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Im your host Johnny Rogers.
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Plus comment down below with who you think would win in a fight Shazam or Captain Marvel?
Now lets jump into todays video of the Top 10 Shazam Shocking Facts
#10 Fights with Batman In 1996 Kingdom come wanted to peer into the
future of the DCU and displayed a bleak environment where our classic DC heroes had left and been
replaced by their successors.
Shazam or Captain Marvel as I will be referring to him for the sake of this video was a major
player in this series.
The world is out of control and the heroes are struggling to come together as villains
and the government proceed with their own agendas.
We see a different Captain Marvel here, one thats well dressed and at the side of Lex
Luthor.
When Batman tries to take Luthor down he takes down Captain Marvel with a single punch.
This grown-up version of Billy Batson was being enslaved by Lex Luthors brainwashing
so the punch was necessary for him to become Captain Marvel again.
#9 TV Star Back in the 1970s television networks were
under pressure to not just make fun shows of a superhero fighting evil, but to make
them educational.
For the Shazam series they, unfortunately, followed the more boring and educational route.
This live action tv series had Billy traveling around the country helping the youth solve
their problems.
Although network execs aside the writers of the show were the real heroes.
Abiding by the rule to make every week a life lesson, they also managed to insert some danger
to have Billy become Captain Marvel.
#8 Best Selling Captain sparkle fingers at one point was the
highest selling comic book of all time.
Captain Marvel even was able to outsell Superman due to its whimsical approach at hero status.
It resonated with a wide audience and eventually sold two million copies of each issue.
Which included an appearance in Whiz Comics and in Captain Marvel Adventures, leading
to a spinoff series with the Captain Marvel family.
Shazam director David F. Sandberg even said - Captain Marvel is the ultimate in wish fufillment.
No need to be born on Krypton or train for years, just say one magic word.
- That idea alone was very appealing to a young audience of kids who wanted to be the
heroes in these comic book pages.
Its much easier to just whisper Shazam hoping to gain powers than to be born of a certain
circumstance.
#7 Stolen Trademarks
First nicknamed the big red cheese and 20 years before being brought back to life by
DC the original name of Captain Marvel was up for the taking.
We saw Marvel first latching on to the name first popularized by MF Enterprises in a short-lived
Captain Marvel series back in 1966 when they introduced their own Captain Mar-Vell in 1967.
When the trademark was open, Marvel snatched up the name so they could do more than just
a similar character.
When DC wanted to revive Fawcetts Captain Marvel series in 1973 they had to settle with
just calling him Shazam although they snuck in a subheading that read - the original Captain
Marvel - A little passive-aggressive, but I like it.
#6 No Miracleman Back in the day Captain Marvel was so popular
in America that England even got on board.
However when Fawcett stopped producing Captain Marvel comics the British spin-off refused
and so reverted to just calling theirs Marvelman.
He would use the magic word Kimota and also had a family of heroes going on adventures
with him.
When Marvelman was rebooted in the 80s they were met with some legal trouble as Marvel
Comics, of course, did not like that the publisher was even using the name Marvel at all.
So to avoid being sued and to keep the series alive they transitioned the hero into becoming
Miracleman.
So without Captain Marvel getting off the ground in the first place, we would have no
Miracleman.
#5 First Family Long before Superman had a family in the comic
book pages Captain Marvel had his.
Because the series was so successful it started as I mentioned a spin-off of his family also
having powers.
First, there was the Lieutenant Marvels which was just three other kids who also were named
Billy Batson all sharing the magical powers anytime they said Shazam.
More famously there was Captain Marvel Jr. which was Freddy Freeman being saved of his
crippling injuries by Caps powers.
When Billy channeled his Shazam powers into Freddy he too became a hero, although only
when he said, Captain Marvel.
Then we had the introduction of Billys Twin Mary Marvel who also had the Shazam powers
brought to her by goddesses instead of gods though.
#4 His Own World Also known as the Thunderworld it was one
of the 52 worlds that Grant Morrisons series Multiversity brought back and explored after
admittedly saying erasing the multiverse was a mistake.
The Thunderworld known as Earth Five featured the original Fawcett version of Captain Marvel
and featured a battle with Sivana.
It was a heroic return that remained very lighthearted in its stories.
#3 Fights with Superman In the debate of the century, many people
argue over who would win in a fight, Superman or Captain Marvel.
DC decided to answer this long-argued nerd debate in Superman #276 which saw a Shazam-esque
hero called Captain Thunder entering into the Earth-One universe.
After being manipulated by some evil doers Captain Thunder attacked Superman leaving
Clark no choice but to send him home.
Years following this event the two met for real in the aptly named title Superman Vs.
Shazam.
While the villain in this plot planned to smash Earth One and Earth S together the heroes
were preoccupided with each other after being tricked into fighting.
Superman again took the win.
#2 A Long Time Coming Before the final release and the decision
to go with Zachary Levi for the role of Shazam the movie about Billy Batson was in limbo.
Warner Brothers made a preemptive announcement in 2014 that Shazam was in development and
was hoping to have it out by 2016.
At the time actors like Armie Hammer and Alan Ritchson were expected to dawn the big red
cheese costume.
After seeing it though I couldnt imagine anyone else playing that role, Zachary did an incredible
job.
#1 Not His First Rodeo This isnt actually the first live-action release
though of Shazam.
After outselling Superman Fawcett also beat him to the cinematic punch with the release
of The Adventures of Captain Marvel.
The film hit the big screen in 1941 and was labeled one of the greatest cliffhangers ever
at the time.
In this story the Worlds Mightiest Mortal is gifted his powers to defeat a masked villain
known as the Scorpion.
The Scorpions goal in the film is to gather an ancient superweapon found by a team of
archeologists that was split up to protect its power.
And that has been the Top 10 Shazam Shocking Facts.
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From Top 10 Nerd, Im Johnny Rogers and until next time take care.