The Assuredly Impotent Pleas of a Simple Fan Who Desperately Hopes DC Gets Shazam Right
So now that it’s been confirmed that Shazam is going to be DC’s next cinematic effort, ostensibly with or without the presence of Dwayne Johnson, I thought this may just be the time to toss out my hopes and dreams for how the project will hopefully play out (fully acknowledging how silly and ridiculous such an endeavor inescapably is).
Specifically, it is my deepest desire that the filmmakers — most notably director David F. Sandberg — understand and properly portray what I believe to be the single most crucial element of the character’s very essence…
The True Heroism of Shazam Has Always Been Found in Billy Batson
At face value, the character of Shazam (formerly known as the original Captain Marvel) is going to strike even the most casual observer as a clear case of standard wish fulfillment. Going further, I’d even say he’s probably the most obvious example of it in the entire world of superhero comics, save for maybe Spider-Man.
I mean, a twelve year old orphaned homeless boy is — out of nowhere — gifted the size, speed, and power of perhaps the mightiest hero imaginable, simply because the wise and immortal wizard Shazam (who I will refer to as “The Wizard” for the rest of this piece to avoid any confusion) sees in him — and only him — the compassion and inner-strength necessary to resist the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man.
Come on now. That’s a story just aching to find its way to the eyes, hearts, and minds of any emotionally isolated pre-pubescent.
But that isn’t the story. Not really. It’s mostly the end of the story, in all actuality, because the true story being told is that of the great and powerful Wizard who does the gifting.
If you remember your imaginary history, you’ll recall that The Wizard had been down this road before, roughly five thousand years previous, when he encountered another promising moral prospect by the name of Teth-Adam. And Teth-Adam was eventually seduced and corrupted by the very power he was given, so much so that he was transformed from hero to villain — from Teth-Adam to Black Adam — and The Wizard had to punish him for his descent into darkness by banishing his former champion to the most distant star in the universe.
But again, look at these events from The Wizard’s perspective, and you’ll find them a bit more complicated. I mean, did he really banish Black Adam, or did he just toss this phenomenal powerhouse of power-lust as far away as he possibly could? Was this truly a punishment, or was The Wizard just buying himself — and the world — the maximum amount of time possible? I mean, if he really wanted to stop and/or punish Black Adam, why didn’t The Wizard just strip this now all powerful immortal of the all-powerful immortality he gave him in the first place?
Unless he couldn’t.
Unless he knew this was a bell he could never un-ring.
Lifelong Mistakes Get Worse With Eternal Life
Look, everybody has the mistakes they can never un-make. We all take chances that go awry. We all fail in ways that can’t ever be taken back. Immortal, seemingly all-knowing wizards are no different in this regard. All any of us can do is learn from these mistakes, move forward, resolve to never repeat them, and maybe — just maybe — take the steps necessary to prevent them from harming anyone else in the future.
Bottom Line: Black Adam can’t be unmade, and he can’t be prevented from returning. The Wizard’s greatest error in judgment was always inevitably coming back. And he knew it as soon as it happened.
Enter the need for a new champion. Enter the need for Shazam… along with the looming, eminently visceral threat of where this second creation might possibly lead. Enter one of the most precarious and potentially catastrophic tightrope walks any character has ever had to navigate in the entire history of comic books, in other words: absolutely HAVING TO do something on behalf of the world you serve, which could quite possibly also seal the fate of it. I mean, if you’re The Wizard, how do you not ask yourself, time and time again, what happens if this one goes awry too? What then?
So not surprisingly, The Wizard gave himself ALL five thousand years to get this second chance right. That’s all Black Adam’s “banishment” was ever about, really: giving The Wizard as much time as possible to take every conceivable step necessary in BOTH selecting a worthy opponent for Black Adam AND simultaneously averting another Black Adam from being produced in the process.
Thus, when The Wizard comes across the young Billy Batson roughly five millennia later, you can rest assured and bet your bottom dollar that he’s done his due diligence. But just what is it that he’s now looking for exactly? The conventional answer says “moral purity,” of course, but this is a predictable lapse in judgment, born of sheer flippancy.
Remember, that’s what The Wizard was looking for — and presumably found — in Teth-Adam all those years ago. No, what he’s now seeking out is someone who’ll handle the IMMENSE power he or she is given, and somehow manage to maintain their sense of humanity in the face of it, which takes a level of heroic strength difficult to even imagine.
Think about it: Whomsoever The Wizard permanently gives this power to will go from being an ant to a lion, essentially. And once given this boon, he or she cannot be changed by it, at that core, human level. Who they are — their very identity — must endure through this entirely metamorphic transition unscathed, if they are to be saved from the very power they’re being gifted. And not just the first time it happens, but every time it happens after that for the rest of his or her existence. No matter what occurs to this person in their mortal life, no matter what they lose and/or suffer, the effects of such events can never compromise their wielding of the unbelievable amount of power they were handed.
Now does this, in any way, sound likely or easy to you? I think not.
So when The Wizard looks at Billy, yes, he sees compassionate conviction and moral perseverance. Yes, he sees someone who will resist the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. But more than any of these things, he sees most someone with the ability to deal with and endure the MASSIVELY intoxicating feeling of potentially being that powerful all the time, of being able to change anything and everything in their life for the better with the utterance of a single word… and yet not do it unless it is in the service of others.
Whether this person is twelve, twenty, or two hundred, it doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference to The Wizard. Only in finding him or her will he have even the slightest chance of rectifying his great blunder.
Timeless Lessons
So what makes Billy super is, of course, all the abilities bestowed upon him: the flight, the speed, the might, and the magic. But what truly makes him a hero is his fundamental, unwavering understanding that these powers — though undeniably a part of him now — still don’t belong to him. Being so young, and too innately compassionate to know any better, he gets that he is simply their conduit, a vessel, and he never allows himself to lose sight of that. He uses the immense attributes he was given, only when and where he needs to, in order to help the people he’s supposed to. That’s it. That’s all. That’s enough.
And then, when he’s done — after he’s succeeded in his duty — he actually gives the power back. Each and every time.
That incredible ability, more than anything else, is what will forever separate him from Black Adam: the man who never could give it back — the man who, to this day, still erroneously believes the power to be his, just because it can’t be taken away from him.
In other words, what makes Billy Batson a mighty champion is, in fact, his ability to utter the magical word “SHAZAM!” But what makes him the genuine paragon of virtue and valor that he is would be his unceasing ability to say it that second time.
Underneath everything else, it’s the most heroic thing he ever does.