The only direct influence, I believe, Captain Marvel played on Superman is when Otto Binder began writing Superman stories after the Big Red Cheese ceased publishing. Before that I'm sure the folks at DC held CM in disdain and wanted nothing similar

Ashcan editions of titles like Superboy,Supergirl and Superwoman were registered way before Captain Marvel's family. However Jerry Siegel was adamantly opposed  against the idea of spinoffs of Superman. It wasn't until Siegel was in the army that Superboy got the go ahead for publication which helped to lead Siegel to leave DC

Didn't most of Superman's powers get lifted from Captain Marvel? Batson was the one who could fly, was totally impervious to harm, and had super smarts and speed to boot. Superman just leaped higher than skyscrapers and was impossibly strong.

</div>I don't see Superboy on that cover...

You make some very interesting observations.  Yes indeed, who lifted from whom ?

Confessor read the Wikipedia Article, to me it's the publisher to establish copyright on a particular character and therefore make that character there very own without having a competitor to go in and steal the moniker, the costume design, and other things that make the character unique in existence. This is the best answer that I can come up with based on what I read in Wikipedia.


From Wikipedia ... Below


An ashcan copy is a term that originated in the Golden Age of Comic Books, meant to describe a publication produced solely for legal purposes (such as trademark), and not normally intended for distribution. "Publishers had to produce only two copies of each copyrighted "ashcan" production - 1) for the Library of Congress and 2) for their records -fewer than fives copies exist for most of these productions."

During the golden age of comics, ashcan editions of comics where printed to establish copyright. They often went straight from the printer to the "ashcan". Today, "ashcans" could more accurately be described as mini or digest comics.

The word ashcan is a synonym for any type of waste receptacle whose contents are to be incinerated. The implication in comic publishing is that the printed material will go straight from the printer to the trash, which was often the case. Ashcan editions frequently contained unlettered stories and unfinished art. Their purpose was simply to justify the publisher's claim to a title, thereby preventing a competitor from publishing a the same or similar title. Ashcans were also produced to demonstrate the publications to potential advertisers.

One example, called the "best known ashcan race", is Flash Comics #1 by Fawcett Comics, which introduced Captain Thunder (later Captain Marvel). Competitor All-American Comics had already published a Flash Comics title, and created a character named "Captain Thunder", so the Flash Comics ashcan failed to claim those trademarks for the company, but it did establish a publication date for copyright purposes.

Ashcan- A publisher's in-house facsimile of a proposed new title. Most ashcans have black and white covers stapled to an existing coverless comic on the inside; other ashcans are totally black and white. In modern parlance, it can also refer to promotional or sold comics, often smaller than standard comic size and usually in black and white, released by publishers to advertise the forthcoming arrival of a new title or story.

In modern comics, ashcan editions may refer to promotional comics in the independent/self-publishing market. The term is sometimes synonymous with mini-comics.

I'd noticed the lack of freewheeling fantasy in early Siegel SUPERMAN stories a long time ago, but I'd tended to put it down to my opinion that Siegel, even though he probably read just as much pulp-fantasy as Binder or the other Captain Marvel raconteurs, just wasn't as inventive as the better comics-writers of the period.


And while I still tend to think that as a fantasist Siegel was only so-so in his early work-- as opposed to his inspired Superman work of the 1950s and 1960s--  another factor suddenly occurs to me.

Remember what the original idea for SUPERMAN was? It wasn't originally designed for comic books, even though it proved to be a perfect match-- but for comic strips.  So maybe when Siegel was putting together the idea with Shuster, the idea was to emphasize the stark contrast between Superman and the real world of swindlers, dirty politics, et al. Those were the sort of ideas that kept strips DICK TRACY and CAPTAIN EASY percolating, and it may be that Siegel was thinking in those terms.  

By contrast, the only account I've seen of Captain Marvel's creation by Fawcett editor Bill Parker is that he originally meant to star a team of characters with mythological powers. Following the success of Superman, Parker merged his team into one character with many powers. So from the first Captain Marvel was oriented on conjuring a world of gods and monsters, so to speak.

Parenthetically I'll note that though Siegel wasn't known for creating a lot of memorable villains in the Superman series-- or in the Spectre, for that matter-- I've read a handful of his Star-Spangled Kid tales, where he evolved a nice set of returning foes for the Kid and Stripesy.