"When Billy Batson speaks the name of an ancient wizard,
he is magically transformed from boy to man
-- the world's mightiest mortal!"
These words (or something very like them) introduce modern readers to the world of SHAZAM and Captain Marvel.
Technically, the super-hero in the red outfit with the lightning bolt and the white cape is not SHAZAM. SHAZAM is the egyptian wizard who grants Billy Batson the ability to transform himself into Captain Marvel.
Part of the confusion regarding the name SHAZAM is that "SHAZAM" is a much more distinctive name than "Captain Marvel". Marvel Comics have had a number of characters of the name "Captain Marvel" and hold the current trademark on the name. Thus, "our" Captain Marvel comics are published under the title of SHAZAM.
The wizard SHAZAM's name is an acronym of those deities who grant the wizard, and the Marvel Family, a portion of their powers. The deities involved appear to vary from character to character.
| Captain Marvel | Mary Marvel | Black Adam | SHAZAM | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deity | Attribute | Deity | Attribute | Deity | Attribute | Deity | Attribute | |||
| Solomon | Wisdom | Selena | Grace | Shu | Stamina | Marzosh | Stamina | |||
| Hercules | Strength | Hippolyta | Strength | Heru | Swiftness | Arel | Speed | |||
| Atlas | Stamina | Ariadne | Skill | Amon | Strength | Ribalvei | Power | |||
| Zeus | Power | Zephyrus | Speed | Zehuti | Wisdom | Voldar | Strength | |||
| Achilles | Courage | Aurora | Beauty | Aton | Power | Elbiam | Courage | |||
| Mercury | Speed | Minerva | Wisdom | Mehen | Courage | Lumiun | Wisdom | |||
Although no distinction is made between the source of Captain Marvel's and Mary Marvel's powers in the modern SHAZAM series, in the not-so-politically-correct past, Mary received her powers from her very own "family" of goddesses.
I guess writers in the 40's felt that grace, skill and beauty were more important to a super-heroine than courage, stamina and power. :-) Discerning scholars will also note that one of the "goddesses", Zephyrus, is actually a male.
In keeping with his Egyptian origin, Teth-Adam (later to be called Black Adam) was gifted his powers from Egyptian deities.
In the 1987 mini-series, Teth-Adam's powers were knowingly drawn from these egyptian deities. In the 1995 series, it is revealed that Blaze, actually the demon-spawned daughter of SHAZAM, conspired with Set to have Teth-Adam draw his powers from the Egyptian gods, instead of the gods with whom SHAZAM had made his pact for super-human power.
Interestingly, in the 1995 version, SHAZAM draws his powers from six gods whose names form the acronym "MARVEL".
Over the years, a wide range of characters have been welcomed into the Marvel family:
Like most of the DC universe, SHAZAM history falls into three distinct eras: pre-Crisis (from SHAZAM's origin in 1939 to 1985, post-Crisis (from after The Crisis of Infinite Earths in 1985, when the DC universe consolidated from an infinite number of parallel universes to just one, to 1994) and post-Zero Hour (everything from 1994's Crisis's temporal sequel to the present).
Warning: If you haven't read any of these stories but plan to, bear in mind that this section contains many spoilers.
To tell the truth, my knowledge of the pre-Crisis era of SHAZAM is sketchy, at best. Any pre-Crisis SHAZAM information is more than welcome.
All appearances of Captain Marvel published between 1939 and 1953 were published by Fawcett. During the late 1940's, Captain Marvel was even outselling DC's Superman. Tony LeBlanc, a Captain Marvel fan of some years, notes:
"Stylized artwork separated the Fawcett version from its peers in the marketplace of the 1940s- early 1950s, by insisting that artists follow a style easily recognizable to the public (C.C. Beck and, to a broader extent, Jack Binder). Principal writer Otto Binder refined the adventures of the intrepid trio into an artform all its own".
With World War II in full swing, many Captain Marvel comics published during the 1940's expressed a strong anti-Nazi and anti-Japanese sentiment. This phenomena was probably typical of the popular culture of the time.
From 1953 to 1972, no SHAZAM comics were published, given that Fawcett had ceased trading.
