Who is Shazam?
What makes him unique?
And in an era with so many superhero movies, why did it take so long to bring him to the
big screen?
Let's take a look at The World's Mightiest Mortal with all the stuff you need to know
before you see Shazam!
A secret identity is at the core of nearly every superhero.
Some, like Spider-Man, keep it secret to protect their loved ones.
For Shazam, it's more because when he's not being a superhero, he's literally a child.
Comics can be weird.
Unbeknownst to the DC Universe at large, Shazam is actually Billy Batson, played in the movie
by Asher Angel.
After a fateful brush with mystical forces, Billy gains the ability to transform into
Shazam, "The World's Mightiest Mortal."
Decades before Stan Lee rocked the comic book landscape with the idea that kids could relate
to teenage heroes like Peter Parker, Billy Batson was the first mainstream kid protagonist
on the comic book scene.
That might have been part of the reason that his stories sold better than any other character's
in the 1940s, including Superman, at one point moving over 2 million copies per month.
And it makes sense.
What kid wouldn't want to transform into an unstoppable magical superhero?
With a single magic word, Billy Batson becomes Shazam, a lightning-powered hero played in
the movie by Zachary Levi.
Exactly what that means, however, usually depends on who's writing the comic.
While he always turns into a pile of altruistic super muscle with an A+ jawline, Shazam himself
has been a number of different things.
Sometimes, like in the movie, he retains Billy's childlike mind in a superpowered adult body.
In other iterations, he's a completely separate entity who magically changes places with the
kid.
Either way, he's got a pretty impressive set of super-powers.
The magic word "SHAZAM" is actually an acrostic listing the names of the legendary figures
from whom he draws his considerable powers.
He has the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the courage of Achilles, the
vaguely defined power of Zeus, the stamina of Atlas, and the fantastic speed of Mercury,
which is usually used to explain how he can fly.
Luke had an Obi-Wan, Harry had a Dumbledore, and Shazam has…
Shazam.
Yes, Shazam's mentor is also called Shazam, and yeah, it's always awkward working with
someone who has the same name as you.
Wizardly superhero exploits are sort of a specialized field; you have to play the cards
you're dealt.
"Shazam?"
You're probably going to hear the word "Shazam" a lot in this movie, so you might as well
get used to it now.
In the movie Shazam!, Billy receives the power to turn into a hero named Shazam by saying
the magic word "Shazam," thanks to an ancient wizard, who is helpfully also named Shazam.
The wizard is a mystical being who guards the world from his magical cave, but you know
how it goes - a couple thousand years on the job and you start feeling ready to clock out.
In the comics, he summons Billy to be his new champion, granting him the aforementioned
abilities because Batson is a generally decent dude with a pure heart.
In the original story, the wizard is immediately and permanently squashed by a rock after handing
out the super-powers, but in true Obi-Wan fashion, he occasionally returns as a wise
ghost to help guide Billy.
In the movie, he'll be played by Djimon Hounsou, who eagle-eyed viewers will notice has already
showed up in Guardians of the Galaxy, Aquaman, and Captain Marvel.
That last one's a pretty interesting note, but we'll come back to that in a second.
Being a superhero is a stressful job, so it's important for a crimefighter to have a place
they can call their own.
Somewhere they can relax, talk to the ghost of their dad who lives in a crystal, or have
their butler help them build a rocket car.
You know, the stuff we can all relate to.
"A lair?"
"Yes, like if you have something overlooking a cliff…”
“overlooking some water…"
Shazam's secret hideout has traditionally been the place where everything started for
him: the Rock of Eternity.
Like so much of Shazam's story, it's changed over the years, but generally, the facts are
these: it's a magic lair, it's distinctly rocky, and it has a rad throne.
In many versions, the Rock of Eternity sits in an otherworldly realm outside of space
and time, joined up to our world by mystical means like the magic subway train that summoned
Billy Batson to inherit his objectively awesome destiny.
It's also used as a prison for magically bound enemies of the Shazam company of heroes, including
the sinful septet known as the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man.
The first time Billy Batson was summoned to the Rock of Eternity, the Wizard Shazam had
some pretty unsettling furniture: a difficult-to-ignore collection of giant statues depicting humanity's
worst vices.
Surprisingly enough, they weren't just statues.
They were stone prisons built to contain the demonic personas of each of the Seven Deadly
Sins.
Originally referred to as the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man, they included Pride, Envy,
Greed, Hatred, Laziness, Selfishness, and Injustice.
Once the Comics Code lightened up a little, they swapped the "Enemies of Man" from their
name with "Sins" and switched out Selfishness and Injustice for Gluttony and the definitely
not code-approved Lust.
Needless to say, they've occasionally escaped their stone prisons, always with the intention
of wreaking havoc and general bad behavior.
It's been confirmed by director David F. Sandberg that they will be appearing on the big screen
in Shazam!, and it's easy to suspect that we'll see them as more than just a set of
statues.
Since his introduction in 1941, Freddy Freeman has been Billy's right hand man.
As a comic book character with an alliterative name, he was pretty much locked in to getting
powers at some point, and sure enough, he'd become Shazam's sidekick by the end of his
first appearance.
Like Billy himself, Freddy was another down on his luck orphaned kid, with a disability
that required him to have a crutch to walk.
"You're like, why so dark?
You're a disabled foster kid, you've got it all!"
In the Golden Age comics, Freddy's leg and spine were casualties of a fight between Captain
Marvel and a villain named Captain Nazi.
Captain Marvel, feeling two heaping scoops of superheroic guilt, shared his powers with
Freddy, giving him the ability to transform into the ever so slightly condescendingly
named Captain Marvel Junior.
