Mary Marvel

Pre-Crisis Origin

Mary’s story really begins with a young man named Captain Marvel. Billy was an orphan boy living on the streets, eking out a living by selling newspapers. The little boy’s life changes entirely when he is called upon by the great wizard Shazam, and embued with the power of six great gods of magic. Only the wizard knew why he had chosen the boy, but the change was profound. Overnight, Billy became the protector of the city (if not the world) against all kinds of evil. His life changed for the better too.

No longer living on the streets, Billy was working a good job as an announcer at WHIZ, the local radio station. Billy hosted a show of his own, often speaking with the young people of Fawcett City. One particular occasion, Billy was hosting a quiz show, the Mental Marvel Quiz, and he meets Mary for the first time. Mary is one of three show contestants, each of which represented a particular group in the state. Mary represented the girls, while a friend of Billy’s, Freddy Freeman, represented the underprivileged. Another boy, named Percy Pill, was touted as the kid with the highest intelligence in the state.

Billy is Captain Marvel

Mary Marvel!

Billy and his twin sister had been under Sarah’s care when they were little. When Merrill and Jocelyn Batson are killed in a car accident, Sarah Primm substitutes Mary for another baby girl who was also in her care who had died suddenly. With no such option for Billy, she is forced to send him to an orphanage. Just before dying, Primm hands Billy him half a locket that had belonged to his mother, informing him his sister has the other half.

• Selena, who gives her Grace
  
• Hippolyta, for great Strength
  
• Ariadne, who imparts Skill
• Aurora, who grants Beauty
  
• Minerva, for bestowing Wisdom
  

Mary, in her super-powered form, comes to be known as “Mary Marvel,” and she gets a red and gold uniform complete with lightning bolt and cape very similar to her brothers. Freddy’s costume is primarily blue, and his powers differ quite a bit from Mary’s. Freddy earns his powers by calling on the name of Captain Marvel, borrowing his power from Billy. Mary is like Billy in that she gets her powers directly from Shazam.

Power Incongruities

The deities for Mary’s powers are always referred to as women, but Zephyrus is actually a male god. Also, though Mary shares the exact same powers as Billy, her list does not account for all the powers she possess (courage, stamina, invulnerability). Additionally, while Billy is changed from a baby-faced young teen to a chiseled adult, Mary stays at her current age and general appearance.

First Adventures

Eventually, Dr. Sivana hatches his most diabolical plan yet, creating a new element called Suspendium, which could place anyone he trapped with it into suspended animation. Sivana tricks the Marvels into space, where he springs a globe of the Suspendium upon them. Inadvertently, he is also trapped when his son, Sivana Jr. accidentally makes their spaceship crash into the globe. The Marvels and Sivanas are trapped together in orbit around the sun.

Twenty years later, the globe finally moves close enough to the sun it begins to melt. Captain Marvel is the first to awaken, using his extraordinary powers to free himself, and then his sister and Freddy. They, in turn, free the Sivana spaceship and carry them back to Earth and to jail. By the power of the wizard Shazam's magic, the Marvels are able to return to their former lives (magical time travel) as if they had never left, never been missing.

Earth-S

During these ensuing years, inhabitants of cosmos learn that they are actually a part of a much bigger creation than they had previously known. There is a multiverse, and their Earth and its universe was just one among an innumerable number. Many of these Earths share a common history, diverging in very small ways, others in very large fractures. Some Earths possessed analog copies of certain individuals, while others possessed unique or rare versions of some of its inhabitants.

Billy and Superman

Another of these original interactions involved one of Mary's first meetings with the Justice Society and Justice League. The wizard Shazam calls upon Mary, Billy, and Freddy to join with Bulletgirl, Spy Smasher, Ibis, Mr. Scarlet and Pinky to first find, and then aid the super teams. A sub group called the Crime Crusader's Club was also formed by Bulletgirl, Bulletman, Minute Man and Captain Marvel Jr. Many quaint friends and family members from the past come and go during this time, including a young country girl nicknamed Freckles. This girl so admired Mary, that she would often dress up in a Marvel costume and call herself "Freckles Marvel."

