Well, the whole “me too” concept of, “let's give him a 'mild-mannered alter ego' also, but hey, let's make him a twelve-year-old boy!” has to produce an odd result. “Shazam!” and B Batson becomes a hulking super-powered adult-looking… twelve year old boy. Maturity is more than physical size, and what you'd have would be this Superman-recolor acting his age. It would be… awkward.
So yah, if Mary comes by her maturity honestly she's likely to become the de facto leader, because she's the only real grownup there!
In the original series, Billy and Captain Marvel are two separate beings. They refer to each other in the third person and don't always agree. Cap mentions in some stories that he has no birthdate or ancestors, although Billy has both. Billy says he will "call on Captain Marvel" not become him.
The original Captain Marvel WAS an adult.
Since DC bought the character, they've sometimes presented him as a twelve-year-old mind in an adult super-powered body but that's not the Captain Marvel whose stories I enjoyed. I don't care much for the DC version, to be honest.
It's wrong. If you read the original stories, Billy and Cap regard each other as different people. Most fans today only know the recent DC versions and have little concept of history ("Wait, Shazam used to be called Captain Marvel? But that's Carol Danver's name.").
Mary may not have been the only Marvel to reach puberty. It could also have happened to Freddy Freeman, and we simply wouldn't have known about it due to the lack of obvious external characteristics. They weren't going to show Captain Marvel Jr. getting pimples or having his first shave, after all. Or his first anything else for that matter. Do not make me draw a diagram. It could have happened off-panel and it's better kept there
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Good points about Freddy. Maybe his voice changed and no one mentioned it.
The main reason why the Marvels brought the kids back when the job was done was because if they had stuck around, they would be robbing Billy, Freddy and Mary of their rightful time on Earth.. in effect, stealing their lives.
If Freddy Freeman had actually been Captain Marvel Jr, why would he ever change back? Why be a crippled newsboy when he could just stay super-powered? In one story, Junior put Freddy's clothes on over his costume and everyone thought he WAS Freddy, they look alike. But Junior knew his duty was to step back and return Freddy to the world.
For a period there, the Marvels were as gung-ho as anyone could ask. They went to Korea a few times to fight the Red Vulture (not a real bird but a hideous North Korean officer), the Great Red Brain, a monstrous Mongol the size of King Kong and other threats. They made impassioned speeches about freedom and democracy that would make Captain America proud.
Then there was a horror period, with ghouls and giant vampire bats and space aliens. Toward the end, Fawcwett tried everything.
Not much of a decision to make. I'm reminded of the story that Jim Mooney used to draw Supergirl nude and add the costume during the inking. Just to make sure the anatomy was accurate.
This is why I couldn't get into superhero comics when I was a kid. There had already been so many reboots, rebirths, alternate realities, universes, and dimensions that I had no idea what was going on. I enjoy these posts, though, because they're always informative and fun, with never a whiff of Comic Book Guy condescencsion! That's what keeps me coming back, even though I'm still a little sore at the good "Doctor" for initially luring me here with false promises of free Viagra. That was a pretty dirty trick!
You do have a point: Seeing the movie with Robert Downey Jr caused me to look at the Wikipedia article on Iron Man. The avalanche of noise was astounding - like Fibber McGee's closet, decades of accumulated CRAP just piled up upon itself in a pointless, confusing logjam.
It's going to happen whenever you have decades of differing writers; the same thing happened even with Doctor Who, which was itself getting unfathomable and absurd. When Russell Davies pitched the reboot he specifically said, “Toss the 40-year backstory and keep only the good bits.”
That's what the Iron Man movie did also, and it worked.
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So yah, if Mary comes by her maturity honestly she's likely to become the de facto leader, because she's the only real grownup there!
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The original Captain Marvel WAS an adult.
Since DC bought the character, they've sometimes presented him as a twelve-year-old mind in an adult super-powered body but that's not the Captain Marvel whose stories I enjoyed. I don't care much for the DC version, to be honest.
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The main reason why the Marvels brought the kids back when the job was done was because if they had stuck around, they would be robbing Billy, Freddy and Mary of their rightful time on Earth.. in effect, stealing their lives.
If Freddy Freeman had actually been Captain Marvel Jr, why would he ever change back? Why be a crippled newsboy when he could just stay super-powered? In one story, Junior put Freddy's clothes on over his costume and everyone thought he WAS Freddy, they look alike. But Junior knew his duty was to step back and return Freddy to the world.
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High over embattled
Korea, the mighty Marvel
Family meet
THE RED VULTURE!
Ah, the Fifties…
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Then there was a horror period, with ghouls and giant vampire bats and space aliens. Toward the end, Fawcwett tried everything.
Reply
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You do have a point: Seeing the movie with Robert Downey Jr caused me to look at the Wikipedia article on Iron Man. The avalanche of noise was astounding - like Fibber McGee's closet, decades of accumulated CRAP just piled up upon itself in a pointless, confusing logjam.
It's going to happen whenever you have decades of differing writers; the same thing happened even with Doctor Who, which was itself getting unfathomable and absurd. When Russell Davies pitched the reboot he specifically said, “Toss the 40-year backstory and keep only the good bits.”
That's what the Iron Man movie did also, and it worked.
Reply
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