Should Billy Batson grow up?

[randomideaguy]

I am not sure if this is worth a whole thread, but I could not find a Billy Batson thread so here we are!

People joke that Tim Drake will forever be 16 years old, even when the heat death of the universe occurs. But Billy Batson is out here and has been a teenager since Dick Grayson was wearing short shorts to fight crime. In fact, I think he was even older than Dick if you compare their ages in their debut year (12 vs 14 IIRC).

Now obviously Billy could theoretically be written as an adult. The bigger question in my mind is would it turn off his fans? Cause if it wasn’t well received, they would just can it and reboot him as 14-16 within a year or two of the run.

There’s a lot of options as far as what age he gets moved up to. I think a college age Billy, styled like Dick in the 1970s Batfamily run would work just fine and doesn’t make him “too mature”. What are your preferences, forum?

[sifighter]

Honestly I think he has but I think in the way of Power of Shazam, that when Billy started out being a superhero he was only 10 and while he has aged he’s really only like 17 or so.

Billy should basically only be starting to be in his late teens, because basically he’s been around for a while but was real young when he started.

[Exciter]

I think part of the character's charm is that he's a kid that gets to enter the body of a super-powered adult. I prefer that approach.

[Tzigone]

Honestly I think he has but I think in the way of Power of Shazam, that when Billy started out being a superhero he was only 10 and while he has aged he’s really only like 17 or so.

Billy should basically only be starting to be in his late teens, because basically he’s been around for a while but was real young when he started.

I actually dislike that he sometimes gets retconned to young and younger when he debuts. Usually to make him some super innocent/pure little kid. Which he wasn't when he debuted. He was 12 (according to reference material that I read that was written in the 1940s that said he was 12 on debut, but had aged to 14). He was a good kid, but he wasn't naive or feeding the rats (that was some Disney-level stuff, and while I like Disney, it was a bit much). He was clever, sharp, cunning. I feel like that gets lost sometimes when some people want Billy to be an angel full of shining pure goodness who never had a bad thought and believes the absolute best of every person. Almost a caricature of childhood, really. He really gets very baby-fied in some other media. I think it's made worse by the gap in publishing. Some of the later versions of Cap and Fawcett are much more bright-and-shiny and "innocent" than the originals. Though I suppose it may be in keeping with some of the later 40s stuff, as I haven't read nearly the entire collection of early material.

I don't know if the character can continue to work for fans as he ages into adulthood. But if he's going to operate in the same universe as other heroes, he needs to age at the same rate they do. If they're going to keep him a kid, then have him in his own universe.

Either way, I really dislike the naivete element sometimes making him a chump when he's supposed to have wisdom as a power.

[sifighter]

I didn’t mean anything by it, just most media I’ve seen Billy Batson in depicted Billy as around 10 when he first got his powers. Has nothing to do with childishness or naivety just most stories I’ve seen have depicted Billy as real young when he first got his powers, not just comics either also tv shows. Only time I’ve seen him older then 10 or even 12 (because reasonably 12 is about the same as 10) in his origins was New 52/the Movie.

Honestly I’d be interested in seeing what a young adult, 18 to early 20’s, Billy looks like especially since at 18 he’s no longer considered a ward of the state as an orphan has to now figure out his life situation. Like him having to deal with real world problems now that he is an actual legal adult and how that’s different from when he can transform into an adult as Shazam.

[Thezmage]

I think that all comic book characters should grow up and move on and get replaced, but as long as most of them aren't then neither should Billy. As a snapshot in time, he's a stronger character for being young.

[John Venus]

The whole fantasy of the character is the kid who transforms into a super powerful adult and unless he is in his own continuity you run into the issue of how old he should be relative to everyone else.

If it were up to me, I would just say his age was stunted or he is aging slowly because Billy prefers to live in that fantasy world of being Captain Marvel and if he grows past a certain age he would lose his powers or he just prefers of having the perks of being a kid and an adult. The whole kid reporter might make more sense if he was just an adult in a kids body.

