science

Lieutenant Marvels

Lieutenant Marvels is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lieutenant Marvels rather than just read about it. In short: The Lieutenant Marvels are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books originally published Fawcett Comics, and now DC Comics. They first appeared in Whiz Comics #21 in 1941.

Key takeaways

Lieutenant Marvels belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lieutenant Marvels to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lieutenant Marvels from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Lieutenant Marvels are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books originally published Fawcett Comics, and now DC Comics. They first appeared in Whiz Comics #21 in 1941. The physical appearance of the three characters was based on three real-life members of the Fawcett Comics staff: Paul Peck (Tall Billy), Ed Hamilton (Hill Billy), and Frank Taggart (Fat Billy).

Publication history The Lieutenants appeared periodically in the adventures of Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family through the early 1950s, and also when the characters were revived by DC Comics in the 1970s under the title Shazam!, although rarely. They were retconned out of existence during the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. Some people, such as Jonathan Woodward in his Annotated Crisis on Infinite Earths website, suggest that the Lieutenant Marvels died in the last battle of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, although Who's Who in the DC Universe claims they survived but lost their powers. The characters were reintroduced in Trials of Shazam! #2 (2006), only to lose their powers in the same issue. They also appeared as inhabitants of Earth-5 in Grant Morrison's The Multiversity miniseries in 2015.

Fictional team history Brooklyn, New York City, has its own Billy Batson, and he travels to the W.H.I.Z. radio station with two other Billy Batsons, one from the Western United States and one from the Southern United States, to visit the "real" Billy. To prevent confusion, the western Billy suggests he be called "Tall" Billy, the southern Billy is renamed "Hill" Billy and Brooklyn's Billy is given the title "Fat" Billy. At the "real" Billy's suggestion, all four Billys form the Billy Batson Club. Billy reveals he is Captain Marvel to them, and says they should only say "Shazam!" when he gives them a wink. The nefarious Dr. Sivana hatches a plan to kill the "real" Billy Batson and sends his three henchmen to find out where Billy lives. Sivana's goons mistakenly find the other Billy Batsons instead and capture them. The mysterious Captain Death captures Tall Billy, Nazi Agent Herr Geyer captures Fat Billy, and bandit "Biggy" Brix captures Hill Billy. Sivana uses them as bait to trap the real Billy after hearing he is their friend, having Brix deliver a note, and demanding he comes to the Mill as Billy. When this happens he is knocked out and captured. Sivana and his henchmen gag Billy and tie him and the other Billys to a log heading towards a buzzsaw, then leave. Billy is able to remove his gag on the buzzsaw, but his shout of "Shazam" can not be heard over the roar of the buzzsaw. With seconds to spare, Billy enlists the aid of his club members and they all shout "Shazam!" together. When the smoke clears, Captain Marvel sees that the other Billys have transformed as well, into Tall Marvel, Hill Marvel, and Fat Marvel. Hill Marvel remarks that they have each changed into Captain Marvel but Fat Marvel counters that by saying that there is only one Captain Marvel. Tall Marvel suggests that they are really Lieutenant Marvels, hence the trio's name. The Captain and his three Lieutenants easily defeat Sivana and his henchmen, knocking their plane down and apparently killing all the villains except Sivana. After shouting "Shazam!" and transforming back into their civilian identities, the three Billys head back home. The Lieutenants returned from time to time during the Fawcett Comics era to aid their hero. In Captain Marvel Adventures #4 they are again kidnapped by Sivana's henchmen. Captain Marvel follows the kidnappers to Sivana's base. The three Billys are tied up under three sharp pendulums. However Billy transforms with them and they defeat the henchmen. They hear a noise in a shed, and find Sivana's daughter Beautia bound and gagged inside. They release her and she reveals Sivana did this. They fly away before Sivana detonates tons of dynamite under the house, then defeat him. They were probably put in suspended animation until 1973, along with many Marvel characters, by the Sivanas. They make their first DC appearance in Shazam! #30, when the whole Marvel Family is called upon to destroy Sivana's steel menagerie, which is threatening to wreck Pittsburgh. Incongruously, the three are able to transform on their own, while in a later story, "Assault on the Rock of Eternity" in World's Finest Comics #267, Captain Marvel has to gather the three Billies together so they could simultaneously say the magic word in order to transform. The Lieutenant Marvels exist, without powers though still helping the Marvel Family to fight crime, on Earth-5, as seen in The Multiversity miniseries by writer Grant Morrison.

Powers and abilities By shouting "Shazam!", the Four Billy Batsons are transformed into the Lieutenant Marvels. In this form, they each have the powers of Captain Marvel: the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury. Since they have to share the power, they are each only one-third as powerful as Captain Marvel.

In other media

Film In the direct-to-video animated film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, three superpowered henchmen with powers similar to the Marvels are employed by Superwoman, a criminal, parallel universe incarnation of Wonder Woman, and referred to as her Lieutenants. However, instead of the "classic" Lieutenant Marvels, the trio appear as criminal counterparts of Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and Uncle Marvel (listed in the film's credits as, respectively, "Captain Super", "Captain Super Jr.", and "Uncle Super").

Television In the TV series Young Justice, Freddy Freeman and Mary Bromfield, under the names Lieutenant Marvel and Sergeant Marvel, joined the Team AND left the Team in between Seasons One and Two. Mary appears in the fourth season, having given up the Sgt. Marvel moniker.

References

External links The Lieutenant Marvels at Marvel Family website Earth-S Marvel Family Index The Lieutenant Marvels at Captain Marvel Culture website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lieutenant Marvels

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lieutenant Marvels claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lieutenant Marvels before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lieutenant Marvels ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lieutenant Marvels

In research: Lieutenant Marvels appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lieutenant Marvels in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lieutenant Marvels is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Characters created by C. C. Beck, Comics characters introduced in 1941, Comics spinoffs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lieutenant Marvels outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lieutenant Marvels in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lieutenant Marvels means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lieutenant Marvels out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lieutenant Marvels in simple terms?

The Lieutenant Marvels are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books originally published Fawcett Comics, and now DC Comics. They first appeared in Whiz Comics #21 in 1941.

Why does Lieutenant Marvels matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lieutenant Marvels?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lieutenant Marvels.