10 Shocking Cover Ups DC Comics Wants You To Forget

10. Suing & Buying Fawcett Comics

DC has been a major player in the comic book industry for so long, it's easy to forget that in the early days, there was more than simply Marvel and DC Comics printing successful books. One such company was Fawcett Comics, and it enjoyed success for decades before trouble hit.

In the 1940s, DC sued Fawcett over its character Captain Marvel. The complaint alleged that Captain Marvel was little more than a ripoff of Superman, but the case was dismissed on a technicality dealing with missing copyright information in the company's newspaper publishing of Superman comic strips.

The case went to appeal, and National Comics (DC at the time) won the lawsuit, as several stories were shown to have been lifted from Superman books. This caused significant financial problems for Fawcett, and by 1953, it ceased publishing all superhero comics while simultaneously settling the lawsuit out of court.

DC then went for Fawcett's throat and purchased the company's line of superhero characters, which included Captain Marvel. Ironically, DC was later sued in 1967 over the trademark name Captain Marvel, which resulted in the rebranding of the character as Shazam!

DC bought up several of its rivals in its growth to become a power-player in the comic book publishing world, but its fight with Fawcett was a nasty one the company would prefer wasn't brought up in otherwise polite conversation.