It's been a minute since I put anything up here, and I apologize for that, there has been a lot going on with the Government shut down, and it has affected a lot of my work, so again I am sorry. That being said there were some big trailers released in that time: Spider-Man Far From Home, Avengers Endgame, and yesterday they even released a 20-second teaser for Birds of Prey (which looks frankly god awful). However, of all the trailers dropped, the one that has me most excited is the second trailer for DC's upcoming film SHAZAM! which debuted a ton of new footage from the film and even gave us our first really good look at Billy's transformation and introduced his ability to fly. However, as great as the footage is in the trailer, the thing that has me most excited about it is that it appears that Shazam is being made to be the Superman film we deserved in the first place.
Now a little while ago I wrote a piece on how to make the perfect Superman film. That at its core it should be a story that focuses on the character's connections to humanity, his relationships, to show his own. If this trailer is anything to go by, it appears that this is the approach that DC has taken for the Big Red Cheese. SHAZAM! seems to focus not only on Billy's exploits of heroism but his connection to people. His friendship and bonds of family with the kids in his new foster home (predominantly Freddy Freeman) seem to be the driving factors of the film. The big question is, why use SHAZAM for this and not Superman?
When Superman was created back in 1939, it started a massive competition between a whole bunch of magazine companies. During this time it wasn't just Marvel and Dc, there were all sorts of magazines and publishing companies and all of them had their artists deliver their own version of Superman. Probably the most obvious was Whiz comics' Captain Marvel or SHAZAM. It was in fact so obvious that he was one of the first properties acquired by DC comics in its copyright infringement case that allowed for the acquisition of several heroes. SHAZAM's character design and powers are very similar to Superman's: Wisdom of Solomon, Strength of Hercules, Stamina of Atlas, Lightning of Zeus, Courage of Achilles, and Speed of Mercury, but the thing that separates them is their origin and it's because of this origin that SHAZAM shines brighter than Superman, and ultimately that's why SHAZAM! is being made. It has always been my opinion that SHAZAM is the perfected idea of the Man of steel, give all the power under the sun to an adult who has all his ducks in a row, and it has the risk of becoming monotonous; give it to a 10-year-old kid who's felt powerless his whole life, now that has almost limitless potential. So in a time where there is so much uncertainty with the future of these characters in these films (namely the uncertain future of Henry Cavill's tenure as Superman), SHAZAM! is set to become the new heart of the DC films, to shine bright the way Superman should have from the start.
Since the box office success of Aquaman, people have hailed it the fresh start for DC Films, well they are mistaken. Aquaman was instead the final chapter of Snyder's film universe. While Snyder had little to nothing to do with the film, it still exists in the world he created. While SHAZAM! does still take place in this Universe, it stands alone completely from the rest of those films, having no strings attached aside from a few easter eggs. SHAZAM! is the start of DC's new direction of films (all the more reason the new Birds of Prey teaser is so disappointing). I fully expect SHAZAM to repair a lot of the brand damage done to DC over the past few years, and I am excited to see my favorite DC hero shine on screen.
This has been another edition of Comic Relief! I hope you have enjoyed and we will see you again soon!
-Michael
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