Hello, film fans! This week on The Fansplainers, Ian and David take a long, hard, appraising look at DC’s latest entry into the overstuffed superhero marketplace: Shazam!
David is in favour of DC’s new shotgun approach to their movies – curious to see where more independent directions will take their movies. Ian prefers the more cohesive MCU with its extraordinarily careful architecture. But what did Ian and David think of Shazam!? Well, they got some fansplaining to do!
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As I listened, I was hoping to hear about Alan Moore’s Marvelman connection, now known as Miracleman in the comics. This too was a sticky situation of legally using the word “Marvel”, but it all turned out fine and still resonates as one of the greatest comic books of the mid-80’s for me. Miracleman’s human counterpart was named Mike Moran and not unlike Billy Batson yelling “Shazam!”, he says the word “Kimota” which is “Atomic” backwards. At one point in Shazam! there’s a security guard with a name badge that says “Moran”, I wonder if this is an Easter egg and a nod to Moore’s Shazam-like creation’s alter ego Mike Moran?
As you listed out your valid points of what makes a good villain, also take a look at Dr. Gargunza from Miracleman who is based on Sivana. Moore’s Gargunza actually creates Miracleman and has power over him by saying certain words that render him powerless. It’s later in the series, but Miracleman grabs Gargunza, his creator, at one point and crushes his jaws so he cannot speak the magic word. Miracleman then flies Gargunza into space and hurls his barely conscious body back at Earth. He burns up upon reentry into the atmosphere so that all that is left is a smoldering hipbone. I remember reading this in horror and at the time, had never seen a villain quite like this…
Wow! I guess when I read Miracleman back in the day (that day being the mid-Eighties), I wasn’t very familiar with Captain Marvel. All those parallels between the two characters went right over my head! Now I’ll have to dig them out and give them another read! Thanks, Ed!
When you’re done thanking me, you can write a letter to Alan Moore. My manager at Lone Star Comics introduced me to Alan Moore when we hired him, he used to say, “Reading comics is like Thanksgiving dinner…when you’re ready to move from the kid’s table to the adult table, I’ll introduce you to Alan Moore.” Miracleman was the first Moore comic he recommended to me, before Watchmen and Swamp Thing, he even bought them for me (At a 30% store discount) with the guarantee that if I didn’t like the stories, he’d give me the money he spent on them. I couldn’t get enough of Moore after that and even though I didn’t draw a parallel to Captain Marvel right away, it’s obvious Moore was basically doing his version of the Big Red Cheese right under our noses. I guess I remember these comics fondly since it was a defining moment in my reading tastes.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. I liked the warmth of the foster family scenes the most and was happy that they cast Cooper Andrews (The Walking Dead’s Jerry) as the foster dad. Even when fighting zombies, he’s an amiable kind of guy.
For a non-superhero movie, maybe you guys can check out Long Shot with Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron. It’s got a good cast on paper and sounds like a fun “high” concept for a comedy.
I have no plans to see Long Shot as I am no big fan of Seth Rogen nor am I a fan of Charlize Theron’s strange desire to have sex with unattractive men in films: Patton Oswalt in Young Adult, Seth McFarlane in A Million Ways to Die in the West and now Seth Rogen!?! Is this stunt casting gone mad??? Or perhaps we can blame it on her appearance as a femme fatale in Woody Allen’s The Case of the Jade Scorpion?
I’m looking forward to Long Shot. Seth Rogan always brings some bold choices to every film and Theron has been making some very interesting films lately. I’m trying to write something with both politics and romance myself now so we’ll see if they pull it off.