DC's Captain Marvel, now known purely in the New 52 as Shazam, is getting the grim and gritty treatment courtesy of Comicon.com's favorite punching bag Geoff Johns:



You can read more about the controversial yet unsurprising change-up here.

Discuss!

Easy to discuss: That shit is retarded.

The Ness finger is definitely appropriate in this case.

Geoff Johns has a very limited range to his writing ability.

People give Stan Lee shit, but he could write westerns, sci-fi, teen humor, humor, super-heroes, mysteries, horror, twist-endings, you name it. And it wasn't just Lee, and it wasn't just artists. Think of the range of John Romita.

Johns is a one-note writer, and Jim Lee's art is stuck in the 1990's.

In fact, I think there's a scarcity of people with imagination writing comics for the big two. Not that there aren't any, but there aren't many. And too many folks who lack imagination, like Johns, Jim Lee, and Didio, are in control.

Speaking of which, do you know I'm going on ten months without BUYING any new Marvel or DC?

I like Captain Marvel stories where he's the only super-like hero in the universe. The world's mightiest mortal shouldn't not be shoehorned into the DCU and be a b-lister.

Geoff Johns likes to take these characters back to their roots so I don't think it will be too bad. But the only good Captain Marvel stories were in the 40s, DC's Power of Hope...and that's it.

I believe that Alex has perfectly described the situation.

Yes it is.

Does DC not learn from any mistakes? Making Superman grim & gritty failed, (Superman Returns). Why would this work.

Where are the Claws of Shazam? Would all the letters in SHAZAM change too? Some more modern, grim and gritty initials, like he's wearing a gun of some historical figure starting with the letter "Z" or "M" or something.

Wouldn't someone with the Wisdom of Solomon know that there are better ways to keep your ears warm than a hood. When I first looked at the picture I thought it was some kind of crossover where Hourman had said Shazam.


Yes! In a world with Superman Captain Marvel is redundant. In a world with a Dark Knight, Captain Marvel is out of place. It would be like Disney telling Marvel to insert Winnie the Pooh or The Little Mermaid into the Marvel Universe.

Too bad Disney doesn't own Shazam, the Disney version of Tarzan is is closer to the appropriate sensibility for a Captain Marvel.

They keep doing the same thing over and over.

The Blue Beetle was Charlton's Batman. So at some point someone notices and decides it's redundant and reimagines the character completely differently. Now the same with Shazam. Now he's going to be magic guy, so he isn't just Fawcett's whimsical Superman type.

Why buy these characters only to realize you've already got some just like them? It's like that joke on the Justice League unlimited episode with Booster Gold and Elongated Man, where Ralph is talking about Plastic Man, "...they've already got a stretchy guy."

Don't give Ed Brubaker any ideas.

About the only thing you can say in DC's defense is they have tried and tried and tried to do something with Captain Marvel and none of it has wound up selling comics. Taking advantage of the New 52 to Blue Beetlize him probably looks to them like all they have left.

Mike

Because they don't want competition. So they just buy it.

It's just a bonus if WB can make a successful cartoon or movie out of it.