Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Golden Age Captain Marvel

I first encountered the GA Captain Marvel (as in the original stories, not a revival) in the Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Comics, and loved it. It was the highlight of the book for young me. But it's a hard thing to get into. I know there were some Archives that I bought back in the day, and I bought and enjoyed them, but the series was not yet what it would become.

I know there have been a few reprints here and there, but have there been any collections of the "golden age" of the Golden Age Marvel Family? Stuff from their heyday?

DC did a reprint of the original Monster Society story a while back.

EDIT: Actually it looks like they never did print it after all. Speculation seems to be they weren't comfortable with some of the racist content.

There is still the extremely rare '89 reprint. http://comicvine.gamespot.com/the-monster-society-of-evil-deluxe-limited-collect/4000-333148/

For those interested in reading online or downloading, many are available at the Digital Comic Museum

Yes, many of the earlier issues are around due to DC letting copyrights expire. That is ultimately why the Kree Marvel at the other big company has the name on his/her comics, while DC has surrendered and officially calls him "Shazam" now. You might want to start with the Justice League Post-Crisis reboot and maybe some mini-series (Jeff Smith of Bone fame wrote one) that deal with the concept in the Modern Era. "Batman Brave and the Bold" also had some good Shazam episodes.

I found two different editions of monster society of evil on Amazon currently in print blatantly admitted they were scans of the comics. I wondered how they could get away with that, and now I know!

I have read and enjoyed a number of modern interpretations, including Justice League, the Ordway series, and the Jeff Smith mini. I particularly loved the first couple of years on Power of Shazam!