I wasn't sure about the casting of Zachary Levy as Captain Marvel for the upcoming Shazam! film, but I am really on board now. He definitely has the looks facially, and recent pictures that I have seen have shown that he is indeed bulking up for the role. Christopher Reeve went through a similar transformation in preparing for the first Superman movie, and that turned out OK. Acting-wise, I think Levy has the chops to portray a kid in an adult's body with the wisdom of Solomon. I have seen Asher Angel act before, and he will make a fine Billy Batson (although maybe a year or two too old if they want to do a bunch of sequels - but first things first).
If it were the Hulk and Capt. Shazam one-on-one, I might expect a dead heat. Like his prior bouts with Superman and Thor! But, the whole Shazam family? Nope! The Hulk doesn't stand a chance.
ReplyDeleteAll three of them running around him with the speed of Mercury (or, in Mary's case Zephyr, goddess of the West Wind) would either dizzy him into a near-hypnotic state. Or, cyclonically create a vacuum in his immediate vicinity, making him pass out from lack of air!
Seem to remember the Hulk fighting both the Avengers & Fantastic Four at the same time a couple of times. The Marvels won't give him any more grief. "HULK SMASH PUNY LIGHTNING PEOPLE!"
DeleteIn one REAL story decades ago, Hulk was briefly on an airless extra-dimensional planet and almost suffocated.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I think all these characters have been drawn by Gil Kane. To combine them in an all-Gil-Kane-collage...?
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to a Captain Marvel movie (I refuse to refer to the character as "Shazam") my biggest concern is the movie-makers striking the right balance. In my opinion, the story of a young teenagers acquiring god-like powers should be FUN--even whimsical--without being downright silly.... I think that the best Marvel Family stories published by DC were the old Fawcett reprints, and those stories should be used as the blueprint.
ReplyDeleteI'm probably in the minority.
Too bad we couldn't utilize a time machine and get a young Fred MacMurray to play Captain Marvel (I refuse to call him Shazam as well), seeing as how MacMurray was a major inspiration as far as how Cap looked in his early days.
ReplyDeleteAre they really going to call the Big Red Cheese "Capt Shazam" in the movie? Just cuz Marvel's going to ram Carl Danvers down our throats?
DeleteIt's not so much that his fans _refuse_ to call him "Shazam" (as that is, undeniably, the name of the wizard who endows young Batson with his Supermanly powers). It's that DC is obligated to _refrain_ from calling him "Capt. Marvel" (lest they suffer the Dreaded Litigation Doom)!
ReplyDeleteOh well. And understandable. For years I corrected guys calling him "Shazam". Good thing I like eggs. All over my face soon. What did Shakespeare say about lawyers...?
DeleteRight, I remember when Marvel Comics introduced (and trademarked) their first incarnation of Captain Marvel in 1968. No one suspected that DC, of all companies, would revive the Fawcett character only four years later!
ReplyDeleteYeah. The whole " Marvel was too much like Supes" litigation. Then Marvel Comics took advantage of the lapse and blew out Mar-Vell. Who I was a big fan. Some of the best stories in space-based comics.
DeleteIs anyone here old enough (like myself) to remember the absolutely terrible (and short-lived) Captain Marvel published by M. F. Enterprises in the mid-1960s?!?
ReplyDeleteA two-parter which began in Fantastic Four #25 featured the Hulk, and in #26 the Avengers showed up to help.
ReplyDeleteJust wikid the CM from MF. HILARIOUS!!! He could detach sections of his body! Lol! He looked pretty cheesy too.
DeleteYeah that's the one Stan called Bruce "Bob Banner". There was a story where they virtually had to call out every Marvel hero, when they were separated. In the 80s.
DeleteDo I remember the Captain Marvel published by M. F. Enterprises? To answer that I'll just say one word: "Split!"
ReplyDeleteI think id like to read an issue, just to say I did.
Delete@Killdumpster: If you want to see another Marvel comic featuring every superhero in NYC, at the time, try the final issue of GODZILLA, KING OF MONSTERS (from back in the Eighties)!
ReplyDeleteP.S.---and the aforementioned nomenclatural error actually occurred in Apr. 1964!
ReplyDeleteKilldumpster, here's an article that will give you a pretty good taste of the ridiculous Captain Marvel character... and you're right, he was extremely cheesy!
ReplyDeleteUhhh... The link would help, wouldn't it?!? https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-legends-revealed-286/
ReplyDeleteAnonymous #2: It's not that DC can't use the name "Captain Marvel," but trademark law forbids them from using it on covers, in ads, or in product packaging (like toys). After thirty years of that, most everyone who never actually read the inside of a comic book or watched either of the Saturday morning TV shows thought that "Shazam" was the hero's name.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, DC caved (under no pressure at all, as far as I could tell) and renamed him "Shazam," to the displeasure of most of us longtime fans.
