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Hoppy turning the broom on a recurring foe, a CatwitchĬaptain Marvel Bunny and his funny animal world were kept separate from the rest of the Marvel Family, except for group appearances in occasional advertisements. He was, most commonly, reduced to simply reading it out of a nearby, discarded comic book. On separate occasions, everything from the mystical emanations of a crystal ball to Millie’s snoring has reminded Hoppy of his key phrase. What must have been frustrating for the Wizard was Hoppy’s tendency to forget his magic word with alarming frequency. Thirty issues in, it’s established that an aged Wizard Bunny has been invisibly responsible for Hoppy’s transformations all along. The only time he's invited to family events.ĭecked out in a duplicate of the original Captain Marvel’s big red union suit, Hoppy also possesses his own animal-centric version of Cap’s powers: Hoppy throws those nasty Nazis into a sausage grinder, in case you were wondering if Hoppy goes hard. Recalling, with surprising difficulty, Cap’s magic word – SHAZAM! – Hoppy is transformed into the dynamic and heroic Captain Marvel Bunny! In short order, he reclaims his dignity by knocking Snip on his ass, and frees Funny Animal Land from a trio of fascist funny animals who’d enslaved the populace to work in their canned food factory.
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Hoppy, at this moment, chooses to roll the dice on magic being real. “Wish I was strong like Captain Marvel,” he muses, indicating that Cap’s adventures are top sellers even in a world of cartoon beasties. After losing his girlfriend Millie – the prettiest pink bunny in the land – to mocking Snip the Rang-A-Tang, Hoppy fumes about his helplessness. The hero of Funny Animal Land, “Captain Marvel Bunny” is secretly Hoppy, a timid pink weakling who is often a target of ridicule and derision. As funny animal characters go, in comics, this is evidence of some bonafide celebrity. He’d later headline his own title for an additional fifteen issues. Hoppy was Funny Animal’s sole superhero, as well as the recurring cover feature on more than sixty issues. Given tremendous editorial freedom with the kid-oriented title, Grothkopf not only whipped up the entire cast and wrote their adventures – from cowboy Billy the Kid to detective Sherlock the Monk to Benny the Beaver and Willie the Worm and so on – but also fully illustrated, colored and lettered almost all of the individual strips! Sometimes they appeared on the covers of other Fawcett heroes’ books just to be a team player!Īnd helming two more titles, including an eponymous anthology book was – Hoppy, the Captain Marvel Bunny!Ĭontained in his own separate universe and debuting in Fawcett’s Funny Animals #1 (December 1942), Hoppy was a creation of veteran animator Chad Grothkopf. Cap, his pal Captain Marvel Junior and his sister Mary Marvel could be found in the pages of Wow, Whiz, Master, Xmas, America’s Greatest, Captain Marvel Adventures, Captain Marvel Jr, Mary Marvel, and Marvel Family comics.
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That meant that the Marvel Family helmed practically an entire line of books. Speak the right word and practically anyone in Cap’s universe could sport the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, and the rest of abilities from Shazam’s acronymic catalog of superpowered sponsors. Conversely, for The Marvel Family, expanding the roster was as easy as sharing a Netflix password. It would later take a decent amount of contrivance and explanation to justify adding his cousin or pet dog into the picture. The Golden Age’s other big player, Superman, was the product of a long-demolished alien world. In no small way, the secret to his success wasn’t just the breeziness of his adventures or the charm of the characters, but how easily Cap could expand his franchise. In the 1940s, Captain Marvel – now usually referred to as Shazam – was one of the best-selling superheroes on the market. Appears in Fawcett’s Funny Animals #1-68 (except 49, 54), Hoppy the Marvel Bunny #1-15