My Favorite DC Comics character is Captain Marvel/Shazam. The Last 5 years have been crazy for the
Character and his supporting Character the Marvel Family. During the Infinite Crisis, in 2006 they
killed off the Wizard Shazam. During
the Trials of Shazam in 2006, they turn Billy Batson/ Captain Marvel into a
version of the Wizard Shazam called Marvel.
Marvel sent Freddy Freeman/ Captain Marvel Jr. on the Trial of Shazam to
reclaim the powers from the various Mythic Gods and heroes that patronized the
Marvels. After all is said and done
Freddy is now called Shazam. During all
this in 52, Countdown to Final Crisis, and Final Crisis, Mary Marvel went from
depowered to evil to good then neutral then bad the depowered then bad
again. In 2009 they resurrected the
Wizard Shazam who they depowered both Billy and Mary after they fell in with
Black Adam, Afterwards he said he would
deal with Freddy soon enough. Ok, DC I
know The Marvel/Shazam Family is one of you second or third tier Characters,
but lately too many changes one after the other confuse folks. This is reminiscent of what happed to Hawkman
in the 90’s. Enough already, these
character are mythic and if done right great.
I enjoyed the Trials of Shazam, they were great but DC needs to police
the use of their characters better sometimes.
I always liked Captain Marvel/
Billy Batson; he was the perfect childhood fantasy. You can say a magic word and poof you become
an adult superhero. He was the first
superhero who could hold his own against Superman. Because of the similarities DC sued Fawcett
and basically destroyed the publisher. In the 80’s DC purchased Fawcett’s
Superhero properties. DC has always tried
to de-emphasize Captain Marvel especially after the name was trademarked by
Marvel in the 60’s. Jerry Ordway’s Power
of Shazam was great; it updated the character in a fun and faithful way. After Infinite Crisis and the Trials of
Shazam, I thought the changes were cool.
What they put Mary Marvel through irritated me. DC did not let the changes settle a while
before letting Jerry Ordway resurrect the Wizard Shazam and make his death seem
pointless.
Captain Marvel was a unique
character in that he was a composite Avatar.
He was an Avatar of Multiple Mythic Gods and heroes; this made him
complex and interesting. Comics Books
have very few good mythic Superheroes.
Wonder Woman, Thor, Hercules and sometimes Isis seem to be the most
popular. Captain Marvel like Wonder
Woman has the advantage of being not public domain like the other three. Captain Marvel is an Avatar of Mythic beings
from multiple cultures. When Judd Winnick
wrote Trials of Shazam, Freddy underwent a quest to request renewed patronage
of his Patron mythic beings. I feel this muddling of the Character is similar
to what has occurred with Hawkman and Aquaman.
DC these are your second tier first stringers characters, it is
frustrating when your D-List heroes get treated better than major characters. That is the problem with corporate properties
too many cooks in the broth.