[Tzigone]

I didn’t mean anything by it, just most media I’ve seen Billy Batson in depicted Billy as around 10 when he first got his powers. Has nothing to do with childishness or naivety just most stories I’ve seen have depicted Billy as real young when he first got his powers, not just comics either also tv shows

I know he's younger in lots of media - that's what I'm complaining about. They make him younger to make him more childish, IMO. More "innocent", more naive, more trusting, etc. IMO, it makes him growing into an adult more difficult in a real-world sense when it gets to the point that fans just want little baby Billy (and Batman to adopt him, sometimes), with defining traits that cannot reasonably hold as he grows into adulthood.

Honestly I’d be interested in seeing what a young adult, 18 to early 20’s, Billy looks like especially since at 18 he’s no longer considered a ward of the state as an orphan has to now figure out his life situation. Like him having to deal with real world problems now that he is an actual legal adult and how that’s different from when he can transform into an adult as Shazam.

I wouldn't mind it. It's just those "real world problems" were things he already dealt with in his early stories. Obviously, the world has changed and a 13 year old can't hold a full-time job and rent his own place and such these days. But I admit, there's not much power to the storyline of him dealing with making rent or being indepdent "for the first time" now when I know he was able to manage all of that decades ago. Of course, DC should in no way cater to readers like me and instead work on getting new fans for whatever version of the character they have at a given time.

I like the radio show gig, though, of course, news radio isn't what is was, and I'm not sure a syndicated talk show would work for the character. I guess, too, I feel like Captain Marvel was (at least originally, as things have changed so much) the beginning of things being better for him. So turning 18 is a great thing - graduating, having freedom, a good full-time job now that he's out of school, having money (aforementioned radio job, and he was very popular, not one of the low-paid many, at least once upon a time). There shouldn't, to me, be any particularly weighty (compared to what he's had in the past) "real world problems." He had those before, and it's not that no problems exist now, but that they pale in comparison. But, and I admit this, that is very much because I first think of an older version of the character, rather than the new one.

[sifighter]

If we want to continue the Radio idea maybe Billy Batson is a podcaster.

[Jekyll]

I think part of the character's charm is that he's a kid that gets to enter the body of a super-powered adult. I prefer that approach.

This. An adult Billy would be really dull as he would be Clark Kent/Superman with magic powers.

[randomideaguy]

This. An adult Billy would be really dull as he would be Clark Kent/Superman with magic powers.

Doesn’t have to be. Just depends on the writer.

I wonder what his career would be. Reporter makes sense given his history. But that history also includes actively trying to crib Superman in the early days, so I feel like we could ignore that. Social worker might be cool.

Him as a podcaster is great. I think that works more with him and Freddy as teenagers though. Maybe just a general podcast about superheroes.

[Jabare]

that would be an interesting story but not one DC is willing to tell in their shared universe as they don't want to age Bruce, Clark, or Diana.

Heck, they wanted to kill Dick Grayson at one point partially out of fears of how it aged Bruce.

[Thezmage]

This. An adult Billy would be really dull as he would be Clark Kent/Superman with magic powers.

What would separate an adult Billy from Clark Kent is that Billy, in his normal form, is powerless.

[Digifiend]

I didn’t mean anything by it, just most media I’ve seen Billy Batson in depicted Billy as around 10 when he first got his powers. Has nothing to do with childishness or naivety just most stories I’ve seen have depicted Billy as real young when he first got his powers, not just comics either also tv shows. Only time I’ve seen him older then 10 or even 12 (because reasonably 12 is about the same as 10) in his origins was New 52/the Movie.

Honestly I’d be interested in seeing what a young adult, 18 to early 20’s, Billy looks like especially since at 18 he’s no longer considered a ward of the state as an orphan has to now figure out his life situation. Like him having to deal with real world problems now that he is an actual legal adult and how that’s different from when he can transform into an adult as Shazam.

I don't see his foster family kicking him out as soon as he turns 18. Mary's 18 already.

[sifighter]

I don't see his foster family kicking him out as soon as he turns 18. Mary's 18 already.

Oh I’m sure they wouldn’t given how much they care for him. I’m just thinking that there would be some downsides for turning 18.