In 1972, DC reached an agreement to publish Captain Marvel comics, but under the title SHAZAM (since Marvel Comics now owned the Captain Marvel trademark on their own character). At that point, it was deemed that all Captain Marvel stories up until then (including those published by Fawcett) were within DC continuity but set on Earth-S. That nearly explained why the stories should be considered "real" and why Cap had not encountered the rest of the DC universe. The 20 year gap between the last Fawcett SHAZAM issue and the first DC issue were apparently explained in a story in the first DC issue, where the Marvel family were trapped in suspendium for 20 years as part of an aborted plan by Sivana.
In 1976, in the pages of Justice League of America, Superman and Captain Marvel finally officially met. Fan interest of the era, plus the long-running court case between Fawcett and DC made this a much anticipated event. A DC story published earlier had Superman up against a character called "Captain Thunder", who was suspiciously similar to Captain Marvel, down to being a small boy magically transformed into a super-hero. (As an aside, in the original ashcan edition which unveiled Captain Marvel to the world, he was actually named "Captain Thunder".
As an aside, Captain Thunder is not the only character to be "inspired" by Captain Marvel. Big Bang Comics currently includes the adventures of two characters inspired by the Marvel Family: Mighty Man and Thunder Girl. The two characters are unrelated to each other but bear striking similarities to their SHAZAM counterparts.
1978 saw one another meeting between Superman and Captain Marvel. (They actually met many times during the pre-Crisis era). It was then that DC published a 72 page Collector's Edition comic pitting Superman against the World's Mightiest Mortal due to the machinations of a villain called "Karmang the Evil". I'm told that this issue was the first in which Supergirl and Mary Marvel met, also.
In 1987, DC published a four-part mini-series rebooting Captain Marvel for the eighties. Readers of the Crisis of Infinite Earths were asked to discretely ignore one or two panels in issue 12 of that maxi-series which would otherwise indicate that Captain Marvel survived the Crisis in tact.
Instead, DC started from scratch, with Billy's meeting with SHAZAM and subsequent adventures. There were a number of changes made to the story, compared to the original, designed to tighten the relationship between some of the characters and to make the origin seem more plausible. Billy lived in San Francisco, instead of the mythical Fawcett City. Although Billy finds SHAZAM in an abandoned subway tunnel, the magical train featured in the Fawcett origin is missing. Both Dudley and Sivana are Billy's uncles, making Magnificus and Beautia Sivana Billy's cousins. Most significantly, Billy retained his own personality when transformed into Captain Marvel. Unlike previous incarnations of the character, this meant that readers got to see a child adjusting to life as an adult super-hero.
In the mini-series, it is revealed that Sivana engineered the death of Billy's parents, in order to use the insurance money to fund his scientific experiments. His experiments result in Black Adam's release from his dimensional prison, where he had been banished by SHAZAM. Captain Marvel eventually defeats both villains. In both cases, he transforms into Billy, in order to save the day.
The Legends mini-series also featured Captain Marvel prominently, as Darkseid attempted to turn the world against it's heroes. Billy, for a time, foreswears the use of his powers, believing his lightning was instrumental in someone's death, even if it was one of Darkseid's creatures. Billy is reminded of his obligation to the heroic ideal by a girl his own age.
It is after Legends that Captain Marvel works, for a time, with the fledgling Justice League International. Cap works with the team until they achieve UN recognition, before retiring from the team.
Although DC nominally claims that post-Crisis SHAZAM history remains intact, post-Zero Hour SHAZAM really starts with the Power of SHAZAM graphic novel, effectively rebooting the characters' history. The revised origin ignores the 1987 origin and attempts to recapture the tone of the original Fawcett character. Technically, the graphic novel doesn't coincide exactly with Zero Hour, but it's a particularly convenient milestone, continuity-wise. The letter column of Power of SHAZAM #23 (February 1997) encapsulate's DC's current position on SHAZAM continuity nicely:
"Cap's post-Crisis continuity is kind of tricky, but here's a general guide: All his appearances in JUSTICE LEAGUE are pretty much continuity. All his appearances in his own miniseries and in ACTION COMICS WEEKLY are not. Guest appearances, crowd shots, etc., all happened unless we say they didn't."
