving an answer in order to confront the villain. Despite this advantage, he once again escaped but she found some of his blank cards and substituted one for her own. The following day, the Whiz Kids gathered for their quiz again with their host reading out the card that Mary had substituted thus concluding that Mr. Question was in fact Andrew Answer. Mary then helped in apprehending the villain thus allowing for the authorities to arrest him. (Wow Comics v1 #28)

DC

Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.

Her search took her to Gotham City where she found Black Adam in the remains of the Kahndaq embassy. She was looking for a return of her powers with the furious Teth-Adam lamenting of how hope was gone in his life and it seemed that he was willing to kill Mary. However, he uttered the magic word "Shazam!" and turned himself mortal whilst his powers were transferred to Mary thus restoring her as Mary Marvel. Teth-Adam departed but asked Mary to deliver a message to her brother namely that he was sorry about what would happen now in the future. (Countdown v1 #47) With her powers, she witnessed five pregnant woman use a piece of the Rock of Eternity in a ritual where they sacrificed their lives to free the demon Pharyngula, the Harvester of Stillborn Souls. (Countdown v1 #46) She was then summoned into the Rock of Eternity where she was reunited with Billy Batson who now possessed the powers of the Wizard. He revealed that he had been entrusted in taking over his mentors role and was helping Freddy replace him as Earth's Mightiest Mortal. However, he had grown concerned at Mary's new power and how aggressive she had become with Billy stating that it was perhaps her destiny to lose her powers. Mary decided to hear none of this and instead claimed she would use Black Adam's powers to do good and left the Rock of Eternity. (Countdown v1 #44)

In the search for a mentor, Mary sought out Zatanna who was heading a show on a cruise ship when it seemingly came under attack from Slig of the Deep Six. In reality, Slig was attempting to escape pursuit from the New God Killer who had killed his comrades. This resulted in a battle with Mary Marvel and Zatanna with Slig mutating some of the human crew to serve as shields from his pursuer. Despite his efforts, he was killed by his attacker who disappeared with Mary using her powers to help turn the mutated passengers of the cruise ship back to normal. (Countdown v1 #38) She was taken to Zatanna's home at Shadowcrest where she showed an affinity for learning about magic. However, she quickly grew bored at the mundane learning and simply wanted to progress to using more advanced magical relics but Zatanna kept denying her. This led to Zatanna telling Mary that she was heaving like a child causing the young hero to snap and unleashing her magic. She then attempted to forcibly take a magical relic after being consumed with a lust for power with Zatanna attempting to stop her. Mary in her paranoia believed that Zatanna had betrayed her and was one of many people trying to take away her magic. (Countdown v1 #36) Zatanna was able to turn Mary back to her mortal form and then banished her from Shadowcrest with the young hero being mystically barred from ever finding it again. (Countdown v1 #35) Afterwards, she met with Klarion the Witchboy who said he would tutor her in magic though he attempted to drain her of her power. Mary then heard a call that took her to Turkey where she met Eclipso who had possessed the body of Jean Loring. (Countdown v1 #32) Under her tutelage, Mary came to learn more of her powers that she could achieve various effects as she unleashed them in an isolated region in Turkey. (Countdown v1 #29) Mary then began to recklessly use her magic to punish those she deemed as guilty where she turned poachers into animals or plants whilst using the magic to age murderers in prison to death. Her rampant use of magic was deemed a threat to a mystical balance and strayed from the path of justice with this being seen by Madame Xanadu. This led to her calling upon the Shadowpact where she tasked the superhero team with ending Mary Marvels rampage. (Countdown v1 #28) They confronted her at the Oblivion Bar but were seemingly unable to match her power until the heroes revealed their ambush. To prevent their capture, Eclipso transported both herself and Mary away thus denying the heroes their victory. (Countdown v1 #27) Eclipso then took Mary to Apokolips where she presented Mary to Darkseid as the newest supplicant of darkness with the New God welcoming her into the ranks of his warriors. (Countdown v1 #26)

