Shazzam >>> Superman

[Toonlover]

I love Captain Marvel. In fact, I think he's better than Superman. Cooler. More original. Funner (grammar be damned). Better design. Better colors. Better origin.True, Superman came first. He had the cape and the jet black hair before Captain Marvel. But he was just so damn boring. Captain Marvel had a look. Square jawed, squinty eyed, wavy haired, and a butt chin to boot. A good hero needs to have an iconic look. Popeye is the best example of this. Superman looked like any other guy in a blue suit.Even when they tried to give him a spit curl by the 1940s, it still wasn't enough to compete with Captain Marvel's iconography.What I love best about Captain Marvel is his origin. Sufficiently fun and magical, and very original. He's a kid trapped in an adult superhero body. What kid wouldn't love to be in his cape? I personally think Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel would make a great couple. She's kind of uptight, and needs someone to loosen her up and allow her to have fun. And Captain Marvel's got his head in the clouds, and needs someone to focus him sometimes. A lot of people have argued that Wonder Woman and Superman should have been a couple, and it's been an idea that's been toyed with in the comics for years. But it's obvious that Superman's way too dedicated to boring-as-hell Lois Lane. So WW should drop the zero and get with the hero. Captain Marvel is perfect for her.
What do you think guys?

[BCVM22]

The merits of the good Captain compared to Superman aside, Captain Marvel (Billy Batson) is now in his adult form on a permanant basis, residing in the rebuilt Rock of Eternity and putting the powerless Freddy Freeman through the trials of Shazam. Not much room for a relationship there, and even so, Captain Marvel, classic, current or otherwise is still a young boy in the body of an adult. You wouldn't find Wonder Woman dating, essentially, a teenager the slightest bit... odd?

It's great that you're a Captain Marvel fan, but isn't this kind of a one-note thread?

[Shawn Hopkins]

Captain Marvel is just a kid. Even if he can become physically mature, he's not emotionally mature enough for a relationship with an adult woman.

I agree that Captain Marvel is the bees knees, but don't sell Superman short. Marvel's design might be more attractive and Fred MacMurray-like, thanks to the efforts of the great C.C. Beck, but Superman has his own iconic themes.

He has a more recognizable symbol, the "S" shield. His face is admitable more bland than Captain Marvel's but I think when someone like Curt Swan draws it it's just as iconic. Superman is also tied up in patriotism, the "truth, justice and the American way," stuff. And he echoes the Biblical story of Moses and in some ways serves as a Christlike messiah figure. Superman has a better main villain than Captain Marvel does. Despite being so powerful, Superman has an obvious, achilles heel type weakness.

And Superman is so simple and straightforward that he is the only superhero who is really imprinted on the popular consciouness. Kids want to fly like him, people refer to weaknesses as Kryptonite, dual lives as Clark Kent and diabolical nemesis as being like Lex Luthor. There are 10 times more popular songs about Superman or referencing Superman elements than the next most popular hero, Spider-Man. He must be doing something right.

[wonderfly]

Captain Marvel is just a kid. Even if he can become physically mature, he's not emotionally mature enough for a relationship with an adult woman.


That got me to thinking: Jeff Smith, writer of the upcoming "Shazam and the Monster Society of Evil" mini-series seems to disagree with you. (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=97714)

From the article:


JS: Well, one thing I noticed when I looked at what had been done with the character recently was that it seemed like they tried to draw Captain Marvel into the DC universe and make him conform to the rules of modern comics. He started to look, to me, like a bad imitation of Superman. You know, he's kind of got the same powers and everything. But when you make him a serious superhero, and you make him -- I guess they like to say Billy's like 12 or 15 or something -- and then he says, "Shazam!" and he's a 25-year-old man, and yet he's supposed to have a brain of a 12- or 15-year-old boy, you just kind of end up with a mildly retarded Superman.

NRAMA: Oh, wow.

JS: OK, that's an exaggeration. But, you know what I mean, though? It's like a Superman who isn't quite adult enough to handle the situation. That seems like that's a complete misunderstanding of Captain Marvel. With Captain Marvel, you magically are an adult. You have the wisdom of Solomon and the strength of Hercules. It's magic! You get to be Superman, you know? Captain Marvel!So, if he has the "Wisdom of Solomon" maybe he's got what it takes to have an intimate relationship with women after all!?! (Didn't Solomon have like 700 wives?) ;)

[Shawn Hopkins]

That got me to thinking: Jeff Smith, writer of the upcoming "Shazam and the Monster Society of Evil" mini-series seems to disagree with you. (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=97714)

From the article:

So, if he has the "Wisdom of Solomon" maybe he's got what it takes to have an intimate relationship with women after all!?! (Didn't Solomon have like 700 wives?) ;)

Come on. He may have the Wisdom of Solomon but he still has Billy Batson's mind and life experiences. I don't think making him still essentially Billy Batson inside is a mis-reading at all. What's the wish fulfillment power of being able to transform into a being with all those powers, only you have an essentially different mind when you do it? It isn't really you that gains the power then.

If you take away the innocence of a young boy, Captain Marvel is even more of a bad Superman imitation.

[Toonlover]

I still like the idea....http://tn3-1.deviantart.com/fs8/300W/i/2005/355/5/6/Superhero_Hook_Up_by_Fourpanelhero.jpg

[Ed Liu]

Come on. He may have the Wisdom of Solomon but he still has Billy Batson's mind and life experiences. I don't think making him still essentially Billy Batson inside is a mis-reading at all. What's the wish fulfillment power of being able to transform into a being with all those powers, only you have an essentially different mind when you do it? It isn't really you that gains the power then.

But doesn't that same argument still apply if it's not really your body that's got all those powers? I think what Smith is talking about is really the same wish-fulfillment, only along the mental dimension as well as the physical one. When we're kids, we all assume that adults are all-powerful beings who know everything, after all.

I never gave it much thought before, but I could see it after reading Smith's comments.

-- Ed

[Frank Castle]

Give him an actual cape and then I might consider Marvel a worthy superhero.

[Robin2099]

I always thought that CM was the most underrated superhero in comics, who unfortunately is always underused by DC. Woth Alex Ross's foundness for him, I would like to see him draw a CM miniseries, especially with how promising Jeff Smith's looks.

[Somejerk]

no one has mentioned Cap's Relation ship with Stargirl and how well it worked out.