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Mary joins the heroes gathered from many different Earths by the Monitor and Harbinger for their struggle against the Anti-Monitor. They ultimately defeat the Anti-Monitor, but not before their and all other surviving earths are collapsed down and merged together. The Marvels now find themselves living on the same Earth as the Justice Society, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

Because of the post-crisis merging, the history of the Marvels was altered somewhat by the new scheme of a singular universe fighting to straighten itself out.

Post-Crisis Origin

The Marvel family underwent a similar rewriting of their history and background, placing them firmly in the newly compressed universe. Some of their family members, acquaintances and enemies faded away just as if they never existed at all. In this new universe, Mary and Billy's first meeting is quite similar, but has some very important differences.

Mary and Billy Batson's parents are now archaeologists and Egyptologists in this new universe. At the age of nine, Mary goes with her parents on a Sivana-sponsored expedition to Egypt and Billy stays at home. An associate of the Batsons is a man named Theo Adam, who happens to be the half-brother of Sarah Primm. Adam kills the Batson parents when the unearth a priceless jeweled scarab, and steals Mary back to America. Mary looses her memory, both of her life as a Batson, and of the murder of her parents. Adam places Mary into the care of Primm, who at the time is working as a maid for the rich Nick and Nora Bromfield. Primm helps the childless Bromfields adopt Mary (illegally), and the girl moves into a near perfect life among the higher classes. Mary was sheltered from the outside world by the Bromfields, and so she had little or no exposure to the kind of life her twin brother would now be forced to live. Mary begins having dreams of another family with a brother she does not know.

Billy is placed in the care of his uncle Ebenezer, and eventually finds himself on the streets after his uncle takes all the money left to Billy and turns the boy out. As with his previous history, he is chosen by the wizard Shazam (who is actually the spirit of his dead father) to be his champion, and is given the power of Captain Marvel. One of the first tasks the old wizard gives to Billy, is to find his lost sister, but first, he just defeat Theo Adam, who is actually Black Adam (the scarab gave him back his ancient memories, and gave him back his powers). Shazam knows that she will be instrumental in events of the future, sharing in the power Billy now possesses. After four years of searching, neither Shazam nor Billy have found any traces of the girl. Billy, who did not experience the trama of his parent's death first hand, did not lose his memory and so has a vague recollection of his sister. One piece of his sister's past he had managed to keep a hold on was her favorite stuffed animal, returned from Egypt with his parents effects, a Tawky Tawky Tiger.

Mary, now a teenager, qualifies for a spelling bee competition and makes a trip to Fawcett City to participate. The bee is being held at, and broadcast from WHIZ radio, and is being emceed by local teenage host Billy Batson. Also entered in the bee is a young boy named Freddy Freeman. Mary wins the spelling bee, and is whisked away only to be kidnapped. Billy rescues the girl, but she is soon kidnapped again, proving there is a conspiracy to collect a ransom from the Bromfields being perpetrated. Billy rescues her a second time, and then reveals to her that Captain Marvel and Billy Batson are one in the same (not really using the wisdom of Solomon by telling everyone his secret, which Billy seems to do with amazing regularity.)

Billy begins to think about how familiar Mary seems. She reminds him so much of his lost sister, and begins to wonder. He knows that Mary had been adopted years before by the Bromfield family, so he convinces undercover policeman "Muscles" McGinnis to pull her adoption records. They discover the documents are forged, and that Mary is, in fact, his lost sister. This leaves Billy searching for a way to tell Mary he is her brother.

Mary, not knowing that it was Billy who had delivered it, takes the package inside. She opens the parcel, discovering the adoption papers and her old Tawky Tawky inside. The haunted doll comes to life again, and tells her all about her parent's murder, her illegal adoption, and that she is in fact Billy's twin sister. Tawky Tawky tells Mary to say the magic word "Shazam," and Mary is immediately turned into the World's Mightiest Mortal Woman. (It is interesting to note here that Mary essentially changes into a near perfect physical copy of her beautiful, deceased mother. Confused at first, Tawky helps her assert herself, and instructs her to go rescue Billy.

Mary flies away, after Billy and the kidnappers. When she arrives, she finds Billy and frees him. As he is transforming into Captain Marvel, the kidnappers burst into the room and open fire, but are surprised to find an adult Mary clothed in the red and gold of the Marvel family. Their bullets cannot penetrate her skin, and she and Billy easily overpower them and save the day.