Hardly the most satisfying answer and somewhat unusual regarding the miniseries, but at least we know where we stand (until the next Crisis-style cataclysm reorders the DC universe). :-P
In the 1994 graphic novel, Billy and Mary become orphans when their parents are killed by Theo Adam after uncovering a jewelled scarab at a Sivana-sponsored excavation in Egypt. Mary is adopted and assumes the name Mary Bromfield. Billy is entrusted into the care of his uncle Ebenezer, who keeps the money left to him for Billy's upkeep and turns Billy out into the street.
Later, Billy is guided to the cave of SHAZAM by a mysterious stranger, who is eventually revealed to be the spirit of his father, Clarence Charles Batson (the same first names and initials as C.C.Beck). After bestowing his powers upon Billy, SHAZAM is killed when his cave collapses (as tradition seems to demand, ensuring that the wizard cannot play "too" active a part in Captain Marvel's adventures).
The scarab turns out to be a focus Teth-Adam's power, after it was stripped from him and now-Black Adam had his memory erased and lead a "normal" life as Theo Adam. When "Theo" discover's the scarab's secret and transforms into Black Adam, he sets out to destroy Captain Marvel, once and for all. Their fight destroyed most of Fawcett City's World Fair exhibit, ruining Sivana's financial empire in the process.
Needless to say, Captain Marvel is successful in defeating Black Adam. SHAZAM strips Adam of his powers and memory (again), this time taking his voice as well (ensuring he can no longer call upon the powers of SHAZAM), before Captain Marvel turns him in for the murder of Billy's parents.
The first year of the 1995 monthly series concentrate on introducing the "major" characters of SHAZAM continuity. The first few issues seem to revolve around Billy's family, including Mary (who, of course, becomes Mary Marvel) and Sinclair Batson (Billy's cousin). We also see the re-emergence of Captain Nazi, who cripples Freddy Freeman, prompting Billy and Mary to bestow of portion of their power on Freddy, transforming him into Captain Marvel Junior.
The first year also shows us glimpses of the wizard SHAZAM's past and his relationship with Satanus and Blaze. (Satanus and Blaze are SHAZAM's children, birthed by a demoness who seduced SHAZAM). Blaze also facilitates the return of Black Adam. After an epic battle, the Marvel family and SHAZAM, with help from Uncle Marvel, Mister Tawny, Ibis and Bullet Man, imprison Blaze in the Rock of Eternity and banish Black Adam to a distant star.
The second year of this series starts with Billy and Freddy having a falling out, with Freddy more or less moving to New York.
Shortly after, Captain Marvel heads off to Venus on a rescue mission for some stranded astronauts. When he arrives, he finds Doctor Sivana working with a race of Venusian worms to mount an invasion of Earth. To cut a long story short, Captain Marvel uses a Boom Tube to send the worms into outer space to die. One last worm survives, the advance scout, who finds he retains the psychic abilities of his perished brethren. Thus is born the evil which is Mister Mind. :-)
The rest of the second year consists of a series of short stories, including a Captain Marvel Junior/Captain Nazi rematch, Captain Marvel/Plastic Man and Captain Marvel/Batman team-ups. Fawcett City also feels the effects of Final Night, but perhaps not as much as the rest of the Earth, thanks to a protective aura cast by SHAZAM.
Interlude #1: The 1996 Power of SHAZAM annual focuses on a young woman (Cecebeck or just plain "Beck") in a human colony on an alien world. The 1996 Dead Earth annuals are all based on the premise that Earth is long gone, remaining only as a legend to the sentients (human or otherwise) that live in the post-Earth era. In this story, it seems that Billy has survived beyond the Earth and has assumed the mantle of SHAZAM (complete with flowing beard) and resides at the Rock of Eternity. Beck finds herself at the Rock of Eternity when she is the subject of a terrorist weapon which fires "magick dust" with trans-dimensional properties. Billy (now known as the "wizard") bequeaths power to Beck and she ends up confronting one of the terrorists, who is in turn imbued with power from the Three Faces of Evil.
