[Meeting…] Shazam – Captain Marvel

Superman is usually considered the first modern superhero and the standard of American heroes that populated comics after his first appearance in Action Comics #1 (1938). Therefore It is not unusual for there to be more than a dozen characters based on him, both in your own company and in the competition.

Many of those Supermans did not have enough fame to be remembered and disappeared (like Marvel's first Angel), others shared some traits with the well-known hero but were totally different in appearance (Gladiator) or attitude (Sentry) and others directly took advantage of their similarity as something relatively parody (Hyperion or Apollo).

However, despite the enormous number of characters based on Superman that exist, only one managed to overshadow him in popularity and sales and that was Captain Marvel (which despite the name has nothing to do with the Marvel publisher). This character was created in late 1939 and debuted in early 1940, so he was one of the first to be based on the famous DC vigilante.

According to some people in the comics world, the inclusion of young characters in the stories of adult heroes (like Robin) or the creation of young heroes (Spider-man) was done so that younger readers could identify with them and that would lead them to prefer them over older heroes, something that seems to be demonstrated with this character.

SHAZAM!

Captain Marvel as a superhero is very similar to the Man of Steel, both in appearance and powers, since he can fly and has superhuman strength and resistance. However, the creators of the character took children into account and that was where they managed to differentiate themselves from the other Superman clones, because despite what it may seem from their appearance, This character is not an adult, but a child named Billy Batson.

Billy was an orphan boy who wandered around the city and made a living however he could. One day a stranger in a trench coat and hat told him to follow him (something tells me that this origin would be controversial today). The stranger turned out to be a wizard named Shazam and granted Billy magical powers coming from the Greek gods to ensure world peace under the identity of Captain Marvel.

From that moment on, if Billy shouts SHAZAM, magical thunder falls from the sky and upon contact with it turns him into a superhero until that situation happens again. Captain Marvel possesses the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the endurance of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury, with the word SHAZAM being the sum of the first letter of each one's name.

The tone of Captain Marvel's adventures was much more comical and light-hearted than what was seen in the pages of Superman, something that can be seen by taking a look at the secondary characters that make up the Marvel Family, but the character was tremendously powerful, both outside and inside the world of comics, since he began to take over the untouchable Kryptonian hero.

Although it is true that the DC Comics character has never clearly lost his throne to any of his copies, Captain Marvel managed to get ahead of the man of steel in such important feats as, for example, be the first superhero to have a live-action version with Adventures of Captain Marvel in 1941.

This character was so popular that the word SHAZAM is part of the collective dictionary when it comes to magical words along with other words known to everyone such as Abracadabra or Alakazam. In fact, if you watch Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie you will see that when Peter tries to shoot webs at will, he says magic words, Shazam being one of them.

CAPTAIN MARVEL'S WORST ENEMY

During their adventures, Billy Batson and his alter ego Captain Marvel will use the power of Shazam to face a multitude of enemies, including Doctor Sivana (a mad and evil scientist), Mr Mind (a worm that can mentally control you), the animals of the Monstrous Society of Evil and Black Adam (the predecessor of Captain Marvel and possessor of the same powers, but donated by the Egyptian gods).

However There's something Captain Marvel couldn't fight., since it was outside the scope of its pages: legality.

The increase in popularity of this character caused there to be certain accusations of plagiarism by DC Comics and that seriously hindered the appearance of this character in comics, until finally a judge ruled that Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman and put an end to the dispute. A few decades later this character and his universe were purchased by DC Comics, which, far from abandoning them so that no one would remember them, decided to continue their adventures and even included him within the DC Universe where he would defend Fawcett City (a tribute to the company that saw him born), even allowing this character and others from their comics to be part of the Justice League or the Justice Society.

The fact of having a past history of rivalry in other companies was not completely forgotten by the scriptwriters, since on more than one occasion Captain Marvel and Superman have come to fight each other (recreating the childhood dream of many children of the 40s and 50s). The most curious thing of all is that despite Superman being the emblem of DC Comics, the character with a clear advantage in these confrontations was Captain Marvel, since his powers are magical and magic is one of Superman's few weaknesses.

Sin embargo, el pertenecer a la misma compañía que Superman no evitó que Capitán Marvel tuviese de nuevo algún que otro problema con la ley, esta vez por su nombre, pues durante aquellos años, la compañía Marvel Cómics estaba muy interesada en quedarse con el nombre.

Al parecer, Marvel patentó el nombre Captain Marvel, de manera que solo ellos podían sacar colecciones con ese título, aunque eso no evitaba que otros personajes se llamasen así. Durante muchos años coexistieron personajes de Marvel y DC llamados Captain Marvel, pero solo los de Marvel podían tener colecciones con ese nombre, de manera que la colección de nuestro personaje pasó a llamarse SHAZAM que pese a ser el nombre del mago que le dio los poderes, era una palabra tan ligada con el personaje que mucha gente lo llamaba directamente así (vamos, le pasó lo mismo que al monstruo de Frankenstein, que es comúnmente nombrado como su creador). Años mas tarde, este personaje pasó a llamarse Shazam para evitar complicaciones con el nombre y terminar de una vez por todas con un asunto tan ridículo que recuerda a los problemas que tuvo The Captain  para elegir su nombre, demostrando que a veces la realidad supera a la ficción.

La sabiduría de Salomón, la fuerza de Hércules, la resistencia de Atlas, el poder de Zeus, el coraje de Aquiles y la velocidad de Mercurio no fueron suficiente para ayudar al personaje a evitar problemas legales. Lo curioso es que al parecer iba a ser llamado Captain Thunder (nombre que tuvo en alguna de sus versiones alternativas), algo que seguramente le habría evitado problemas legales, salvo que hubiesen publicado algo en España donde ya teníamos nuestro propio Capitán Trueno.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

No soy especialmente fan de los personajes tipo Superman y tampoco me apasionan los niños con poderes pero he de decir que tengo cierto aprecio a Shazam, en parte por haber plantado cara a algo tan inamovible como Superman y también porque he leído algunas historias de él donde se usa su concepto (niño en cuerpo de héroe) de una manera muy divertida y curiosa, alejándolo así de Superman y sus otras copias. Por ejemplo, recuerdo que en alguna de las historias de Giffen y DeMatteis mostraban como este personaje pasaba la tarde viendo dibujos animados, cantando canciones y comiendo galletas ante la atónita mirada de sus compañeros de equipo.

Las recomendaciones con este personaje son tan extensas que intentaré ser breve. Por un lado tenéis todas las historias de este personaje publicadas por Fawcet Comics que a día de hoy son de dominio público y se pueden encontrar legamente gratis por internet (eso sí, en inglés). Luego tenemos sus historias en DC Comics, donde podréis encontrarlo con bastante frecuencia en algunas de las formaciones de la Sociedad de la Justicia (JSA) o en colecciones propias. Shazam también ha sido un personaje importante en algunas historias muy recomendables como Kingdom Come either Superman/Batman.

Este personaje también ha aparecido en la serie animada de la Liga de la Justicia y recomiendo mucho ver el capítulo llamado Clash en el cual entra en el grupo y termina por abandonarlo de malas maneras. Shazam también aparece en un par de películas animadas propias donde vuelve a compartir protagonismo con Superman y sus aventuras de los años 40 también pueden encontrarse en DVD.

Y si os gustan los videojuegos podréis encontrar a Shazam en Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe (2008) y en Injustice Gods Among Us (2013) así como en los cómics basados en ellos.