Captain Marvel – the original one, the ‘Shazam!’ one – has one of the most perfect origins in comics. It has all the occult, agoraphobic sensation of a fairy tale, of being lost in a dark forest at night that seems to go on forever, explicit only where it needs be an implying ominous and awesome forces moving in unseen ways. It’s a bit of a shame when later writers mess with it; I’ve never seen anything added to or removed from it which failed to take away some of its oomph.
The other thing about Cap’s origin (and earliest tales, back when he was the most popular children’s character being published) is how seamlessly it ties into the most popular children’s character being published today: Harry Potter.
I was thinking about this after finally getting around to watching that “Return of Black Adam” short, and chatted about it a little with Evan Shaner last night: You’ve got three kids (boy-girl-boy, even) shouldering an enormous adult burden in the battle against evil, you’ve got a noble but doomed wizard, his former student/champion turned evil, a lovable old fraud of a guardian, dead parents, talking animals, a cruel uncle, a hidden world of magic accessible by key phrases – even a lightning bolt motif and a magic train.
Obviously, it’s not step-for-step and word-for-word interchangable, but they’re obviously coming from the same metaphorical and folkloric places – and more than that, they both share the secret of their success, that they make magic seem like an accessible place. All you need to know is the words that make it happen…
So, I’m a little obsessed with this now, partially also driven on by Boris Johnson’s recent Telegraph article wherein he mentions – rightly, although I think he misses the larger point that makes Harry Potter so accessible – the essential Britishness of the boarding school experience and how that simply doesn’t translate to American culture. Ever since I read that, I’ve been thinking about what would be the American equivalent, which is partly where this design comes from: While thinking about Billy Batson enrolled in a secret private wizard academy in New York City, based on the pretty standard college placement school uniform (the scarf’s a nod to Harry Potter’s world, plus a way to get the cape motif in)…
I may come back and revisit this idea, once Emerald City wraps up. The idea of designing a Ronnish Cap Jr and a Hermione-ish Mary Marvel is pretty tempting, not to mention Uncle Dudley Hagrid (or would he be better as a Talky Tawny?) …
Originally published at Calamity Jon Save Us!. You can comment here or there.