The Convergence Shazam (with Shaner's art) was the absolute best thing to come out of Convergence. You can see Parker and Shaner REALLY loved the characters, the mythology and got their voices down.
Its a far cry from the writers DC usually hands the Marvel Family. Eric Wallace, who write Osiris in Deathstroke's Outsiders (one of the worst ongoings DC has ever put out) and then was assigned a "Power of Shazam" one-shot tie-in to Blackest Night remarked that he saw Billy and Mary as "tragic figures. That, in turn, makes them irresistible to write." [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=29115]. I'm sure Wallace is a nice guy and a talented writer, but thats a bizarre way of approaching the Marvel Family. In Countdown, the writers obviously loathed Mary (and knew next to nothing about her history i.e. no parents ever mentioned) and Judd Winick seemed more interested in creating his own mythology (and getting rid of the one that lasted 60 years) and turning Freddy into a clone of Billy/Cap except with a mullet. It got so bad that in JL: Cry for Justice, James Robinson actually poked fun at how no one knew what to call Freddy/"Shazam" or who he was. In the end he turned out to be a fake and the real Freddy (one of the most powerful beings on Earth) had been held a captive the whole time. DC Editors literally let Robison mock Winick's version of Captain Marvel and treat him as a joke (and of course Mary was treated as a joke from Countdown into Final Crisis into JSA - literally no one took her seriously in-universe).
Didio has said before that he didn't think the Marvel Family's "ethos" fit into the modern DCU (which is why most successful Captain Marvel stories take place outside the DCU like in the Little Billy Batson title or in Jeff Smith's Monster Society of Evil or even in Young Justice the cartoon), and has seemingly used that as an excuse to make the Marvel Family the poster children (literally since they are underage characters) for how to turn sunny idealistic heroes into dark grimmer "edgy" characters. It's why DC loves Black Adam - Captain Marvel not so much.
This is across the company line. John August, assigned by WB to write a Shazam screenplay, actually tried to make one in line with the ethos of the character (i.e. for kids) and WB? In the wake of Nolan's Batman, they wanted it to be "edgier" and they wanted more Black Adam, and they wanted Billy to be older (maybe so they make him Percy Jackson?). August gave up. He talks about it here: http://johnaugust.com/2009/shazam-done
It's no accident that the current movie version of Shazam which is on a fast track and is being shepherded by Geoff johns, has only one name attached - The Rock as Black Adam. That's the only thing anyone will discuss in connection to the project. The actual main character - Billy Batson, in either kid or Shazam form? Never brought up.
WB has no idea what they are doing. If Disney owned the Marvel Family (just like if they owned Wonder Woman) we would see the Marvels with their own merchandise (for all of them). Mary would be back front and center to get the young girl market (which was her role in the Golden Age and which DC no longer cares about) and there would be both animated and live-action versions of the characters flooding the Disney pipeline. WB, on the other hand, the company that brought up Harry Potter (and it was Diane Nelson, President of DCE, who was in charge of that). They want "edgier". They want Black Adam.
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Its a far cry from the writers DC usually hands the Marvel Family. Eric Wallace, who write Osiris in Deathstroke's Outsiders (one of the worst ongoings DC has ever put out) and then was assigned a "Power of Shazam" one-shot tie-in to Blackest Night remarked that he saw Billy and Mary as "tragic figures. That, in turn, makes them irresistible to write." [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=29115]. I'm sure Wallace is a nice guy and a talented writer, but thats a bizarre way of approaching the Marvel Family. In Countdown, the writers obviously loathed Mary (and knew next to nothing about her history i.e. no parents ever mentioned) and Judd Winick seemed more interested in creating his own mythology (and getting rid of the one that lasted 60 years) and turning Freddy into a clone of Billy/Cap except with a mullet. It got so bad that in JL: Cry for Justice, James Robinson actually poked fun at how no one knew what to call Freddy/"Shazam" or who he was. In the end he turned out to be a fake and the real Freddy (one of the most powerful beings on Earth) had been held a captive the whole time. DC Editors literally let Robison mock Winick's version of Captain Marvel and treat him as a joke (and of course Mary was treated as a joke from Countdown into Final Crisis into JSA - literally no one took her seriously in-universe).
Didio has said before that he didn't think the Marvel Family's "ethos" fit into the modern DCU (which is why most successful Captain Marvel stories take place outside the DCU like in the Little Billy Batson title or in Jeff Smith's Monster Society of Evil or even in Young Justice the cartoon), and has seemingly used that as an excuse to make the Marvel Family the poster children (literally since they are underage characters) for how to turn sunny idealistic heroes into dark grimmer "edgy" characters. It's why DC loves Black Adam - Captain Marvel not so much.
This is across the company line. John August, assigned by WB to write a Shazam screenplay, actually tried to make one in line with the ethos of the character (i.e. for kids) and WB? In the wake of Nolan's Batman, they wanted it to be "edgier" and they wanted more Black Adam, and they wanted Billy to be older (maybe so they make him Percy Jackson?). August gave up. He talks about it here: http://johnaugust.com/2009/shazam-done
It's no accident that the current movie version of Shazam which is on a fast track and is being shepherded by Geoff johns, has only one name attached - The Rock as Black Adam. That's the only thing anyone will discuss in connection to the project. The actual main character - Billy Batson, in either kid or Shazam form? Never brought up.
WB has no idea what they are doing. If Disney owned the Marvel Family (just like if they owned Wonder Woman) we would see the Marvels with their own merchandise (for all of them). Mary would be back front and center to get the young girl market (which was her role in the Golden Age and which DC no longer cares about) and there would be both animated and live-action versions of the characters flooding the Disney pipeline. WB, on the other hand, the company that brought up Harry Potter (and it was Diane Nelson, President of DCE, who was in charge of that). They want "edgier". They want Black Adam.
What can you do?