Revival of a Forgotten Comics Marvel

     The Golden Age of comics in the 1940s brought us Fawcett’s Captain Marvel, more widely known today as Shazam. His popularity brought a lawsuit from National Comics (Now, DC) because of accused similarities to a certain Man of Steel. Although Fawcett ultimately won the lengthy lawsuit, DC effectively bankrupted the smaller publisher, and Captain Marvel was shelved. What followed years later was a strange mish-mash of character swapping and name claiming by DC and Marvel, but before that was to happen, a tiny publisher named MF Enterprises noticed an opening in the Captain Marvel market.
     In 1966, Carl Burgos created an android alien super hero with a string of strange abilities. When this new Captain Marvel shouted, “Split!” his body parts would detach themselves and fly around doing his bidding (usually hitting the bad guy). He only had to shout, “Xam!” and he would snap back together. After only a handful of issues, and the tendency of Burgos to use other characters too similar to owned properties (Like Plasic Man and Batman), and after threatened lawsuits from DC, MF Enterprises ceased publication of the book.
     In 2023, InDELLIble Comics is now working on a brand new Captain Marvel story for All-New Popular Comics #7. Written by David Noe, drawn by Brian Wingrove and colored/lettered by Truman Vasko, this full-color story sees the Captain going by the different name (to avoid obvious legal pitfalls) of Split! as he is seemingly at the mercy of Doctor Force.
​     All-New Popular Comics #7 is due out later in 2023 and will be available on amazon.com. All of InDELLIble Comics’ back catalogue is also available online, including Crackajack Comics, Tales From the Tomb, House of Spades and others.

Picture is early sketch of Split! by Brian Wingrove