Shazam!

Fun fact: In some continuities, his Captain Marvel form is supposed to look exactly like Billy's dad, CC Batson.

Either way, we know from Black Adam that the empowered form doesn't age. It's why some stories or shorts have Black Adam die when he detransforms, because he ages 5000 years in an instant.

I wonder if a sequel movie will feature in addition to Mr. Mind the World's Wickedest Worm the villain Sabbac.

Sabbac's basically yet another Evil Counterpart to Captain Marvel. Rather than getting his powers from six deities, Sabbac gets his powers from six demons: Satan, Aym, Belial, Beelzebub, Asmodeus and Crateis.

They might think that he's too similar to Black Adam. Although if we do get a Black Adam movie, I'm willing to bet that he's not going to be the villain, but rather an anti-hero. So he and Shazam might actually end up teaming up to defeat a different villain.

I assume stands for The wrath of Satan, The Flames of Aym, the Sodomy of Belial, the poop eating of Beelzebub, the Lust of Asmodeus, and the Bane of Crateis.

The original comics also had a third Evil Counterpart named Ibac. Ibac was a villain who drew his power from four of the most infamous people who ever lived: Ivan the Terrible (Terror), Cesare Borgia (Cunning), Attila the Hun (Fierceness), and Caligula (Cruelty).

It's officially this:

• S for the Invincible Strength of Satan
• A for the Invincible Body of Aym
• B for the Evil Wisdom of Belial
• B for the Flames of Beelzebub
• A for the Evil Courage of Asmodeus
• C for the Flight of Craeteis

Edited by M84 on Apr 18th 2019 at 3:37:51 AM

Well glad I was wrong because the only thing I recall as the Bane of Crataeis was her daughter Scylla. Which would be funny if that gave him the power to summon her daughter to fight in his stead.

Fun fact: in the comics one version of Sabbac actually did what Sivana did in the movie in one story: absorbed the Seven Deadly Sins for power.

In Sabbac's case, the Sins turned him into an even more gigantic and grotesque demon ala Diablo. And rather than granting him powers like Captain Marvel, Sabbac instead was able to force other people to indulge in the Sins. His first use of this power was to use Lust to cause everyone in a state prison to engage in a mass orgy.

Sabbac: This Lust is fun!

Ivan "the terrible" is something of a mistranslation, the original meaning was more on the lines of "formidable" - someone not to be trifled with but not exactly bad.

aaaaannnnyyyyway... I don't think we need another evil counterpart that's not Black Adam.

I mean, this movie's version of Sivana already got the power set of Black Adam.

According to Night at the Museum he prefers “Ivan the Awesome”.

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Apr 17th 2019 at 9:18:52 AM

Comics Black Adam is all over the place from Anti-Hero to full on Villain Protagonist and back again (and this is actually in character for him) so if he does appear I would be very disappointed if he was just a straight up generic Evil Shazam (as in, exactly what Sivana already was.) Given a certain creepy little critter's late appearance I am presuming it will be more of an Enemy Mine deal with Adam being a more pragmatic, violent character where Billy (and the others) have to maintain their morals.

Man, given that Shazam is already basically a Power Rangers movie, I would love it if Adam was to fill the Sixth Ranger role.

I do wonder how the Rock (Dwayne Johnson) would portray Black Adam. He's a pretty good actor and most of the films he has been in has been pretty successful. So, would he give a serious performance or a hilarious performance to Black Adam? I am curious to see how this will turn out.

I wanna hear Dwayne Johnson say "Chocolate Egg Cream◊"

As long as he doesn't portray him as "literally The Scorpion King."

Which probably won't be the case, but still. Worth a joke or two.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Apr 17th 2019 at 5:01:59 AM

I hope they confirm Justice League 2.

Shazam and Superman vs. Darkseid is a fight I want to see.

As a dedicated Marvel fan, this was the first superhero movie I've seen where I basically knew next to nothing about the characters.

Going into this film, I knew three things.

1. Billy Batson is Captain Marvel, but the company's barred from calling him that 'cause of legal shenanigans. He's a 12-year-old boy that says the word "SHAZAM" to turn into Magic Superman, empowered by the various gods who make up his acronym.
2. Billy has a sister named Mary Marvel who also has SHAZAM powers.
3. His archnemesis is Black Adam, who is an ancient Egyptian pharaoh with SHAZAM powers.

