CHARACTER PROFILE #1: Captain Marvel

Real Name: Billy Batson
First Appearance: Whiz Comics #2 (Fawcett Comics)
Notable Quote: "SHAZAM"

(This is the first in a series of profiles of characters that I like or am intrigued by. Discuss)

Captain Marvel is one of the most elegantly simple characters in comic history, but that simplicity belies a depth that few creators successfully plumb. Billy Batson was an orphan boy that was given a magic word that when said would give him awesome powers. SHAZAM is not only the magic word, it's the name of the Wizard and an acronym of the gods that power Captain Marvel.
S - The Wisdom of Solomon
H - The Strength of Hercules
A - The Stamina of Atlas
Z - The Power of Zeus
A - The Courage of Achilles (although to be technical Achilles wasn't a god)
M - The Speed of Mercury
Captain Marvel was at one point in the early 1940's the highest selling comic book in America selling a mind boggling 4,000,000 copies a month of Captain Marvel Adventures. For a little perspective the best selling comics today are lucky to sell 150,000 copies. But, like almost all superhero comics, interest in Cap fell dramatically after WWII ended. The Fawcett characters ended up being bought by DC comics and were placed on Earth-S in the multiverse. Ironically since the trademark on the Captain Marvel name had lapsed and been snatched up by Marvel comics, Cap could not be refered to as Captain Marvel in the title of any comic or in most propotional material. To be honest I haven't read much of Cap's older stuff. Most of my experience with the character comes from his DC comics days, specifically from Crisis on Infinite Earths forward so that is what I'm going to focus on. After Crisis I and the subsequent Legends crossover Cap was made a part of the new Justice League. Although his tenure with the team lasted barely a year, it was here that his character would be set on a course that it rides to this day. For the first time Captain Marvel was portrayed as having the mind of Billy Batson. Billy and Marvel didn't simply swap places, instead Billy was transformed into his mental image of what an adult is, or should, be. This is my favorite part of the character. The concept of a boy, not a teen, not a young adult, but a boy having these unbeleiveable powers, in the body of a man is a fabulous concept. The struggle Billy goes through to live up to what he, as a child, thinks an adult should be is one of the more emotionally powerful concepts in comics. He has a very strong and unflinching moral code, his world is black and white, good and evil, right and wrong. This throwback to the sensibilities and morays of the Golden Age is a refreshing contrast to the post-modern world of anti-heroes that populate our comics today. He is (too) often thought of as simple or hokey by many of the other characters, but they also consider him to be one of the big guns of the DCU, even if much of the comic buying public disagrees. Marvel's most popular modern rendition came in the magnum opus that was Mark Waid & Alex Ross' Kingdom Come. In the book Cap served as an analogy for the Silver Age of comics, ironically pioneered by Marvel Comics' dynamic duo of Stan & Jack. Captain Marvel was both god and man, powerful and powerfully flawed. Alas none of the attempts to turn Cap into a star held. His book was cancelled and Cap himself faded into the background until Geoff Johns added him to the roster of the JSA for a few years. In the wake of DC's mega event Infinite Crisis Captain Marvel willingly trapped himself in the Rock of Eternity after his mentor, the wizard Shazam, was killed by the Spectre.

What does the future hold?
A new Captain Marvel 12 issue maxi series, entitled The Trials of Shazam will be spinning out of DC's Brave New World one shot later this summer. The new series, written by Judd Winick and pencilled by Howard Porter will debut later this summer. Speculation is that the book will focus on Billy assuming the mantle of Shazam with Captain Marvel, Jr (Freddy Freeman). moving up a rank. I really liked Winick's Superman/Shazam - First Thunder, so I have fairly high hopes for the series. I doubt Captain Marvel will ever take his place atop the Mount Rushmore of the DCU, but I feel he can be a very high B level character for a long time to come.
Thanks to both Erik Larsen & Scott Tipton for the great background.

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