IT'S OFFICIAL! ZACHARY LEVI AS THE HERO OF "SHAZAM!" (Captain Marvel?)!

Hi Friends. I am sitting on a Greyhound but to the Armored Combat League's New World Cup, where I am going to be doing the play-by-play of the live streamcast, and I forgot to bring my laptop charger, so I am going to have to make this brief.

The role of the hero of the "Shazam!" movie has been cast, and it is someone who shares my initials: Zachary Levy!

Zachary Levy starred as a reluctant secret agent in the successful TV series "Chuck" (of which I had a T-shirt that I got at San Diego Comic Con years ago. Wish I still had it. It has just gone up in value in my esteem) and played Fandral the Dashing in the "Thor" movies. He was also in such movies as TV shows at "Heroes Reborn," "Tangled," and "Alvin and the Chipmunks." He's got the eyebrows and the smile, but is going to have to go on a Christopher Reeve-style bodybuilding program to match the traditional build of the World's Mightiest Mortal.

You will notice I did not call the hero "Captain Marvel" right of the bat. There is still some confusion and ambiguity as to whether that will be the hero's name in the movie. Most of director David F. Sandberg's Instagram lg of his production process has shown the traditional Fawcett-DC version of Captain Marvel, but one New 52 "Shazam" action figure did show up. The clickbait press has been reporting that the "Seven Deadly Sins" may be a villain and that characters that may be the adoptive family of Billy Batson in the New 52 have been showing up in casting notices.

Since Marvel Comics/Disney owns the trademark "Captain Marvel," DC/Warners cannot use that name in the title or on the poster. They can, however, call the original Captain Marvel by his name in the scrip and on the comic book page. It is my contention that the New 52 character is a separate character from the original Captain Marvel or any other versions of him that DC has produced (see my video "Captain Marvel History" for an explanation). It has been established that there is a "multiverse" in DC, and that on Earth-5 exists the original.

I did talk with Dan Didio at NY Comic Con about this briefly, and I will be making a video with his answer to the question soon. It may shock some people!

Lots of websites seem to be using the New 52 version interchangeably with the classic version, and the description of the character in every one of these newsposts I have seen describe the character generically enough that it sounds like the original, but might not be incorrect if applied to the New 52 version.

But until I see a piece of footage or read a bit of script in which the hero is named, I will continue to be ambiguous and hold out for the classic version of the Big Red Cheese.

And now, the traditional "clickbait roundup" of the story:
It all started here:
Variety

And everyone else...
Comicbook
Deadline
Hollywood Reporter
Vulture
iO9.Gizmodo
Silver Screen Beat
EW
Heroic Hollywood
Movie Pilot
Ace Showbiz
Digital Spy
ecartelera
Omelete
L'Info Tout Court
Lo Spazio Bianco

That's all I have time for today. Keep an eye on this post, for I will update it with more clickbait links this weekend!

Is This Big News...or Not?

In their regular announcement of their releases for May 31, DC has announced a highly-detailed, premium action figure under the trademark "Shazam!" Here is a picture:

...here is the link:
/http://dccomicsnews.com/2017/05/26/dc-comics-pull-box-for-5-31-17-new-comics-and-merchandise/

...and here is the text
ONE-12 COLLECTIVE DC SHAZAM AF $99.99
When young Bill Batson speaks the word “Shazam!” a magical lightning bolt transforms him. Embodied with the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the invulnerability of Achilles and the speed of Mercury he is now Shazam, the world’s mightiest mortal. This One:12 Collective figure features over 32 points of articulation, and its 1:12 scaled, accurate real fabric uniform has some amazing details with sculpted accents and a poseable cape. The figure also includes: hyper-realistic regular head, alternate smiling head and yelling “Shazam!” head; interchangeable hands (pairs of fists, flying and grabbing hands); an attachable lightning bolt; and two of Shazam’s greatest foes – Mr. Mind and Mr. Atom. Packaged in a deluxe, fifth panel window box with a translucent acetate slipcover.

Did you notice something?

It is not so much that the name "Captain Marvel" is not used, but that the hero is named as "Shazam."

DC does not use the name of the hero in any way that could be construed as a violation of Marvel Comics' trademark of the name "Captain Marvel, and since issue #13 of their comic book "SHAZAM!" This has led to awkwardness of having to explain that the hero's name is Captain Marvel and not Shazam. In the last years before the establishment of DC's "New 52" reboot, DC basically gave up and gave the powers of the hero, which had belonged to Billy Batson, to Freddy Freeman, the former Captain Marvel, Jr," and gave him the name "Shazam."