However, Mary refused and she attacked Darkseid whereupon she fled Apokolips. (Countdown v1 #25) Eclipso followed her in order to convince her to return when they were attacked by a Dominion armada. (Countdown v1 #23) Mary came to find that she had been saved by Eclipso but despite that she was still angry with her for giving her away to Darkseid as a present. It was then that Eclipso urged Mary to vie for Darkseid's attention as a concubine and once she had attained his power then together they could kill him. This angered Mary Marvel who attacked Eclipso and took the diamond from her for herself. (Countdown v1 #22)

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Mary lived with her parents who were abusive to her and regularly beat her up. This was until one day she decided to run away from home and lived on the street where she was taken into custody. She was eventually adopted Vasquez family where she was introduced to her foster sibling Freddy Freeman. Initially, she did not speak to him but kept to the rules of the family routine. This was until one day she visited the pet store and heard of a rabbit that was going to be sold off for experiments. Upon seeing this, Freddy decided to help Mary by triggering the fire alarm so she could take the rabbit to safety where she named it Hoppy which became the family pet. (Shazam! v3 #1)

Overview

Personality and attributes

Powers and abilities

Fawcett: Even before getting powers, she was noted for her high intelligence. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #18)

Similarly, she was empowered by a number of deities that gave Mary her power. These included; Selena goddess of the moon who gave her grace, Hippolyta queen of the Amazons who gave her strength, Ariadne spirit of skill who gave her skill, Zephyrus spirit of the West Wind who gave her fleetness, Aurora goddess of the dawn who gave her beauty and Minerva goddess of wisdom who gave her wisdom. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #18)

DC:

After losing her powers, she came to be empowered by the energies of Black Adam after he relinquished them to her. This caused her to appear in a grown up form and wearing a dark uniform of the Black Adam Family. (Countdown v1 #47) Under Eclipso's tutelage, she learnt to command the lightning thus creating storms and other weather related phenomena. Through this means, she could cause intense storms and rains that flooded entire barren areas that were experiencing drought. Furthermore, she could use this power to transform living beings from one state to another such as when she turned cows to be turned into fish. (Countdown v1 #29)

Sufficiently powerful electrical attacks such as lightning could cause her to revert back to being a mortal. (The Power of Shazam! v1 #14)

The New 52:

Notes

• Mary Marvel was created by Otto Binder and Marc Swayze where she made her first appearance in Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #18 (December, 1942).

Alternate Versions

• In Kingdom Come v1 #2 (1996), an alternate version of Mary Marvel appeared in the world designated as Earth-22 in the Multiverse. She came to marry Freddy Freeman where she took the name of Queen Marvel as the pair had a son that became a masked magic empowered superhero called the Whiz.
• In DC Comics Bombshells v1 #17 (2016), an alternate version of Mary Marvel appeared in the DC Bombshells universe. Miriam Bätzel was born to a Jewish family that lived in a German ghetto during World War II where she came to learn that she was a descendant of the sorceress Shazam. She eventually came to become the era's new Shazam after reciting the names of past heroes in a story.

In other media

Television

• In The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam!, Mary Marvel appeared in the Shazam! segment of the 1980s animated television series where she was voiced by actor Dawn Jeffory.
• In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Mary Marvel appeared in the animated television series episode "The Power of Shazam!" where she was voiced by actor Tara Strong.

Films

• In Shazam!, Mary Bromfield appeared in the live-action film set in the DC Extended universe where she was portrayed by actor Grace Fulton whilst Michelle Borth portrayed her as Mary Marvel. She was shown as being the eldest of the foster children that were adopted by the Vasquez family at their home in Philadelphia. It was said that when she was younger that she on multiple occasions had left the home but later returned where she accepted the family completed. Mary was a noted diligent student who was at Fawcett High with her looking to get into Caltech in California. Though this was her dream, deep down she was upset about leaving her home along with her family.

Video games

Appearances

• Captain Marvel Adventures v1:
• Marvel Family v1:
• Wow Comics v1:
• The Power of Shazam! v1:
• Trials of Shazam! v1:
• Countdown v1:
• JSA v1:
• Justice League v2:
• Shazam! v3:

External Links

• Wikipedia Entry

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