Jon begins a journey through the original adventures of Captain Marvel with Whiz Comics 1 (1939)!
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Jon begins a journey through the original adventures of Captain Marvel with Whiz Comics 1 (1939)!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
2 replies on “Say the Magic Word: SHAZAM! 1 — A Crazy Subway Ride”
I’ve always loved this origin story for Captain Marvel I can’t bring myself to call him “Shazam”, not only because that’s the wizard’s name, but because it’s also the word that causes his transformation, which would make him unable to introduce himself to anyone. “I am Shazam!” BOOM! Lightning strikes, and his Billy Batson!
I think we have to go with Billy following the mysterious stranger into the subway, because, story-wise, it’s the precipitating incident that begins the story. This is not high literature; it’s a comic book for little kids who are probably not deeply critical readers. They just want to get to the excitement of the story, and Captain Marvel is a pretty exciting character.
Hi Jon
Nice to start listening to something new after I finally finished listening to all of Superman in Crisis (I’ve held off on listening to your Supergirl episodes as my own Superman readthrough is still just two issues away from her debut).
Never been a big CM fan. Apart from his few appearances in Crisis, my first exposure to him was in Legends and as such I’m probably one of the two or three people who really like the Roy Thomas origin mini-series from 1987.
Reason I’m writing though is to correct you about the legendary Dan Dare. His adventures were always futuristic sci-fi, there were never any World War 2 stories. The series began in Eagle comic in 1950 with his stories set in the futuristic world of the 1990s(!). The first revival in the late 70s in 2000AD comic took him further into the future and the second revival in the New Eagle in the 1980s followed the adventures of the original Dan’s great-grandson.
There was a misguided attempt in the 80s to retcon the original Dan to being a WW2 pilot who was time warped forward to 1995 (to explain away his very 1940s persona) but it didn’t stick and as the New Eagle limped into the 90s, they went back to telling new stories of the original Dan in a style that was very faithful to the old Eagle.
Now to listen to your B5 podcast!