Bill Birch and Geoff Johns Say SHAZAM!
by E. Christopher Clark | Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Fawcett Comics version of Captain Marvel is all about wish-fulfillment for little boys, isn’t it? All that kid Billy Batson has to do is shout “Shazam!” and all of a sudden he’s this totally bad-ass Superman clone. Isn’t that what every comic book reading kid dreams of, that they’re only a magic word away from becoming a superhero?
Well, apparently the quest to bring Shazam! to the big screen (it can’t be called Captain Marvel because, well, Marvel Comics has their own Captain Marvel, and there’s all sorts of legal bullshit involved) has apparently been a quest fraught with disappointment. Ain’t It Cool News reports that the pair of Bill Birch and Geoff Johns will be the sixth and seventh writers to try and tackle the screenplay for the film. Newsarama also has a nice write-up.
What do you guys think about Shazam! as a movie? Is there any reason in particular that you think it’s been so hard to adapt?
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Comments
E. Christopher Clark says:
That’d be an interesting take. Do you see him, as a character, having any appeal beyond kids? Do you think there are hardcore adult Shazam! fans out there?
Shawn says:
I have to admit it’s been hard for me as an adult collector to get into Captain Marvel. The metamorphosis of Black Adam into a genocidal wacko helps, but it’s still tough. Billy Batson has always been portrayed as a bit of a whiner.
E. Christopher Clark says:
@Shawn - Thanks for the thoughts.
I have to admit that I haven’t picked up a Captain Marvel/Shazam comic in years. I was tempted to after hearing about something that Judd Winick was doing with the character within the last couple of years—The Trials of Shazam maybe?—but never did. So, I didn’t remember Batson being a whiner, and I actually have no idea who Black Adam is.
Brendan says:
My guess would be that it isn’t being targeted at kids correctly. Really, they should hand it over to Disney/Pixar. I’d trust them to do it up right.
‘B’