Interlude #2: Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior featured in seperate "DC plus" issues in 1996. In Supergirl Plus, Mary has a run in with a Leesburg police officer who may or may not have attempted to molest her, depending on whose perspective on events you want to believe. Mary is all for using SHAZAM's power to mete out her own form of justice, but Supergirl persuades her to let the law take it's course. In Superboy Plus, Freddy meets up with Superboy and together they pass through an alien testing ground (for want of a better term), which forces them to confront their greatest fears. In the end, Superboy's confidence in his relationship with Superman see him through safely, whereas Freddy's doubts about his relationship with Captain Marvel are proven to be a problem for him.
End of interludes.
Starting with the third year of the Power of SHAZAM series, I'm taking the opportunity to start restructuring this web site. The synopsis for year 3 and year 4 now have their own pages. Synopsis pages for other years will be published as time permits.
Captain Marvel has also featured prominently in at least two recent post-Zero Hour mini-series.
In Underworld Unleashed, the demonic Neron attempts to barter power in exchange for the souls of some of the DC universe's most powerful characters. His proclaimed aim is to acquire the "noblest soul of all". At the time, the heroes of the DC universe assume that he's referring to Superman, but it is later revealed that Neron has his sights set on Captain Marvel. Eventually, Captain Marvel agrees to sell his soul to Neron, in exchange for the well being of the rest of mankind. Neron attempts to take the soul but is overwhelmed by it because all the souls he takes must have some element of corruption, some aspect of self-interest or greed motivating the exchange. Captain Marvel's soul, however, was pure and therefore useless to Neron.
In the critically acclaimed mini-series, Kingdom Come, Captain Marvel finds himself on the side of the villains. Lex Luthor corrupted and brainwashed our hero using technology stolen from Sivana and a host of mind-numbing worms that bear more than a passing resemblance to Mister Mind. The mini-series comes to a climax with a head-to-head battle between Captain Marvel and Superman. Both combatants are comparable in strength, but Captain Marvel batters Superman almost to defeat by calling down SHAZAM's lightning upon him. (Superman is vulnerable to magic and SHAZAM's lightning is most certainly magical). At the very end, however, with a nuclear bomb falling on most of the world's metahuman population (good and bad), Superman asks Billy to make a choice: to choose between letting the bomb fall to destroy "the metahuman threat" or to let Superman stop the bomb and save them all. Instead, Billy transforms into Captain Marvel one last time and uses his lightning to detonate the bomb in the upper atmosphere. The bomb still kills many (including Captain Marvel himself), but not as many as if it had exploded at ground level. Captain Marvel's sacrifice teaches Superman that, like Billy, the fates of mankind and the metahumans are not separate choices - they are inextricably linked.
Although Captain Marvel and Superman share the lime light of Kingdom Come, other members of the Marvel family, like most of the DC universe, also make an appearance. The wizard SHAZAM appears briefly in a scene as part of a cabal of otherworldly powers (including the Phantom Stranger, the Highfather fof New Genesis, Ganthet of Oa and Zeus), who observe the situation on Earth with growing concern. Freddy and Mary, now known as King Marvel and Lady Marvel, appear as background characters in several scenes as part of the forces of good, along with their child, the Whiz. King Marvel's costume is similar to his Captain Marvel Junior costume, except that its style pays homage to Elvis Presley who, in turn, was apparently a fan of Captain Marvel Junior. Lady Marvel's costume is similar to the white and yellow costume Mary wore after the Family Reunion storyline, but predates that story. Even Hoppy the Marvel Bunny makes a brief appearance as a child's toy in a Luthor-induced delusion of Billy's.
Like many comic book characters, Captain Marvel has not been restricted to the printed page...
Let me say up front, however, that I have no information regarding how to acquire any of the SHAZAM television series on video or DVD.
Republic, founded by Herbert J.Yates in 1935, was one of Hollywood's most successful and prolific "small" film studios of it's time. In 1941 Republic released The Adventures of Captain Marvel as a 12-part serial adventure for cinemas of the time.
This series saw Billy Batson as part of an archeological expedition into Siam, seeking to discover the secrets of the Scorpion Dynasty. Billy was the only one of the party not to enter a forbidden chamber of an unearthed ruin. He was gifted with the power of SHAZAM, while his older and "wiser" colleagues discover a powerful gold weapon, called The Scorpion, inside the chamber. This weapon consists of five lenses, and each of the five scientists on the expedition takes one, so that none among them acquires the awesome power of The Scorpion.
