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DC Wasted This Awesome Title of Shazam Big Time

DC Comics has an interesting history when it comes to the character of Shazam. Fans might remember the interesting attention that the fans gave during the release of both Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Captain Marvel and DC Extended Universe’s Shazam. The character was first introduced to the cinematic universe as Billy Batson and it ended up amongst the better projects from DCEU. This character is actually one of the most powerful heroes in the comics and yet there has been a lot of interest regarding its title. DC had multiple opportunities to make the title of Shazam much cooler, but they never really took advantage of that.

Shazam’s Name

While fans of the DC might know the character as Shazam, that wasn’t the original title of the character. Fawcett Comics introduced this character back in 1939 with the title Captain Marvel. But the character ended up facing a massive attack from a rival comic company that doesn’t even compare to any villain on the pages. Some of the readers were quick to notice that the character had some interesting parallels to Superman. National Comics was quick to learn that and they claimed copyright infringement over these similarities. They would later be called DC Comics and it makes sense that they were protective of Superman considering it was a massive success right from its introduction.

 

Title of Shazam

This led to a 12-year long legal battle that ended up being DC’s favor and hence Fawcett had to retire their superhero. But later on, Marvel Comics would introduce Captain Marvel and make it their trademark with the character being their own rendition. This means that DC could not use the title Captain Marvel when working on reviving the character back in 1972. So, DC opted for a different name that would actually be the key to the superhero. Upon uttering that titular word Batson would transform from a teenager to an adult superhero.

 

DC did actually work it out in a rather interesting manner that worked in their favor. The hero actually had the powers of six different Greek Gods that gave him certain powers. These powers included superhuman strength, intelligence, and endurance, added with certain magical abilities that give him the power to control thunder and lightning. Each of the individual letters in ‘SHAZAM‘ is actually a representation of the hero’s powers in the superhero form. But over the years, fans have actually wondered that this is not the best title after Captain Marvel.

 

Another Name For The Living Lightning

Title of Shazam

It might often feel that the character is actually named on the basis of an exclamation of excitement. In Flashpoint #1, from Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert, we see a whole new rendition of the character appear on the pages. A version of the character named Captain Thunder appears along with a thunderbolt from the heavens and this is actually a very interesting name for the character. This was actually a lot different from the original concept of the Shazam as this time the hero was a combination of six children with each having individual powers. Captain Thunder is a title that is quite fitting for the character and his powers.

 

Even though the character was significant in the comics, it only appeared for a few more issues. But fans and everyone else have actually wanted this name to stick around and be used a lot more. Captain Thunder as a title has the capability to put an effect amongst the roster of heroes in DC and at the same time strike fear in the villains. Shazam does not really make for the name of a hero who has once been able to put down the Man of Steel himself. Captain Thunder is a title that DC has been sitting on quite for a while and it would be interesting to see them use it in the present developments being done on the character.

 

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