Superman With A Gun

Chip Kidd's SHAZAM states that unlike Captain Marvel, "Superman never used a gun". I already did a blog on that, but the other day I happened to think of that again and did another search, which turned up some more pictures.


Superman used a gun in SUPERMAN #8.

 

 

 

 

 

Superman didn't actually shoot the guy, but he still used a gun, and in the period when Captain Marvel comics were originally being published. The picture I had before was from something more recent.

And here's Superboy with a gun. I haven't read the story, but I understand that everybody survived.

The animated Lois Lane fought off the bad guys with a tommy gun in 1941's BILLION DOLLAR LIMITED.

 

Lois Lane would also shoot off a tommy gun on the 1950's tv show, although in that case it was merely to get rid of the bullets.

 

 

 

 

And here's Lois Lane with a gun again.

 

 

This was in a story in SUPERMAN'S GIRLFRIEND LOIS LANE #28,

 

and like all such stories, it had a reasonable explanation, where they get out of saying that Lois Lane had really been Luthor's gun moll.

 

 

 

Of course, that's a 1960's comic book.

Getting back to the "Golden Age", we find that Batman not only used a gun, but sometimes used it to kill his foes.

                                                         DETECTIVE COMICS #32

 

 

Something that Captain Marvel never did, unless you count the serial version.

 

SHAZAM! by Chip Kidd:
http://bennypdrinnon.blogspot.com/2013/03/shazam-by-chip-kidd.html

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Captain Marvel And The World Of Too Many Sivanas

Captain Marvel's archenemy Dr. Sivana wins this time. For a little while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Captain Marvel was similar to Superman in many ways, but his stories seemed to be more of a little kid - type fantasy than those of the Man of Steel.  And rather than simply being a secret identity, Billy Batson appears to be a completely different individual who switches place with Captain Marvel, who shares the powers of various characters from ancient history and mythology, and can be seen as a sort of a guardian angel.

 

The "Hall of Shazam" was where Billy Batson had originally found the old wizard Shazam, who gave him the combined powers of the six ancients. Billy would go there every now and then to contact the old wizard. The implication was that the tunnel had been built by the ancients, although it appeared to be located somewhere in New York city and was ordinarily taken to be a subway tunnel. I don't know how often they had the sign that said "The Hall Of Shazam", but the sign with the first letter of the six names spelling out "Shazam" was a recurring thing in these stories.

 

In this story, we get to see not only the ancient wizard Shazam, but Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury as well. Ordinarily they merely lent Captain Marvel their powers from offstage, rather than participating in the action themselves.

 

 

 

Captain Marvel:

http://www.marvelfamily.com/

 

Captain Marvel Shazam Page:

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~scunge/shazam/