BTW, I used to own the first two issues of the android Captain Marvel from MF Enterprises. I actually liked him -- when I was 7. Did you know that he was created by Carl Burgos, who was better known for creating another android superhero -- the original Human Torch?
Burgos evidently had an affinity for robots and androids. He also created a cyborg character called the Iron Skull right before he did Human Torch.
ReplyDelete@BB: if they were unable to use the proper name "on covers, in ads, or in product packaging," I would say that most _definitely_ counts as a major league "can't!"
ReplyDeleteBob Buethe, thanks for the information regarding trademark law. I knew it was something like that and that trademark was different from copyright. That's why they were able to call him "Captain Marvel" inside the comic but not on the cover. There was a similar situation a few years back when some company was publishing Tarzan stories under the title "Lord of the Jungle". Even though inside the book the character was referred to as Tarzan they used the "LotJ" title.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, I've read more than once that DC caved because "everyone called the character Shazam anyway." And yet, in all my years of hanging out in comic stores, I never heard ONE PERSON refer to the character by that "S name".
So... does the character still shout "Shazam" to access his powers? If so,that means he can't speak his own name without changing. That used to apply only to Captain Marvel, Jr. That makes me wonder... does the equivalent of CM,Jr exist any more? Is he now called "Shazam, Jr"? What about Mary? Is she now called "Mary Shazam"? Ugh!
@Anon: Not quite. They can't use the name anywhere that a person can see unless they actually open the product. They can (and did, for almost 40 years) call him Captain Marvel in stories, just not anyplace a consumer can see it and think, "Oh, I'll buy that because that's Captain Marvel, and I've heard that Marvel Comics are best."
ReplyDelete@SonofJack: I haven't read many new comics since before the New 52. I think that he still says "Shazam" to change, but he has to be concentrating or something. It doesn't happen automatically whenever he says it.
I don't know about Mary, but I thought it was funny a few years ago when I saw a set of action figures for sale, with boxes that said Shazam, the World's Mightiest Mortal, Mary, the World's Mightiest Girl, and Junior, the World's Mightiest Boy. Apparently they were afraid to use the word "Marvel" at all.
BTW, Captain Shazam was a completely different character -- one who never actually appeared, because the company that was going to publish him folded after the ads were printed, but before the first issue was produced.
ReplyDeleteThe earliest issues of DC's very first Shazam series in 1973 also said "The Original Captain Marvel" right on the cover, and IIRC, DC actually paid Marvel Comics for the right to do that. They finally said "Why bother?" and stopped.
ReplyDeleteI never heard anyone in a comic shop call the original C.M. "Shazam," either. I think the confusion began in the minds of the non-comic-reading public because of that damned TV show!
Captain Shazam, the hero that never was published, was going to be put out by the same people who did "Fatman, the Human Flying Saucer," right? Fatman was drawn by C.C. Beck, and his outfit was a copy of Cap's, only green in the place of red, with a flying saucer on the chest. At least, that's how I remember it.
I vaguely recall action figures of Mary Marvel in both red and white uniforms and called "Mary Batson." Those came out fairly recently, like well after 2000.
@Silver Fox: The story I heard is that DC put "The Original Captain Marvel" as a subtitle on the Shazam! covers until Marvel's lawyers called DC's lawyers and told them to stop it.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, I never heard anyone in a comic shop call him "Shazam," with the possible exception of a few Marvel zombies who never read a DC comic. Among non-readers, it's different. I have a T-shirt with a Flash emblem, and up until a few years ago (before the CW series began), every time I wore it in public somebody would say, "Hey! It's Shazam!"
Oh, and you're right about Fatman, C.C. Beck, and Captain Shazam. Supposedly, Captain Shazam was going to be about six secret agents with different skills (and whose last names formed the acronym SHAZAM) who somehow merged into one person. The ad they published referred to him as a "turned-on super-swinger." I do not think those words meant what the middle-aged editors of Lightning Comics thought they meant.
ReplyDeleteCaptain Marvel's split is my earliest comic book memory as a wee lad of 6.
ReplyDelete@Bob Buethe: You may very well be right about "The Original Captain Marvel" on the early Shazam covers. I can't recall where I heard or read my version.
ReplyDeleteI know just what you mean about the Flash/Shazam t-shirt confusion. I used to wear a t-shirt featuring Jeff Smith's Bone characters, and several non-comic people pointed at it and said "Casper!"
Funny observation about the "turned-on super-swinger" line. I never thought of that, but you're absolutely right about what the 1960s middle-aged editors thought the world was like. Remember DC trying to be "cool" with their "go-go checks?"
Yeah, I'm afraid you guys are right. You can always tell the pros from the nons. My dad, for instance, still refers to the late, great Leonard Nimoy as DOCTOR Spock!
ReplyDeleteDoctor Spock? Oh, yeah, he was that guy on "Star TRACK," right?
ReplyDeleteI thought it was "Star Truck"? ;)
ReplyDeleteBTW *Levi