If You Could Reboot SHAZAM! would you?

[dswynne]

Ten things I would change/adjust/keep the same:

1) If Billy can't be "Captain Marvel", then I would have it that saying his name activates his empowered form, but saying it backwards de-powers him.
2) Replace "Wisdom of Solomon" with "Intellect of Socrates". Billy hardly utilizes Solomon's boon other than be smarter, and having Sacrates as the the stand-in firmly puts Billy into the Greco-Roman camp. Seraph, the Jewish equivalent of SHAZAM!, can have the wisdom of Solomon.
3) The Wizard would still be alive, guiding his replacement (i.e. Billy). In fact, I might pull the Elders aspect from the television show, where Billy can communicate with his benefactors.
4) Restore classic Fawcett City as a "time lost" town, from the 1940s, making it a preservation site. In fact, it had, up until the first Crisis, placed in suspended animation by Dr. Sivana's "suspendium experiment", which gone wrong.
5) Give Mary her own sextet of female goddesses/elders; make her Billy's half-sister.
6) I'd keep Freddy as a Blond. Yes, heresy, but it breaks up the Brunette aspect of the Marvel Family.
7) Black Adam would be the villain he should be, when he first encounters the Marvel Family. In modern times, his descendant, a Egyptian-American boy named "Theodore 'Theo' Adama", would inherit the power of Black Adam.
8) Billy is the leader of the Squadron of Justice in the 1940s. Later, he becomes a member of the Justice Society of America; later, still, the Justice Society of America Dark .
9) Billy would be the Champion of Magic.
10) Pedro, Darla and Eugene would still get their powers.

That's about that...

[Filbert]

We would return to the original Earth-S continuity that we haven't seen since 1985. Some changes in the mean-time:
1. If you can't use Captain Marvel, then go with Capt. Thunder
2. You've got a point about Socrates there...Maybe Solomon bowed out and Shazam got a new sponsor
3. Mary gets female ancients and Power of Shazam costume, giving us Captain Marvels Red, White, and Blue.
4. Black Adam is dead again and will never come back
5. Pedro, Darla, Eugene are the new Lieutenant Marvels.
Plain humor-adventure stories, not 'about' anything, if you know what I mean.

[D.Z]

Deboot to Power of Shazam with new costumes is what I would do.

Few more years and his early copyrighted concepted assorted stuff goes in public domain. Then you can do your own take just with new names.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Not really because I got into comics as a teen and Billy wasn't appealing.

But if I had to do it, I'd redesign him and the others to be more like this take I found on DeviantArt.

https://www.deviantart.com/jarein/ar...cept-244958460

Billy is very much a kid’s fantasy so I'd put him through a coming of age/YA story where he has to figure out who he's gonna be more thoroughly.

So my take is probably suited for one of the imprints like Zoom, Ink, or Black Label.

Edit- I dig the movie version the most so it would be a sort of sequel to that take.

[Gero4568]

I'd give a take that maintains the classic aesthetics, but shakes up the lore a bit.
The origin is pretty much the same, and occurs at the same time as the publication date of Whiz Comics #2. The original Marvel Family is active in the early 1940s, and fights in World War II with the All-Star Squadron. Say Billy's about 8 when he gets his powers, with Mary being a bit older and Freddy a bit younger.

There's more significance to why Billy is CAPTAIN Marvel, as he's the leader of the Squadron of Justice, along with the other Fawcett heroes.

At the end of the war, the Marvel Family learns of Dr. Sivana's scheme to place the entirety of Fawcett City in Suspendium. They foil his scheme, but as a consequence, the Marvels and Sivanas are stuck in suspended animation for decades.

Black Adam's a bit different here. He was locked away, killed, thrown into space, or anything else. He's the immortal ruler of Khandaq, and serves a foil to Captain Marvel. My reasoning for this is that Black Adam being a generic villain has fallen out of favor, and I think he's more interesting to play with if we get rid of that notion entirely.

