It’s Captain Marvel.
Whenever I mention this, weather in a geek crowd or not I
almost always get a resounding “Who?” from the crowd. Since the good Captain is
my favorite this makes me understandably sad. So allow me to fill you in on the
ins-and-outs of one of my favorite, if least known super heroes, Captain
Marvel.
Origin
Billy Batson was a happy twelve-year-old till his parents
came down with a sudden case of plot convenient car accident and ended up dead.
Billy was sent to live with an abusive uncle ( I think I just found a good pen
pal for Harry Potter) till he was thrown out for being too pleasant or
something and had to live on the streets.

It so happens that Shazam’s name is actually an acronym for
six deity-ish mythological beings, and that when Billy says the name he can
gain their powers, as well as turn into an adult. The acronym goes:
“The wisdom of Solomon; the strength of Hercules; the
stamina of Atlas; the power of Zeus; the courage of Achilles; and the speed of
Mercury” –Wikipedia
So he’s essentially Superman but powered by magic and into
Legos.

So why do I like him?
Why on Earth would I say that this strange man-child with a
confusing backstory and Superman’s powers carbon copied almost wholesale was my
favorite? Well first off unlike most of the populace I like overpowered super
heroes. I admit that Iron Man and Batman are cool, but at the end of the day if
I really wanted to spend my time reading about rich men in impractical suits I’d
read more Gentlemen’s Quarterly. I like my heroes to be powerful, big and able
to take care of problems with their bare fists.
Second I like that Billy was chosen not because he was so
awesome but just because he was so good. Billy is a virtuous, uncorrupted soul,
the kind that can only be found in a child. Billy was written before every
child had to have a snarky wise-cracking attitude with a reversed baseball cap.
He’s just a good kid who wants to do his best, and because of that he was
rewarded with an incredible gift. In some retellings of the Captain Marvel
origin Billy’s virtue was meant to juxtapose Shazam’s first champion, an
ancient villain named Black Adam who was given power as an adult but corrupted
it and nearly destroyed the world until he was banished. I like the idea that
the child’s virtue was a better asset then the adult’s supposed wisdom.

Now that you’ve falling madly in love with Captain Marvel,
your next question is why you haven’t heard of him. Well, that’s an interesting
story. See, once upon a time magic was in in comics. Most of the Justice
Society, including Green Lantern and the Flash were powered by forms of magic,
and Captain Marvel fit right in. In fact, back in the day, Captain Marvel
comics were the most popular comics in the world, outclassing Superman and
Batman! The late Elvis Presley even liked his sidekick Captain Marvel Jr so
much he based some of his stage outfits on the hero’s costume!

Within the last several years though, we’ve seen the good
Captain and his friends making a comeback. Alex Ross, an extremely talented and
influential comic book artist, loves Captain Marvel and writes him into every
comic he can as an essential character, starting with his earth shaking Kingdom
Come where a brainwashed Captain actually took on Superman. Marvel’s villain,
Black Adam, was a huge part in the Villains United, which brought the character
back into the spotlight, including his own book and a playable character in
this year’s Injustice: Gods Among Us video game.
So that’s my hipster report of the super hero you’ve never
heard of.
-JOE
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