DC's 'Shazam!' April 5, 2019

[lhb412]

This is a load of bull

[The Shadow]

The tragic backstory was added to Black Adam sometime during the JSA comic pre-New 52. It was a pretty good story, Black Adam has always been the Wizard Shazam's original choice for a successor but turned to the dark side (decades before Anakin turned to the Dark side) and the team behind the JSA comic took the opportunity to tell that story. Black Adam had become an anti-hero for a time until later becoming a full blown villain again.

The success of the Suicide Squad movie has probably figured into the decision to go with a stand alone Black Adam movie, and with Dwayne Johnson presumably still playing Black Adam this could work well to bolster audience anticipation for the Captain Marvel (Shazam) movie as the return of Teth/Black Adam would be a big selling point.

[sentaison]

The Black Adam storyline during Geoff Johns run as writer on the JSA title was probably the best out of a very good run of stories. And it set up a another really good storyline over several different events where Black Adam became the ruler of his traditional homeland, found a new family, and then loses it all. It took Black Adam from being just the "Anti Captain Marvel", and turned him into a character with depth and pathos. He was still a villain, in the end, but he was a fallen hero, not just an evil person who gained great power. A movie that set that up as a prequel for a Captain Marvel film is not a bad idea, as long as DC/Warner Bros. don't screw it up. That's going to be the problem.

[mr.negativity]

[mr.negativity]

[mbozzo]

Shazam could be the story of a kid who could become the hero that he wanted to be, while the Black Adam movie is a story in which the villain of the Shazam movie try to return to be the hero that he used to be before he let the darkness inside him take control. Billy could use a new codename, because it doesn't make sense for him to have the same codename as the word that can change him into a adult hero and back.

[mr.negativity]

[Specium Ray]

[mr.negativity]

[mr.negativity]

[mr.negativity]

[The Shadow]

WB should have had a Captain Marvel movie rolled out years ago; the Marvel Family would have been perfect to lock up the Harry Potter audience in a broader DC movie-verse. Unfortunately until the folks that developed the Marvel Cinematic Universe came along to prove what a shared superhero movie-verse was capable of, the execs at WB kept insisting making superhero movies that were independent of each other (EG Batman was the only superhero in his movies, Superman in his, etc.)

[mr.negativity]

[mr.negativity]

[mr.negativity]

DC's 'Shazam!' to Star Zachary Levi (Exclusive)


“UNDATEABLE” CREATOR ADAM SZTYKIEL TO WRITE DWAYNE JOHNSON’S “BLACK ADAM” MOVIE FOR DC, NEW LINE (EXCLUSIVE)



DC's 'Shazam!' Sets 2019 Release Date

[mr.negativity]

Shazam! Movie Costume Will Be Similar to the One From Justice League: War

[mr.negativity]

[The Shadow]

For a teaser poster that's actually pretty good. Although with just the magic word on the poster, the poster may not generate much attention from the average movie goer who is not necessarily familiar with the character. To add some more visual interest to the poster (and to help clue in people that it's a superhero movie) I would have added lightningbolt striking down from the thunderbolt symbol onto a silhouette of Captain Marvel below the title. If I was going to change anything else, I might have made the bottom of the poster the throne room on the Rock of Eternity (with Captain Marvel in silhouette in the middle).

I wonder if we'll see a poster depicting the statue prisons of Seven Deadly Enemies of Man (Pride, Envy, Greed, Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony, and Lust; or whichever version WB decides on) as we get closer to the movies release. I always found it interesting that Billy Batson was chosen to be Captain Marvel first as a champion against these "forces" (for want of a better term) rather than just "tada, you're a superhero Billy! Now go smash some badguys". Of course Captain Marvel usually fought the more typical bad guys like super villains, monsters, and demons; but being first a champion for the world against the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man always set Captain Marvel a little apart to me over the more typical superhero origin.

[jellydonut25]

His name is Shazam, now.

[O.Supreme]

I know the name change had something to do with DC not renewing it in time, or perhaps I am mistaken, since Fawcett/Whizz Comics (eventually purchased by DC), had the name in use long before Marvel Comics. Marvel had smarter business sense however, and was able to keep the Captain Marvel name. Besides, this is easier, because the average moviegoer seems to be confused as it is, I don't think they could handle two films (one Marvel and one DC both named *Captain Marvel*)...it's sad how dumb the public is.... (just read the comments on social media now...its a cesspool of stupidity)

But now in DC, how do they differentiate Billy Batsons alter-ego Shazam, from the wizard, also named Shazam? ---Oh and btw....He'll ALWAYS be Captain Marvel to ME

[The Shadow]

Captain Marvel was the best selling superhero throughout the Golden Age; Fawcett's comic Captain Marvel Adventures alone sold over a million issues a month (in contrast a top selling comic from Marvel & DC today only sells around 50,000 issues a month). But by the early 50s superhero characters were far less popular, so Fawcett who had successfully fended off a decade of lawsuits from DC Comics decided to stop publishing superhero comics and settled with DC Comics to no longer publish any Captain Marvel stories. The executives at DC Comics may have thought they won, but it was a decision that would come back to bite them soon enough.

Late 50s to early 60s the folks running DC Comics are a major part of reviving the superhero comic (Barry Allen/Flash first appears in 1956, Hal Jordan/Green Lantern soon follows in 1959). By the mid-60s Marvel Comics is revived & re-branded as a company and the guy running Marvel (I can't recall his name) decided that his company should have all the heroes that had "marvel" in their name. So either the guy running Marvel or someone else in the company remembers Captain Marvel and approaches Fawcett about buying the Captain Marvel trademark. Fawcett did ask Marvel if they wanted to buy the copyrights to the character (IE the character himself) but Marvel was only interested in the trademark (IE title of the comic, what the character is called for figures & other goods, etc.) because they wanted to develop their own character, the Kree Captain Mar-Vell.

By this time DC Comics was doing really well and they had begun buying the superhero characters from former competitors, many of these were introduced to readers via the annual JLA & JSA team-ups. Eventually someone at DC remembers the Fawcett heroes (Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Spy Smasher, Golden Arrow, Bulletman, Ibis the Invincible, etc.) and DC licenses these characters first and eventually buys them (but apparently not until the 90s according to Wikipedia). In the late 70s DC gets in trouble with Marvel for using "Captain Marvel" as part of the title for their new comic and rightly so as Marvel honestly & fairly bought that trademark, all DC has is the copyrights to the original of Captain Marvel. DC shifted their branding focus to the magic word SHAZAM which has been the status quo since then.

Many people (myself included) think that DC and Marvel should come to some agreement so that both companies can readily use the Captain Marvel name without trouble; just like DC and Marvel co-own the trademark on the term "superhero". I had to dig to find it, here's the great Neal Adams offering his opinion on the topic (fair warning, there is a minor cuss word regarding about people being a certain sort of hole)

[mr.negativity]

[Dai]

This looks Jingle All The Way levels of awful.

[Gentleman]

Wait... a colorful, fun-looking superhero movie from DC? What kind of world have I woken up to?

[Dr Kain]

Aside from the angsty Billy scenes at the beginning, that doesn't look too bad. I might just go see this in theaters.

Is that Mark Strong? If so, he is totally going to be Black Adam!!!

Though, what is up with the music during the scene with old man Shazam? That sounds like the same music they used in the BvsS and JL trailers.