Brie Larson is bringing Captain Marvel to the big screen in the latest film from Marvel Studios. Her adventure is set in the 1990s, but the exploits of Captain Marvel date to 1939, when Billy Batson followed a stranger into a subway and was granted powers by a wizard to transform himself into the mighty hero. Since then, many men and women have borne the name Captain Marvel, as well as a sexually fluid alien. Here is a colorful selection.

— Billy Batson

In 1939, Billy Batson, an orphaned newspaper boy, turned into the Fawcett Comics hero Captain Marvel with one magic word — Shazam! No villains could stop him, but a later lawsuit nearly did. National Comics (the forerunner of DC Comics) thought Captain Marvel, who was strong and could fly and sometimes outsold “Superman,” was too close to the Man of Steel and cried copyright infringement. Fawcett retired the character in 1953, but nearly 20 years later, DC licensed him for new comics. Still, the series could not be called Captain Marvel, because Marvel had grabbed the trademark for its own hero in 1966. These days, Batson goes by Shazam (he cannot say his own name lest he transform) and will get his own film, starring Zachary Levi, in April.

— Mar-Vell

Bursting on to the scene in 1966, Mar-Vell started out as a spy for the alien Kree race before siding with Earth. This version of the hero was originally a silver-haired hunk, but editors feared his hair color made him look old. He was given a spiffy new costume and later a dye job, leaving him with his better-known golden tresses. Sadly, he lost his battle with cancer in 1982. More shockingly, Mar-Vell has remained dead, despite comics’ love of resurrections. His genetically engineered son, Genis-Vell, burst onto the scene as Legacy but later took the name Captain Marvel, bearing it until he was killed in 2006. Spoiler: Mar-Vell has an unexpected role in the new film.

— Carol Danvers

In 1967, Carol Danvers was introduced as an Air Force officer who encountered the alien Captain Marvel. In 1976, Danvers became Ms. Marvel, whose costume was a variation of Mar-Vell’s, albeit more revealing. She later lost her memories and powers, and alien experiments transformed her to Binary, who gets in a spectacular revenge punch against the woman behind her earlier woes. Danvers then became Warbird, joined the Avengers and struggled with alcoholism, before finally taking on the mantle of Captain Marvel (with an appropriate military-inspired uniform).

— Monica Rambeau

Introduced in 1982, Monica Rambeau worked for the New Orleans harbor patrol. An encounter with cosmic energy infused her with the ability to convert her body into any form of energy. She joined the Avengers to better understand her abilities and excelled, eventually mastering her powers and becoming chairwoman of the team for a time. Rambeau was Captain Marvel for 14 years. She ceded the name to Mar-Vell’s son and became Photon (and, later, Pulsar and Spectrum). The “Captain Marvel” film includes a character named Maria Rambeau (played by Lashana Lynch), an Air Force pilot whose call sign is Photon and who has a young daughter named Monica.

— Noh-Varr

This alien hero crash-landed on Earth in 2000 and quickly found himself at odds with Doctor Midas, who was obsessed with the energy that gave the Fantastic Four their powers, and Hexus, a corporation that became sentient (and evil). Noh-Varr joined the Avengers as Captain Marvel and later became known as the Protector. As a space-faring Kree, the triple-jointed Nor-Varr has a fluid view of sexuality. “We consider these things carefully,” he once told his Young Avengers teammates. “I was aboard an exploratory vessel, after all. Exploratory does have multiple meanings. The Kree are efficient like that.”

— Kamala Khan

When her series began in 2014, Kamala Khan was a Muslim teenager living in Jersey City and a big fan of the Carol Danvers version of Captain Marvel. When Khan’s powers activated, she became the local hero Ms. Marvel, telling her idol in a feverish dream: “I want to be you. Except I would wear the classic, politically incorrect costume and kick butt in giant wedge heels.” Since then, Khan has expanded her reach globally with the Champions, a squad of teenage superheroes, and seems likely to be promoted to Captain one day. In the meantime, maybe fans will get a big-screen cameo? At a news conference in January, Larson was asked which hero she would like to meet in a sequel. “My dream would be that Ms. Marvel gets to come into play,” she said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.