I don't know if you heard yesterday's casting announcement for the "other" Captain Marvel - He Who Cannot Use That Name.* We've known for ages that Dwayne Johnson will be playing Black Adam - for so long that they had to give him his own movie while he waited. (Good call there - let things build)
Friday they finally cast the part of the adult version of Billy Batson in the upcoming Shazam! movie - Zachary Levi.
That's a bit of casting that seems like a natural fit. He's shown his ability to play a boy in a man's body as Chuck Bartowski in Chuck, and over the course of the series, and continuing as Fandral The Dashing in the last two Thor movies, he's built himself up to handle the action roles. This could be a mighty fine thing. I can see a potentially excellent onscreen chemistry between The Rock and he when the inevitable meeting with Black Adam comes.
Hopefully, they'll come up with something (Captain Thunder?) that will let him say his name and avoid the ridiculous Freddy Freeman situation. Seriously - did decades of people mocking Captain Marvel Jr's inability to say his name without changing not factor at all when it came time to name our hero? Or is callng him Shazam another case of the modern comic editors hating heroes and intentionally having a laugh at his expense?
On a completely unrelated note - another news item caught my eye at the same time. Southwest Airlines is talking Live In-Flight Bands. Blasting music at a captive audience unable to escape or avoid it.
Didn't we read that was one of the ways they tortured prisoners in Guantanamo Bay? I guess it's only a natural evolution. Isn't this the airline that beat a passenger they didn't want recently?
Friday they finally cast the part of the adult version of Billy Batson in the upcoming Shazam! movie - Zachary Levi.
That's a bit of casting that seems like a natural fit. He's shown his ability to play a boy in a man's body as Chuck Bartowski in Chuck, and over the course of the series, and continuing as Fandral The Dashing in the last two Thor movies, he's built himself up to handle the action roles. This could be a mighty fine thing. I can see a potentially excellent onscreen chemistry between The Rock and he when the inevitable meeting with Black Adam comes.
Hopefully, they'll come up with something (Captain Thunder?) that will let him say his name and avoid the ridiculous Freddy Freeman situation. Seriously - did decades of people mocking Captain Marvel Jr's inability to say his name without changing not factor at all when it came time to name our hero? Or is callng him Shazam another case of the modern comic editors hating heroes and intentionally having a laugh at his expense?
On a completely unrelated note - another news item caught my eye at the same time. Southwest Airlines is talking Live In-Flight Bands. Blasting music at a captive audience unable to escape or avoid it.
Didn't we read that was one of the ways they tortured prisoners in Guantanamo Bay? I guess it's only a natural evolution. Isn't this the airline that beat a passenger they didn't want recently?
How i imagine the press announcement, with a little help from Alex Ross
===
*(When DC comics bought the rights to the old Fawcett line, including Captain Marvel, they didn't register the accompanying trademarks. Marvel decided they could find a use for that name and filed registration papers. So, even though Captain Marvel existed first, they haven't been able to use his name in publication titles for decades. Transitioning to movies only complicates things, and the name cannot be used at all. So they've taken to calling the character Shazam, inlcuding a promotion from captain to wizard. So now he needs to wear a name tag since he cannot speak his name without transforming into Billy Batson. D'oh!)
IIUC, DC could legally use the name "Captain Marvel" in the strip itsef, but not on covers or in merchandising. Besides the trademark glitch, DC may not have been eager to publish a comic with the name of their biggest competitor on the cover.
ReplyDeleteMore recently, I heard that DC decided the character had to have the same name as the comic's title, to avoid confusing the readers
Maybe today's comic book fans are dumber than the ones in the Silver Age and earlier, when there were a lot of anthology titles. I never heard any kids trying to figure out which character was "Action," "Adventure," "Detective," or "Suspense."
In the story, "What's In a Name? Doomsday!" (Shazam #7, 1973), a rumor gets started that saying Captain Marvel's name aloud will cause a disaster (long story). As the meme spreads, a bystander says, "No one is allowed to say that name! Must be a lawsuit or something."
At the time, I thought the gag was an allusion to the DC vs. Fawcett (aka Superman vs. Captain Marvel) plagiarism suit. Now, I suspect the story was a spoof of the DC vs. Marvel Comics "Captain Marvel" trademark dispute.
Welcome, TC! Nice to see you here.
ReplyDeleteWhile they could get away with that in the comics, the movie licensing/trademarking of names runs much tighter, and it's completely off limits to DC for film.
Somehow, whenever DC does something to avoid confusing the readers it always seems to be for a confusion that has never existed among any of my acquaintances. But the decision seems especially questionable this time given that Captain Marvel Jr. has been derided and mocked for decades because he can't say his own name.
I remember the old story to which you refer here, and my impression at the time was the same as yours. Now, like you, it seems to me that we might have missed the proper reference.