First I would like to say that there may be spoilers for any trade readers out there. This pertains to the real Captain Marvel.


So this is old but I want to hear some thoughts from anyone else who has been reading JSA. As you may know we saw the Marvel Family disintegrate and now Billy and Mary have been stripped of their powers. What I want to know is what people think of that and how they feel it should be dealt with. Personally I'm not a fan of what happened, I wanted to see Marvel DO something, the character hasn't been A-List for a while and I was hoping that this would get him some attention. I think it's a little too soon for another Trial based series so we will probably be seeing a lot of Freddy for a while then Billy will come back and they will explain it later in a mini. As for Mary, this is a character who was most interesting when she was in Formerly Known as the Justice League...and she was only there because Cap'n said no, so I really couldn't care any less what happens to her.

Not to bust on one of your fave characters, but Marvel will never be A-List because of the history behind him (which you doubtless know):

Captain Marvel books were the biggest-selling comics in the 1940's -- they even outsold Superman. So when DC acquired the Fawcett characters, they set out to essentially "bury" Marvel. He's usually relegated to "kiddie book" status (when they bother to use him at all). And if I have to see another "Shazam-Supes battle" in which Marvel keeps saying "Shazam" to blast Supes with the lightning bolt, followed by a reverse full-nelson, ending with a gagged Billy Batson, I'm gonna puke (that one's been done to death).

Billy will certainly get his powers back at some point, after being non-powered (and nearly forgotten) for a year or three.

Unless, tho unlikely, DC loses the rights to Superman. Then they'll probably use Cap to fill in the role of flying strong man.

There have absolutely been too many Superman v. Captain Marvel fights, I think that is the biggest reason too few people take him as a serious character (DC wants to be sure everyone knows that Superman is better and I accept it as a fact), however if DC would move a talented writer like Johns or Morrison to a book like this, as opposed to using them on characters that are going to sell anyway, then we could find ourselves with a real gem. I would love to see a secret origins...or settle for a one shot...or a back-up story.

No argument there. I never liked Cap Marvel when I was a kid, but I started to gain a whole new respect for him after he made Superman look like a fascist ##### on Justice League Unlimited.

I always prefered Cap over Supes.

And you're right about his appearance on the JLU show, it did make Supes look bad.

Cap was GREAT on that ep! The only thing that would've been better is if Black Adam, Dr. Sivana or Mr. Mind showed up but, with all the in-house legalities, they were only able to use Captain Marvel for that one specific ep. Just him none of his supporting cast. The wound up doing the same with Aquaman when he was about to get his own series on the WB before it got changed to CW. They stopped showing Aquaman all of a sudden and they couldn't use Black Manta so, they created Devil Ray. The samw edict went out about Bats after WB started showing The Batman. After the Hawkworld war, you never saw anymore of Batman's supporting cast or villains. In-house politics has made DC strangle itself on more than a few missed opprtunities.
Back tto what the op was saying, I didn't like the fact that they were depowered but, I kind of looked at it as SHAZAM taking the place of the reader and giving them a time out for all of the out of character/stupid carp other writers had them doing. Billy as the Wizard knowing his sister needs him and all he did was brood in that stone chair. They totally messed over the majority of the Marvel Family. Including the Black Marvels. I personally, want to see all of them back as they used to be. Billy as Captain Marvel, Mary in her red outfit, Freddie in his blue suit, Black Adam, Isis..too bad about Osiris. Even Dr. Sivana had his own family. Good beat evil and no one had to stoop to the villain's level to do it. There were some dark characters but, the Marvels just shined that much better when fighting them. Considering all of the problems DC has been having with Superboy and now parts of Superman's origins, if he becomes public domain then, they might just step the Marvel Family up the ranks.
I also agree that I like seeing the lightning bolt as an attack but, Billy has knocked out Supes before without it and back in pre-Crisis days Black Adam had WHOOPED on Superman. He was a combat monster. Over 5,000 years in another dimension doing nothing but fighting. Marvel always had to use Solomon's wisdom to defeat him.

Point well made adam1der and on a side note I love your avatar. I wasn't too happy when Osiris died but the panel of Sobek eating him was awesome. I would love to see who would win, Tawky Tawny or Sobek.

I'd like to see Billy as SHAZAM's champion again, Freddie with the powers from the lords of magic, and Mary imbued with the 7 vital virtues of man.

Thanks for the compliment! As for who'd win in a fight, I'd go with Sobek considering all the people involved in creating him, I'm sure he was a powerhouse. He just couldn't handle Black Adam or Osiris when he had his powers. Now, if Mr. Tawny drank that tiger-lily tea or whatever that was he used to disembowel Kalibak in Final Crisis then, I'd easily give it to Mr. Tawny.

Cause you don't want Mary to be imbued with the 7 vital virtues of woman?

Yeah, that would work out well. I think that I would tweak it a little and give Billy some magic based elemental lightning control in addition to his standard acronym powers...like what Black Adam has.

They have the same powers (though from different sources), Black Adam just has way more experience.

And when more then one member of the Marvel family is making use of the power, the power is slightly less then it is when only one Marvel is using the power. Black Adam, till Osiris came along, never shared his power.

I can't recall having ever seen Billy throw bolts, but that isn't saying he doesn't, just that I can't remember.