The Comic That Never Was - Captain Marvel Battles Evil Incarnate!

When DC Comics brought Captain Marvel back in the 1970s, they did well to have one of his creators handle the artwork.  C. C. Beck, who drew Captain Marvel for Fawcett in the 1940s and 1950s was once again doing Cap's artwork in the '70s.  However, Beck would soon leave the Shazam! series after a small handful of issues.  He did not like the direction DC was taking the character he created and so Beck and DC parted ways.

As I was doing some research for my blog I ran across an interesting article that tells how DC reached back out to Beck in 1974.  E. Nelson Bridwell invited Beck to submit a script for a new Captain Marvel story.  If the editorial board at DC approved the script, they would let Beck draw and create the comic story.

Beck went to work and created the story, "Captain Marvel Battles Evil Incarnate!"  The story was in the vein of Cap's golden age adventures and included Billy Batson, Captain Marvel, the 7 deadly enemies of man, a witch, and magic spells.  It also included the Marvel Family - Mary, Captain Marvel, Jr and Uncle Marvel. 

Finally, after six months, DC's editorial board sent Beck back his script.  Unfortunately, there were major re-writes and changes.  According to the article, "Beck returned the rewritten script to DC and told them that he wanted nothing to do with it. DC's invitations to Beck stopped and they never contacted him again."

What a sad story!  I would have loved to read that comic as created by Beck.  It would have recaptured Captain Marvel and the Marvel family in all their golden-age glory once again.  If you would like to read the entire article, you can read it here:  The Marvel Family Battles Evil Incarnate