In the present day (as in, a few years before the Crisis), the Marvel Family and the Sivanas finally are freed from suspended animation. With the League discovering the Marvel Family to be literal children, they're placed in the care of the Vasquezes, and then the modern adventures begin. Darla, Pedro, and Eugene are the new Lt. Marvels. Darla is confirmed to be a descendent of Uncle Marvel. Some members of the Squadron of Justice have modern legacies, like Ibis, Spy Smasher, and Mr. Scarlet. Others, like Devil's Dagger, have died or faded into obscurity. The modern lore can be a mix of N52, Power of Shazam, and Bronze Age Shazam stories. Classic, fun, and humorous on the surface, but it can be darker or more serious when it needs to be.

That's at least my super basic outline for how I'd reboot the franchise

[Jon Clark]

There are things I might do differently if a reboot was required, but I think the lack of follow-through the constant reboots cause is more damaging than anything else. We just need someone to take what has been established as of "now" and build on it.

I prefer Billy and Mary as twin biological siblings, but that isn't the current set-up so I'd move forward with the six foster siblings as the champions of Shazam.

[astro@work]

I really would reboot very little...

1. I'd give the characters an actual name. If not Capt. Marvel, then Captain Thunder and the rest as the Lieutenant Thunders.
The whole coy bit about avoiding them having names has become really annoying.

2. I'd have Mary Bromfield learn she is Billy's sister. It's not too late, would just be a reveal. I miss that.

3. I'd bring back Isis and Oriris as supporting characters for Black Adam. Their deaths occurred pre-flashpoint so necessarily cannon anyway.
The entire Shazam mythos was at it's best when Black Adam had his own set of players.

Oh, and I'd give them an ACTUAL ONGOING. One where the base premise isn't "what if Shazam wasn't Billy" which is mostly what we've gotten for the last 20 years.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, Mary's easy to fix. Her parents were abusive, so she ran away, and that's how she ended up being fostered (and later adopted? She calls them Mom and Dad now) by the Vasquezes, right? Maybe her birth Mom had an affair with CC Batson, Billy's father. He left before she found out she was pregnant, and let Mr Bromfield believe he was the father. He later found out, hence why he was abusive to Mary. Meanwhile, of course, CC goes on to meet Billy's mother, leading to his birth. That would make them half-siblings. Not the same as the twins they were originally, but at least it would make them blood related again - and explain why she was the best choice to be the new Champion when he was indisposed.

I'd also explain that Billy, Freddy and Mary are descendants of a previous generation of same named kids (who would've been active in World War II). That previous generation would be the one called Marvel. Darla is a descendent of Uncle Dudley, but Pedro and Eugene's families were unconnected to the Marvel Family. That would explain why golden age Freddy has dark hair and modern Freddy is blonde. Any post-Crisis appearances of the Marvel Family would be retconned to be the current Shazam Family. Pre-Crisis Shazam is simply an alternate universe where the Marvels were active in the 70s instead of the 40s.

[scribbleMind]

The only thing I would change is that I would stop having Billy get outsmarted so often. The Wisdom of Solomon is like his weakest power. "But he gets to understand magic stuff really quickly"

But that's not WISDOM. That's more in line with intelligence. That's it, and the reason that's it is because I have read many different variations of Shazam, and I enjoy almost all of them. As long as they don't go super dark and edgy with it, Shazam as both a character and a franchise is super malleable. And I don't that Billy and friends can't face dark things or dark realities, but they should be the light in that darkness, perhaps even more so than Superman. Billy represents a different kind of hope, the hope of youth, given the ability to make meaningful change that most youths don't feel like they can make.

[Frontier]

Bring back the classic look and attitude.

Mary is Billy's biological sister and not older than him.

Freddy has black hair.

Tawky Tawny as a tiger in a suit.

[Kaijudo]

Some really cool ideas on here so far. My reboot ideas match some of them and go their own way in others.

First, I'd definitely call Billy Captain Marvel, regardless of any confusion it might cause having to call the book Shazam. I've never liked the Captain Thunder name...it just sounds so awkward and forced to me. So it'd be Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family. Let the movies call them what they want to, because we now no movie turnout rarely brings new people to read the books. So just let the books do their own thing.

And it'd be Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr. Like someone said above, Darla, Eugene, and Pedro can be the new Lt. Marvels. I don't think the originals have appeared in mainstream DC books since, what, a panel in Crisis on Infinite Earths? May be wrong, but it's not like anyone's clamoring for those original characters to come back.