The New 52 reboot of the character was a little more rascally.
A pickpocket with just a hint of jerk, he's one of Billy's foster siblings.
The two become close, and Freddy eventually gets a superpowered adult persona of his own.
He's played in Shazam! by Jack Dylan Glazer, familiar to many viewers thanks to his appearance
as Eddie in 2017's It.
Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana has been the conniving arch-nemesis to Shazam since day
one.
A moral and polar opposite to the hero, he's a small, stooped mad scientist, with his eyes
perpetually obscured behind thick round glasses.
He sneers.
He jeers.
He brings good guys to tears.
His frequent early appearances were almost always accompanied by a new contraption designed
to foil his nemesis, who he delighted in calling the Big Red Cheese.
Hey, that was a pretty sick burn back in 1941.
Like most comic book villains, Sivana took a darker turn in modern stories, with a much
more tragic origin story.
After losing his family, he tries everything from science to magic to try to bring them
back.
A mystical accident grants him a magic-sensing eye, the use of which slowly decays his body.
Mark Strong, who plays Sivana in Shazam!, already has a superhero movie pedigree: he
appeared in Kick-Ass and played Sinestro in DC's kinda regrettable Green Lantern.
If Doctor Sivana is Shazam's Lex Luthor, Black Adam is his General Zod.
See, the Shazam from Shazam! wasn't the wizard Shazam's first Shazam.
In other words, there was another guy who got powers from the wizard back in ancient
times.
This previous Shazam was named Adam, originally from Egypt and sometimes from the fictional
nation of Kandaq, but always from several thousand years ago.
The wizard granted Adam powers, thinking that Adam was pure of heart, but sadly, power corrupts,
and super power corrupts superbly.
Instead of a hero, he became Black Adam, a supervillain overlord on his bad days and
a giant jerk of an antihero on the few good ones.
There haven't been any official announcements with regard to Shazam!, but Dwayne "The Rock"
Johnson has been signed on to play Black Adam for years.
Could we see him in this movie?
Well, no one's sure yet, but you should really know better than to leave before the credits
finish if you want to find out.
When DC relaunched their universe in 2011 as the "New 52," all of their flagship characters
got a modern reimagining.
It wasn't the first time that Shazam had been updated, but it was definitely the reboot
that changed him the most.
That's how Billy Batson got a family.
During his reboot in Justice League, he was taken in by Victor and Rosa Vasquez, foster
parents who had grown up in the system.
Along for the ride were Billy's new foster siblings, Freddy Freeman, Darla Dudley, Eugene
Choi, Mary Bromfield, and Pedro Pena.
During his climactic fight with Black Adam, Billy learned that he could share his abilities
with his family and transformed all of his brothers and sisters into new, lightning-cracklin'
superpowered versions of themselves.
Victor and Rosa are set to appear in the movie, and while Freddy's gotten the most screen
time in the trailers, the Shazam siblings are along for the ride, too.
DC and Warner Bros. are definitely shooting for a franchise with this movie, so don't
be too surprised if you see them power up by the time the credits roll, too.
Superhero movies always throw in a few easter eggs for die-hard fans, and Shazam's long
history has plenty of pretty weird characters who might show up in the movie.
Just in case they decide to toss in some oddballs, here's who to watch out for.
Obviously, Freddy Freeman is showing up in the film, and sharp-eyed fans already know
that Mary Bromfield has connection to Billy that goes back a little bit further than the
other kids.
But then you had sort of super heroes… like Uncle Marvel.
He was just a chunky old dude who dressed up in tights and hung out with a group of
children.
It was a different time.
One of the more enduring bits of extra strength weirdness came in the form of Tawky Tawny.
When he was introduced in the '40s, Tawky Tawny was a literal tiger who learned how
to talk, wear clothes, and walk on his hind legs because he wanted to be like people.
He was grrrrrrreat!
There's a more modern version of the Shazam story that recast Tawny as a stuffed animal,
which would give the movie an easy way to throw him in for fans.
As for whether that stuffed tiger would come to life and start eating bad guys, the odds
are pretty slim, but hey, you never know!
If saying your own name to transform into a physical ideal seems a little self-centered
even for a superhero, take a little comfort in the fact that Shazam didn't start out that
way.
When he was introduced in 1939 the character was called Captain Marvel, which technically
makes Shazam! the second Captain Marvel movie of 2019.
"Wait, for real?"
"Just say it!"
Here's where things get loopy.
When Fawcett Comics put out their new comic book about Captain Marvel, the Shazam one,
back in 1940, DC noticed a number of similarities to the character they'd debuted in 1938.
He was a big, dark-haired dude in a cape who could leap tall buildings and had strength
that could only be called super.
His costume had a familiar design to it.
He was even throwing a car on the cover of his first issue, which felt a little familiar
to the company that had introduced Superman in Action Comics #1.
DC sued for copyright infringement, leading to a messy dispute that ended with Fawcett
out of business, and Captain Marvel going out of print for about two decades.
In those intervening 20 years, a rival company had appeared called Marvel Comics.
Since the copyright on the "Captain Marvel" name had lapsed, these new guys had snatched
it up for their own character, who - purely by coincidence, we're sure - also changed
places with a younger alter-ego.
After years of using "Shazam" as the title for comics and confusingly calling the hero
"Captain Marvel" in the stories themselves, DC would wind up officially changing the character's
name to Shazam.
Meanwhile, Marvel would just keep making more and more heroes called Captain Marvel, eventually
beating the Distinguished Competition to the screen with their latest version by about
a month.
Seems like the speed of Mercury only takes you so far.
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