Should Billy Batson be able to tap into the SHAZAM! Like Mary in YOUNG JUSTICE?

[dswynne]

In the cartoon version of YJ, Mary, while in normal form, could create different magic effects using different aspects of the magic word. "Power of Zeus!" And then Mary could create a storm. Mary could still become her super powered self. But, as a normal person, she could only do one power at a time. Should Billy do the same in the comics?

[SuperX]

Thst would be cool,BUT I think they like the idea of billy being completely vulnerable opposed to his mightiest mortal form

[Frontier]

I think it defeats the point of the Marvel Family if they don't have a reason to transform.

[Digifiend]

Plus, wasn't Mary only able to do that in the cartoon because she was learning magic from Zatanna?

[9th.]

It's a cool idea worth exploring

[Triniking1234]

I mean saying SHAZAM would mean they use all 6 blessings at once. Not sure why they can't use one blessing at a time outside of their Marvel forms. Maybe they explore that in more detail.

[Jim Kelly]

My recollection is that Billy could sometimes do this sort of thing in the old Fawcett comics. Like if he was in school writing a test, he could tap into Solomon's wisdom. He might have needed to whisper SHAZAM to do it.

Not that anybody cares about those old Fawcett comics--it's not like they were very popular or sold in high numbers.

[Lukmendes]

Plus, wasn't Mary only able to do that in the cartoon because she was learning magic from Zatanna?

While she was learning magic from Zatanna, it's not talked about like she can only do that because Zatanna taught her anything, it just looks like she can do it because it's part of the power set.

And honestly, the only real benefit that has is to power up someone else, if a character can have the powers one at a time, why not just use everything at once? There's no real downsides to doing that.

It is worth wondering if one member of the Marvel family can buff someone else though, like say, have Mary transform, and then Billy also buffs her to get the strength of Zeus so she's twice as strong (Or not if it doesn't stack that much) lol.

My recollection is that Billy could sometimes do this sort of thing in the old Fawcett comics. Like if he was in school writing a test, he could tap into Solomon's wisdom. He might have needed to whisper SHAZAM to do it.

Not that anybody cares about those old Fawcett comics--it's not like they were very popular or sold in high numbers.

You talk like the old Fawcett comics outsold Superman and DC sued Fawcett via a very lousy lawsuit to be able to steal the Marvel family from Fawcett, that's crazy stuff man.

[Digifiend]

^That's not what happened. Yes, Captain Marvel was outselling Superman, and yes, they sued Fawcett, who axed their superhero line as a result. But this was in the 1950s. DC didn't start publishing Shazam until the 70s, and that was under licence at first, it was a decade or so before they bought the Marvel Family outright - so the suing certainly wasn't done to steal the characters off them. This is why Marvel's Marvel family exists, the trademark actually lapsed. First another publisher did that robot Captain Marvel with the SPLIT! gimmick, then Marvel launched their cosmic hero Mar-Vell, both before DC started their version of Shazam. Had they simply bought Captain Marvel in the 50s, they could've kept him in publication alongside Bruce, Clark, and Diana, and both 1960s Captain Marvels would've either not existed or been called something else.

[Jim Kelly]

Sorry that my catty comment ignited any dispute.

I think National Comics buying the Marvels from Fawcett in the 1950s would have sent the wrong message. The reason the publisher sued them way back in the 1940s (where it was dragged through the courts for years) was to warn off other publishers from doing the same thing. They had put the fear of God into Fox when they published their Wonder Man--so like the Greeks going to the Trojan War, the Superman publishers expected a quick and easy battle. The thing is Fawcett was a successful publisher like Dell and as long as they were making good money off of Captain Marvel, they didn't need to settle. It was only in the 1950s, when their comic books weren't doing that well, that they gave up, because they had other fish to fry. And National got to say they had killed off Captain Marvel and proved their point to other publishers.

By the early 1970s, a completely different group were running National--some of whom had affection for the Big Red Cheese--and they wanted to bring him back.

In hindsight, there wasn't much that National had gained. Fawcett probably would have given up on Captain Marvel anyway--and maybe have sold that to National. They got HOPALONG CASSIDY from Fawcett, while Charlton picked up FUNNY ANIMALS (featuring Hoppy the Marvel Bunny). Other publishers seemed to get over their fear of the Superman publisher and have continued to copy elements from the Man of Steel. And if Fawcett had held the Marvel trademark then it wouldn't have gone begging for someone else to pick it up--there never would have been a Marvel Age of comics (the Atlas publisher would have had to think of a different name for their comics group).