Is Captain Marvel and Shazam the Same Person?
Catric Hedalgo
MemberNoobJan-02-2019 11:50 PMBefore scrutinizing about the two superheroes cited above are same entities or not, what really makes me curious about the Captain Marvel title, which seems like a headlock between Marvel and DC. For the moment of truth, Shazam’s getup is utterly cartoonish as compared to the female dominant Captain Marvel Costume. Shockingly, there’s a long battle between the two Comicbook labels having the same meta-human emblems at the same time. But for now, we are talking about the 14-year-old Bill Batson (Asher Angel) who gets his mind, body, and overall physique transfigured into an extraordinary full grown-up superhero by voicing up the non-wizardry word (SHAZAM!!)
The fingertip lightning bolt character has been played by actor Zachary Levi, performing a tongue-twisted role with his comical acting renditions alongside those “Shazam bizarre” reflexes. Coming to the characters real identity moniker, whether it’s Captain Marvel or Shazam, we all know pretty well that DC made its New 52 revival that altered the character’s name from Captain Marvel to Shazam.
Somehow, DC Comics has made a twofold superhero dictating his prowess in both dimensions and its denizens. Thus, in this sense, they are actually both in the same body. Nonetheless, we all know for certain that the when it comes to Comicbook publications, the year 1986 has been referred to be the turning point of Captain Marvel aka Shazam! DC creators Marv Wolfman (writer) and George Perez (penciler) created “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, elaborating an intense skirmish amongst major DC Superheroes. Undoubtedly, it was a true turning point of how DC superheroes went through the retro-futuristic transitions, both with their true intuitive identities and supernatural capacities.
For our Superhero Shazam, after the Crisis on Infinite Earths issue, writers Roy and Dan Thomas recreated Shazam to appear in his new 1980s miniseries. Keeping up 14-year-old dispositions into a 30-year-old Shazam was something that really fascinated DC to do experiments with. Similarly, the Fawcett Comics (1939-1953) witnessed how Billy Batson and Captain Marvel were two separate personalities at that time.
Right now, the latest Captain Marvel (Shazam) adaption is what 2019 is a big scenario where DCEU could create its best future moviedom scenario to compete with the likes of Marvel Avengers: Infinity War and its sequel finale Endgame. All we can say from the trailer that this time they’re the same person’s in a single body, but who knows they could card up to the “story plot” aces with making them two differs in two separate dimensions. Sounds like the Marvel’s Captain Marvel is comic-cooking here. So weird yet fascinating!
Captain Marvel, sigh, here we go...
First. Captain Marvel needlessly rode the faux feminism train into town. Wonder woman, almost universally accepted as a better movie was able to portray a powerful female character without ever having to reduce itself to any misandry. Captain Marvel on the other hand, like Ghostbusters 2016, and the latest series of Doctor Who, relished in empowering its female lead(s) by vilifying most other male characters. This together with Brie Larson's flat portrayal of the character is why the movie is so scorned by general audiences and Marvel fans. Captain Marvel was a marketing misstep from Feige, so expect her involvement to be downplayed as the MCU moves forward.
Second. Captain Marvel is not the most powerful comic book character, superhero or even Avenger. Yes, she can fly through space and blow up spaceships, but (SPOILERS) in Endgame she lasted mere seconds against Thanos. That said if you wanted to give her a fair chance against the guy she probably would have won. However, I can think of at least two down-to-Earth (as in not Darkseid or Galactus level) comic book characters that, and I am not condoning violence against women here, would beat Captain Marvel to a pulp - Superman or the Hulk. If Kryptonite was not used Superman would floor Captain Marvel. The only issue with Superman would be how much power reserves (from the sun) his body holds. However, the Hulk, theoretically, could fight Captain Marvel forever while gradually getting stronger and stronger as the fight progressed.
Third. The DCEU is dead. While I enjoyed moments of Man of Steel, the only truly good DCEU movies are Wonder Woman and Shazam. In a movie called Batman vs Superman, where the best fight scene is Batman vs Lex's thugs, you've failed. Justice League had one good scene - where Superman "looks" at the Flash. Suicide Squad was a worse concept than The Predator. While Aquaman, though watchable was a less inspiring version of Black Panther with water. Now we are getting a "different" Joker movie and a new Twilight, sorry Batman movie with Robert Pattinson, while the Flash movie is now on its sixth director and has had its release date (originally set in 2013 to be coming out 2018) moved back to 2021. Shazam was a good movie, and Aquaman was watchable, as was Man of Steel but with so many missteps and with headline characters such as Batman being recast a mere six years into the endeavor, maybe it would be best to either admit defeat and either give up or try again. Despite DC having two of the most recognizable superheroes, the truth is that the DCEU is embarrassing compared to the MCU.
Finally. The character of Shazam is for British fans a little hard to swallow or be accepted with any real credence, especially for British audiences of a certain age. The reason being is that the concept of Shazam is similar to another "superhero", and I use the term loosely, that older British fans may remember. Stripped down to basics Shazam is a kid that through some gimmick (shouting SHAZAM) ages into an adult superhero. Created in 1980 and first aired on TV in 1983 British audiences were introduced to Bananaman, in which whenever schoolboy Eric would eat a Banana he would become, yep you guessed it, Bananaman.