I pegged Mary the moment she walked onscreen, but figured they were saving her power-up for the sequel. I was not prepared for the whole family to get SHAZAM powers. That was amazing.

I do feel like the Seven Deadly Sins were wasted as generic beast monsters. The only one that really got to shine was Envy, due to its association with Sivana. It was his sin, fueling his actions. But the others were just cool beasts to fight the Marvels.

I like that the Wizard and his purity tests were shown to be garbage. He only found a successor to pass his powers on to because Sivana straight up stole his impossible mind-control test of virtue. The next kid who came along, the Wizard just had to take a leap of faith on 'cause he couldn't give him the unwinnable orb test.

And it is unwinnable. The fact that the Wizard's got a guiding spell bringing him kids who are supposed to be worthy successors and yet for decades has a 100% failure rate on his test is in itself proof of that. Literally no one who has ever been exposed to the Sins Orb resisted its allure. The only person in the film who does is Billy, who already has a million superpowers and the Wisdom of Solomon at that point and is thus less receptive to the offer of power.

Power means more to the desperate than the privileged. So, yeah, the test was bullshit.

I like that basically the entire second act of the film was all about how Billy is about as far from the pure-of-heart champion the Wizard wanted as humanly possible - again reinforcing that he won the powers by default since the purity test was stolen, not by being legit pure of heart.

Billy was not a hero for most of the film. He played around with the trappings of one for lulz, but he was a "F*ck You, Got Mine" personality. He actually had the right kind of mindset for a villain; he just lacked any motivation to do anything truly heinous. I love the scene where he's trying to give advice to Mary and is just so awful as a person while doing so.

And that's what made his turnaround in the third act so meaningful. The Wizard's tale of what I assume was Black Adam was the story of a worthy champion who succumbed to temptation. Billy's story is that of an unworthy shitheel who overcomes his own shittiness to be the guy. The guy the Wizard wanted. The one the Wizard, like a stupid-ass, thought just sprang into existence fully-formed and didn't need to be forged. THESE ARE CHILDREN YOU MORON.

I, uh, I really didn't like the Wizard. But I loved Billy's journey.

And then the mid-credits scene had a talking caterpillar alien god robot thing and I'm like, "Huh. So this is what it's like to not read comics at the end of every Marvel film ever.

I would say you could have Billy joke that he looks like the guy from the Scorpion King, but given his age that might be a bit of a stretch.

Also, googling The Scorpion King only to learn it came out a full 17 years ago just made me feel old as shit.

Pretty sure the Wizard is always supposed to be terrible. One comic had Superman going to the Rock of Eternity and beating him up for what he did to Billy.

Superman didn’t actually beat him up, but he did give him a pissed off lecture.

I was actually hoping we’d see it in a crossover film, but the way this movie went it somewhat unlikely.

He didn't beat him up, he just yelled at him.

The comic btw was Shazam: First Thunder. And if you're wondering why Supes was so enraged at the Wizard for making Billy into Captain Marvel...

Sivana had sent assassins after Billy after finding out he might have been Captain Marvel. Billy was able to defeat them easily but not before his best friend Scott was fatally shot. This pissed off Billy so much that he nearly crushed one of the assassins' head and nearly threw Sivana out a window. When Supes confronted Captain Marvel over nearly killing people, he found Captain Marvel crying his eyes out on a mountaintop over Scott's death. That's when Billy revealed himself to Supes.

Billy: My name's Billy Batson. But maybe it's too dangerous to be Billy anymore.

Superman: ...Who did this to you?

Here's what he yelled at Shazam:

Superman: He's a little boy. He should be worrying about homework and school and the crush he has on the girl sitting next to him in class! Not worrying about assassins killing his best friend! He's just a boy. This is a burden meant for men.

Edited by M84 on Apr 29th 2019 at 9:50:42 PM

Now with visual aids!

God, I love those two panels of Superman reacting to Billy’s identity. Tranquil Fury doesn’t even begin to cover it.

I do like that panel where the Wizard shows he actually understands, though. Movie Shazam doesn’t have that.

One thing to remember is that Supes is vulnerable to magic. Meaning he's at a disadvantage while facing Shazam, one of the most powerful wizards in existence. Clark doesn't let a little thing like facing someone who could instantly turn him into a frog stop him from calling out bullshit when he sees it.

Edited by M84 on Apr 29th 2019 at 11:31:25 PM