Shazam! It's Fred MacMurray!

Alex Ross frequently uses MacMurray as the model for the classic Captain Marvel

Best not to piss Fred off.

Fred MacMurray could fly, even without the hot rod he super-souped up in Disney’s “The Absent-Minded Professor.”

The Hollywood leading man had an odd and hidden history with the beginnings of the superhero genre. He was used the model for Fawcett’s Captain Marvel on the cover of his initial appearance in the first published issue of Whiz Comics in 1940, when the whole superhero genre spawned by Superman was only a couple of years old.

By 1943, with Captain Marvel and the other superheroes now enormously popular with both kids and U.S. troops overseas, MacMurray effectively appeared AS Captain Marvel in a dream sequence during the romantic comedy film “No Time For Love,” co-starring Claudette Colbert. In 1940, Captain Marvel wanted to be Fred MacMurray. Three years later, Fred MacMurray wanted to be Captain Marvel. You chart the instant, explosive popularity of the superhero genre right there. You can see the film clip right here.

He-man Fred became a superman in this 1943 romantic comedy