Captain Marvel Presents the Terrible Five

    (M.F., 1966)
™ and ©1966 M.F. Enterprises, Inc.

Brought out to capitalize on the increasing popularity of super-hero comics in the mid-1960s Silver Age, Captain Marvel Presents the Terrible Five was a copyright violation waiting to happen. The titular Captain Marvel was an original character, a “robot from another planet endowed with superior knowledge,” with little in common with the Golden Age Fawcett Captain Marvel (legally enjoined from publication at that time) or Marvel’s Captain Marvel, who would make his appearance the following year.

Other characters in the book, including Dr. Doom, Dr. Fate, Tiny Man, and a stretchable sleuth named Elastic Man, strayed very close to existing properties as well, and legal action eventually suspended the MF Enterprises’ comic business in 1967. The void was quickly filled by dozens of other similar, workmanlike efforts from other second-string companies.
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