Captain Marvel to appear on "Young Justice"

As reported in TV Guide and Spinoff Online, The Shazam/Billy Batson Captain Marvel will have a recurring role in the new animated series "Young Justice" on Cartoon Network.

Rob Lowe will be doing the voice of the Big Red Cheese. He should do well. He is a skilled actor, and his voice still has the qualities of a man half his age.

|Though the TV Guide article says that his role will be "important" and "recurring," it is unclear if this character will be an official part of the team of young superheroes, or have some other relationship with them. TV Guide says "Because he's really a kid, Captain Marvel will bond more easily with the younger heroes." Does that mean that his secret identity won't be so much of a secret?

Interestingly, TV Guide refers to the World's Mightiest Mortal twice as "aka Shazam" once and once simply as "Shazam." This is probably due to the trademark violation-avoidance technique by DC Comics of using the magic word/name of the old wizard as a replacement for the name of the character, which we all know has been trademarked by Marvel Comics.

They do explain the acronym in the article, but not that it is the magic word by which Billy Batson transforms.

In any event, it is good to see the original Captain Marvel get some face time, especially since he doesn't exist in the main DC universe, and rumors are spreading of the cancellation of the "Billy Batson" comic.