Blogotional: Comic Art

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Comic Art

We will complete our look at some of the better characters in the Justice Society of America with a look at one of the older and more enduring legends in comics - Captain Marvel. Now, that name has hung around comics in a variety of publishers for years. Off the top of my head I can think of 4 characters that have had that name, but I'm betting that most of you pictured the hero you see here when I first printed the name, didn't you.

Dating back to the Golden Age, though a character that generally belonged to unsuccessful publishers, Billy Batson was given the power of the ancient greek gods by uttering the magic word "Shazzam!" And he did so long before Gomer Pyle turned it into a sign of stupidity. He was bascially a Superman rip-off, but he managed to find a quite successful life all his own.

After a succession of publishers having his rights, and the character being tied up in litigation forever with Marvel Comics, DC Comics finally purchased the company that had the rights and he was revived well.

He has been in and out of the JSA, and is currently out, but I have to say I think they have finally found the story line that will move the character from enduring to great. Billy Batson is a boy, a very young boy. Yet when he becomes Captain Marvel he is very much a man. What a great tension for story development. His most recent departure from the JSA was triggered by a budding romance with the other childish member of the team Stargirl. The appearance of romance between a "grown man" like Captain Marvel and a barely pubescent Stargirl is simply not accpetable. Captain Marvel is afraid that if the Society found out he was really a boy they would no longer grant him the respect that a hero of his stature deserves. That's great story stuff and I cannot wait to see how it develops.

Just to keep things straight, this is the latest Captain Marvel to grace the pages over at Marvel. They have had a succession of so named characters, many of them thrown out simply to preserve rights to the name or to aid litigation. This is the latest incarnation of one that has gone through several generations and is actually pretty good.

But the original is the one most people associate with the name and with the story telling that is going on right now he may be the best of all time. So I will leave you with an image from the most talented painter - Alex Ross.