Back in the US, however, a sinister figure calling himself The Scorpion sets out to steal the lenses and conquer the world. Only Captain Marvel can stop him!
Tom Tyler played our hero. Tom was considered (at the time) by many to be the perfect choice to play the world's mightiest mortal. Tom was apparently a superb athlete, but with a less than inspiring voice. As a result, Tom speaks the equivalent of only one full page of dialogue as Captain Marvel, during the entire series.
Filmation produced the SHAZAM television series in 1974, after their success with the 60's animated adventures of Superman, Batman and Aquaman. Filmation had considered doing SHAZAM as an animated series, but elected instead to film the show as a live action show, which ran for three seasons.
Filmation discarded most of SHAZAM's fantasy elements. Billy Batson became a troubleshooter, travelling the US in a van, accompanied by his guardian, Mentor, helping kids with their problems. Billy could still transform into Captain Marvel by shouting "SHAZAM", and he could also consult with the "Elders" who granted him his power, by way of a domed object with flashing lights.
Twenty-five year old Michael Gray was cast as Billy Batson. Jackson Bostwick played Captain Marvel in the first season. John Davey played him in the second and third seasons. The role of Mentor was played by Les Tremayne.
The theme song from the 1974 SHAZAM TV show is available from Jonah Weiland's Comic Resources Page.
Unsurprisingly, DC tried to promote some consistency between the SHAZAM television series and the comic. In the comics run during the television series, Billy travels around the country with Uncle Dudley as his "mentor" (complete with moustache for the part). He even had a dome to consult with the "elders", nominally to save him the effort of flying back to the Rock of Eternity all the time, to consult with SHAZAM.
Filmation also produced the SHAZAM animated cartoon series in 1981, as part of The Kid Super Power Hour. The series ran for apparently ran for 12 episodes. The cartoon was apparently faithful to the style and characters of the old Fawcett and early DC Captain Marvel stories.
Yes, Captain Marvel has even made it onto View-Master. In 1976, a 3-reel SHAZAM adventure was released for View-Master. The reels featured animation-style art with objects positioned in different "layers" to give the 3-dimensional effect.
This adventure sees Black Adam returning to Earth, from whence he was banished 5000 years ago by the wizard SHAZAM, for abusing his powers. His plan is to hold the United Nations hostage in a bid for world domination. The Marvel family fight Adam to a standstill but can't overpower him, because he's as strong as they are. It's Uncle Marvel who saves the day (upon the advice of SHAZAM) by tricking Adam into saying the wizard's name. In doing so, he is transformed into his mortal for, aging 5000 years in the blink of an eye.
Fortunately for all concerned, this is not the only web page which promotes the deeds of Captain Marvel. Other pages of possible interest are listed below:
The following texts were used in order to research the information found in this page:
Captain Marvel, The Adventures of (Video, Republic, 1994).
SHAZAM View-Master (GAF, 1976).
Shazam!: From the Forties to the Seventies (1977).
Amazing World of DC Comics (Issue 17, April 1978).
Justice League of America (Issue 137, 1976).
Marvel Family (Issue 1, publication date unknown).
Superman vs SHAZAM! (Collector's Edition, 1978).
SHAZAM! The New Beginning (Issues 1-4, April 1987 to July 1987).
SHAZAM Archives, The (Volume 1, 1992).
SHAZAM, The Power of (Graphic novel, 1994).
SHAZAM, The Power of (Issues 1-29, May 1995 to August 1997, 1996 annual).
Supergirl Plus (Issue 1, 1996).
Superboy Plus (Issue 1, 1996).
Underworld Unleashed (Issues 1-3, November 1995 to December 1995).
Kingdom Come (Issues 1-4, 1996).
A Smithsonian Book of Comic-book Books.
Who's Who in the DC Universe.
The World Encyclopedia of Comics (1976, edited by Maurice Horn)
Also, special thanks to the following people:
Michael Brumage
"Captain Marvel Junior"
Raul daSilva
Dave Doty.
Tony LeBlanc
Monkeyman.
Lou Mougin.
Allen W.Wright.
All characters owned by DC Comics. Images used without permission.
Last updated Wednesday, 6 August 2003, 1:45 PM. All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Thank you for visiting the SHAZAM page.