Sarah Primm, however, is not so fortunate. Caught in the crossfire, Sarah lay dying from a heart attack she suffered during the harrowing rescue. As she lay dying, she confessed to Mary of her relationship to Adam and how she had tried to hide her with the Bromfields to give her a chance at a decent life.

Billy moved in with the Bromfelds soon after and the Marvels became the champions of Fawcett City. They defend the city from master criminals like Dr. Sivana, Captain Nazi and Mr. Mind. Mary began calling herself Captain Marvel, a move which confused the residents of Fawcett City. The citizens began to comment on how strange it is to sometimes see Captain Marvel in a wig and mini-skirt, but otherwise think nothing of it.

Post-crisis Differences

In this new conglomerate universe, Mary's powers no longer stem from a different set of gods than Billy's, and now in fact share from a finite store of the magic which the wizard Shazam serves as a conduit. When only one of the Marvels are transformed, they possess the entirety of the magic, but when both Billy and Mary transform at they same time, they are each using a half share of the power, and are thus diminished. Despite this, the Marvel's power source is so vast and untapped in its potential that they rank among the most powerful beings on the planet (if not the universe) when transformed concurrently.

Mary's powers, just like Billy's, now stem from the same set of gods:

• Solomon, who gives her Wisdom
  
• Hercules, for great Strength
  
• Atlas, who imparts Stamina
  
• Zeus, for Power
  
• Achilles, who grants Courage
  
• Mercury, for bestowing Speed and Agility
  

Dr. Thaddeus Sivana

Sivana Strikes Again

In an effort to erase his mistakes during previous confrontations with the Marvels, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana creates a time machine and goes back to alter the Marvel timeline. Sivana somehow takes control of the rock of eternity, and this causes a chain reaction of events that causes the Batsons not to be killed by Theo Adam. Because of this, the Batsons become the inheritor of the powers of Shazam.

Back home in Fawcett City, Billy and Mary enjoy their lives growing up with their parents. Their family is given celebrity status, a situation which brings many benefits, but also dangers. One day, the evil Ibac arrives and tries to kill the Batson children. Mary and Billy, dressed in Captain Marvel costumes, convince Ibac that they share in the Marvel powers, and cause him to pause long enough for their mother, Lady Marvel, to arrive and defeat Ibac and save her children.

Shazam, sensing something was wrong with the time line, and determining it centers on Sivana, questions the mad scientist and learns the truth. It is within the wizard's power to rectify the time line, something which the Linear Men demand, but he realizes doing so will mean the death of the Batson parents. Shazam informs the father (aren't they supposed to be the same person), the current Captain Marvel, of the problem, and gives him the power to make the final decision. In the end, the Batson father uses the Wisdom of Solomon to make his decision, choosing to restore the time line to its correct flow.

Lady Marvel's costume was a variant on the classic Marvel uniform. Her primary color was white with gold trim rather than the usual red and gold. After the adventure, the timeline is reset as if the affair had never happened. Mary, in a subconscious decision, later changes her colors from red and gold to white and gold so that she would be definitively distinguished from her brother.

Family Life

Freddy Freeman

Mary seems to be falling in love with Freddy, a situation which causes problems between the three friends. After hearing of Mary's wise response to Freddy's problem, the old wizard Shazam believes that Mary is more prepared than Billy to use the powers of the gods. Billy, being the big protective brother, does not agree. Freddy becomes quite the lady's man after his transformation, and Billy believes that Freddy is just toying with Mary's emotion. Mary asserts herself and puts both her brother, and her feeling for Freddy in their places.

The Godwave

The Godwave was a natural phenomenon that had originally created and imbued the various pantheons around the universe (Norse, Olympian, Egyptian, New Gods). The wave made two sweeps through the cosmos, erasing and changing powers on its first pass, and creating newly powered individuals on its second.

Eventually, it is learned that Darkseid is attempting to gain the powers of the Godwave for himself, and that is the true cause of everyone's powers being messed up. Heroes from all over the universe gather together with the New Gods to battle Darkseid and stop his evil plan.

Mary and Billy are chosen to be a part of a group that first travels to New Genesis, and then Mary goes with a smaller group as they make an attempt to penetrate the