(Whiz Comics 025, 1941)
After the vile Captain Nazi is knocked into
Informed that Freddy is not expected to live through the night, Billy Batson makes the decision to bring him to the secret underground realm of the wizard Shazam in hopes that he might be able to do something for him. The wizard's shade is summoned via an apparently mystical brazier (and hey, I think that this is Shazam's first appearance since he was squashed by that huge block of stone during Billy's origin!) but rather than help Freddy, Shazam places the onus of doing so on Captain Marvel's shoulders.
In practical terms, this means that rather than SHAZAM, the newly-minted Captain Marvel Junior says "Captain Marvel" to transform, which as many have pointed out before me means that he cannot actually say his own name without changing identities. Does the fact that Captain Marvel can do this ever come up again? Perhaps it ties in to the more modern conception of him as a sort of larval being who will eventually evolve into a new wizard, but I'm not sure if it come up in the intervening decades.
Perhaps my favourite thing about Captain Marvel Junior is that since his comics were not drawn by CC Beck they have a different style to them and that when the Marvel Family are all together they emphatically do not adjust this. Everyone else (except perhaps Mary Marvel) is running around with that clean art style with those little black eyes and Cap Jr just keeps on looking like a young Elvis. It's always fun!
UPDATES:








No comments:
Post a Comment