They need to make clear that there is a difference between calling the wizard's name and just casually saying it. Every incarnation I've seen always has him shout Shazam, so there should be a reason for the pomp. I think the comics recently did something about this. But all I can imagine is this: Criminal: Who are you? Billy: Uh... Shazam. (Sees lightning bolt) Uh Oh. (Lifts criminal to block bolt from hitting him) Close one. And of course the media sees it, thinks he did it all on purpose, and tomorrow's headline praises their new hero Shazam.
Didn't he keep calling out "Shazam" and blasting Superman with lightning on Justice League Unlimited?
Really? This is a rather weird stance. I mean, did you also boycott the 2007 Transformers movie because they renamed Apeface to Starscream? Joke aside, not even DC can call him Captain Marvel anymore on covers, since they lost against Marvel - hence ever since the New 52 they decided to call the character that too. It's like, imagine if they lost the rights to put "Batman" on covers and would need to sell Batman comics under "Detective Comics" for years... Exclusive: GEOFF JOHNS Hopes Lightning Strikes SHAZAM!
In the comics, it was an issue with Captain Marvel Junior, who went by CM3 to avoid the issue and was an occasional joke. Over the years, various issues had them use it in various ways, usually for comedic or fun stories; Billy whispered it to call forth a ghostly Captain Marvel to tell him answers on a college entrance exam he was infiltrating for a story, Zeus was shown as actually hurling the transformative bolt and once he had a sore arm and kept hitting other people by mistake, as I recall the Republic serial once had him change after managed to get ungagged, but still tied up so he could easily escape his bonds. Most of the time the shout is for excitement, but there are plenty of more subtle moments as well. It was also a plot point in Countdown, when Psycho Pirate forced Black Adam to say the wizards name, calling forth a lightning bolt to power a machine. Yeah, but that was he was using it offensively, he had Superman take the lightning instead of himself, so it would hurt Superman and leave him unchanged. Somewhere around Final Crisis/New 52, they added lightning hands to both Black Adam and Cap, across the board to give them some extra and non-superman moves so that they had something other then punch as an offensive move.
If they renamed Batman, I imagine I'd take exception that that too. To be fair, it's more than just the name, though that's a big deal to me. I disliked just about every change made to New 52 "Shazam". He's pretty far removed from the Captain Marvel that I enjoy reading about. The only bright spots in recent years have been Multiversity and Convergence, both of which featured a much more traditional Captain Marvel and Marvel family.
I was quite impressed with the trailer. This is the first DCEU movie I am happy to say I will be going to see in theaters. It looks fun. It looks colorful. It looks like the comic it is based off of.
Henry Cavill & Zachary Levi Pick a Winner in Superman v Shazam Fight Levi, unsurprisingly, went with his own character, stating in an interview, where he was surrounded by his Shazam co-stars, Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer, as well as the director of the film, David F. Sandberg, “Shazam is magic. So I think we’re team Shazam.” Cavill, though, surprisingly seemed generally to agree with Levi when asked about the question, as well. He explained, “Shazam’s got magic, which is allegedly — comic book lore-wise — Superman’s weakness, or he’s at least more vulnerable to it than other things. Superman isn’t going to just be beating up Shazam. He’s not. And Shazam is basically just a big kid. So he’s not going to be beating up Superman. He’s a huge fan of Superman, for one. But Supes is seriously quick. I think it’s whoever gets the jump on the other. It’s situational.”
Shazam Director Says the Hero’s Suit is ‘Still a Work in Progress’ Making suits is hard,” Sandberg. “Like painting a room you can look at little swatches all day but you won’t really see the effect until it’s done. The color of the finished suit didn’t look quite as expected in some lights (particularly daylight) which is on me since I decided to change fabric very late in prep and there wasn’t time for as many tests.” I figured we’d just have to tweak it in post,” he continued. “The first image released though unfortunately didn’t have any post production done to it. That was right as we were putting the trailer together. I figured since that image was out there perhaps we shouldn’t stray too far from it in the trailer. Might be confusing. This image is closer to what I’m going for, but it’s all still a work in progress and we’ll see where we end up. No images (or the trailer) have the finished bolt effect either (it’s not going to be an extreme effect or anything but it’s not just a simple glow).”
They should just call him Captain Thunder which was their original name when they did a knock off version for superman to fight back in the day before they had the actual captain marvel rights. It was also what the flashpoint version of Captain Marvel was called So they even used it recently It'd make more sense than just calling him Shazam.
SHAZAM! Theatrical Poster Released Ahead Of The New Trailer, Which WON'T Be Debuting This Week It's an okay poster, but the phone and bubblegum make him look juvenile in a bad way. There are better ways to showcase the child aspect of Capt Marvel.
WONDER WOMAN 1984, IT: CHAPTER 2, SHAZAM! And More New Footage Descriptions From CCXP Shazam vs Sivana. Sounds sweet.
It's a shame that the character that had the name first had to give it up. Oh well. He will always be Captain Marvel to me.