Then the New 52 began and DC completely re-cfreated the origin and makeup of the hero marketed under the trademark "Shazam!" and called him Shazam. This character had significant changes to his costume, his origin, and his powers, although he was still Billy Batson and still said the magic word. But shortly thereafter, they also established that there were a total of 52 universes, and in one of them there was a hero much like the original Captain Marvel named...Captain Marvel.

This action figure is costumed much like the original Captain Marvel's very first costume, which had been repopularized by Jerry Ordway in his 1994 reboot of the character "The Power of Shazam." The Earth-5 version is costumed slightly differently in line with the outfit worn by the hero through most of his 1940-1953 run in Fawcett comics and every appearance from 1972 to 1992 in DC Comics.


So the question is: Is this a typo, a mis-proofed piece of copy, or has DC actually ret-conned the name of this iconic hero they own?

What do you think?

The Return of the Original!

Meanwhile, one day in 1972, Carmine Infantino, at the time publisher publisher of DC comics, decided that he was going to try to acquire the original Captain Marvel for his company. He called up Fawcett Publications and asked them what they wanted. They asked him to make an offer. He believes they were happy to get rid of him. This makes sense, considering they they could not make any money off of him any other way as a result of the lawsuit.

DC Comics leased the rights to the original Captain Marvel and his Marvel Family from Fawcett Publication, but they ran into a stumbling block about the comics they would appear in. Marvel Comics had the name of Captain Marvel trademarked. Therefore, DC could not produce a comic book with the title “Captain Marvel.” So the folks at DC put their heads together and came up with the idea of calling the book “Shazam!” This made sense. After all, the book would have all the members of the Marvel Family (now to be called the “Shazam Family”), so it would be a logical choice for a title. In fact the full title of the first issue was “With One Magic Word... SHAZAM! The Original Captain Marvel.” Marvel Comics threatened to sue over their use of the name of the hero anywhere on the cover, so after a few issues it was changed to “With One Magic Word... SHAZAM! The World's Mightiest Mortal.”

This legal trivia has led to a world of confusion. Since the only way anyone would ever see the name of Captain Marvel would be if they actually read the comic book, anyone who did not read the book would never know that his name was Captain Marvel. Although there were still plenty of people alive who certainly remembered the classic character, most of them were not reading comics any more. When a TV series was made in 1974, it used the title “Shazam!” although they did call the character Captain Marvel in dialog. Action figures could only use the word “Shazam!” on the box. So before long, in the eyes of the non-comic reading public, the red suit with the gold lighting bold was the costume of a hero named Shazam.

C.C. Beck was hired to draw the new comics, but the writers selected to write them, Denny O'Neil and Elliot S! Maggin, did not seem to catch the magic that made the originals so wonderful and popular. They started by explaining how virtually every character form the original Fawcett comics had wound up in suspended animation for 20 years, and played on the fish out of water, man out of time theme. But that was soon forgotten in favor of really silly stories involving everything from a growing gelatin desert to a talking frog to an invasion of “Salad-Men.” Beck was very unhappy. The years he had spent drawing Captain Marvel had given him a sense of propriety over the character, and he could not stand what these writers and the editor, Julius Schwartz were doing to him. They were taking all the fun out and replacing it with absurdity. He and Schwartz did not get along at all. Many years later Infantino said that he would have taken Schwartz off the book and let Beck write his own stories, but that did not happen. One day Beck finished his final story and quit.

The TV series turned out to be the most popular live-action Saturday morning TV show ever. Though remarkably tame and stiltifyingly boring by today's standards, the adventures of Billy Batson (portrayed by Michael Gray) and his Mentor (Les Tremane) touring the country through 28 episodes were repeated over 3 seasons. The role of Captain Marvel was played by Jackson Bostwick for the first 16 episodes and John Davey for the last 12.

Beck was replaced by Bob Oksner and later, Kurt Schaffenberger, who had been the most productive Marvel Family artist after Beck in the old Fawcett days. Reprints of old stories were printed regularly, sometimes filling 80 page issues. The new stories got a little better. With the coming of the Bicentennial, and the popularity of the TV show, they started a series of American history-themed stories while giving Uncle Dudley a mustache and making him Billy's mentor as the two of them toured the country in a Winnebago, just like Billy and Mentor on the TV series.

But the success of the TV series and the topicality of the Bicentennial stories was not enough to save this series. In a last-ditch effort, the old, Fawcett house style of Captain Marvel art was ditched in exchange for a “dynamic new look,” a more modern, detailed, realistic drawing style. After two issues of that, the book was canceled, and the stories of the Shazam Family were moved to the closing feature of World's Finest Comics. The art of Don Newton during this period was very well done, and although realistically detailed, was characterized by whimsical, cartoonish exaggeration. This matched the stories being written, which alternated between comedic romps and serious drama developing the Shazam mythos, which have since been all but forgotten.

Next: Death and other changes