I'd put the adventures in Fawcett City, because I always thought that was a nice touch in the Power of Shazam series. And I'd continue the idea that maybe Fawcett is just a little anachronistic in how it's presented...modern elements exist there, of course, but the overall aesthetic of the city is a little on the retro side. Kind of similar to how Gotham was presented as a hybrid of times on Batman: The Animated Series.

Supporting cast-wise, Dudley would be back in the fold as a kind of hapless distant relation to one of the kids who helps out where he can. I'd likely stick with the foster kid family scenario because I think it's a nice touch and a better reflection of how things are than orphaned Billy living on his own or with Mary and the Bromfields or whatever. The wizard Shazam will have passed on but will appear as a ghost whenever Billy or the others travel to the Rock of Eternity. And Tawky Tawny would be front and center in this book, but he'd be back to his more "pooka-driven" origins than being a legit beast-man kind of thing. Give the book more magical trappings.

Villain-wise, Sivana would be the big one but it'd be science-driven Sivana, to really sell a science vs. magic element with his dislike of Captain Marvel. And he'd be the more traditional Sivana, not the Lex Luthor-light looking guy we've gotten recently. Mr. Mind would be another big player, setting him up as Captain Marvel's Brainiac. Black Adam would be a villain again, but a villain more in the sense of Dr. Doom or Namor than just twirling a black mustache...he'd have a kingdom, he'd do what he had to for his people, but he'd have blinders on to see anything beyond those immediate needs. Other foes like Mister Atom and King Krull would be built up to be bigger players. A few of these guys and some of the lesser villains would form a recurring Monster Society of Evil. Captain Nazi...that's a wait and see kind of thing.

I like the idea of the Squadron of Justice being around in some capacity and Captain Marvel playing a role in it, probably more as a part-time member since he's got his own family to go on adventures with. I'd have a line-up that included Ibis the Invincible, Diamond Jack, the Bulleteer (from Morrison's Seven Soldiers), a new version of Mr. Scarlet, a new version of the Golden Arrow, and a new version of Minute-Man. The new Spy-Smasher would play a role, too, but she's more of a government liaison than a full-timer.

And...I think that's it for now, except to say (as others have) that Captain Marvel would be written in a way that would show the kid underneath/wish fulfillment elements without making him super silly/dumb. The Wisdom would definitely be serviced as much as the Speed, Strength, etc.

[K7P5V]

Bring back the classic look and attitude.

Mary is Billy's biological sister and not older than him.

Freddy has black hair.

Tawky Tawny as a tiger in a suit.

To the utmost, I agree. Definitely onboard with your idea, Frontier!

[Jim Kelly]

A retroboot to the 1940s as it was, with everything the same as before. Not that this would ever happen for real.

With the Rock of Eternity, the Marvels can travel anywhere in time and space, even to alternate universes. So them being anchored in the 1940s wouldn't prevent them from crossing over into other time periods and other worlds.

[superduperman]

1) Different Earth from the mainstream DCU BUT DC comics does exist there as a fictional comic book universe.

2) The costume is his design. He molded it after Superman. The power let's him pick his own costume design.

3) Yes, the wizard is still alive but he can't go running to him whenever he has a problem. The wizard is mostly around just in case he abuses his powers.

4) The wizard's name is pronounced something more along the lines of "Sha'-Zahm" or something that sounds like a name left over from an ancient civilization. The media misinterpret how the name is pronounced and mistranslates it as "Shazam". And that's basically how he gets his name.

5) Teth Adam was sentenced to another star thousands of years ago after he abused his powers. Like in the cartoon. When he returns to Earth, he wants revenge on the wizard and his new champion until he sees that his former home country is ruled by a dictator and then decides to overthrow him and rule instead. Keeping the rest of the world out.

6) Fawcett City would be a rust belt city that is in decline which was the home of a car manufacturer or a factory town. The city's fortune start to pick up after it is the home of the world's first real superhero.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I'm of the feeling that the wizard Shazam has put Billy and his entire Marvel Family in a kind of magical time loop that regularly reboots them in order to keep his Champion forever young and innocent.