Earth's Mightiest Mortal

Power of Shazam!

It almost seems like DC Comics doesn't know what to do with Captain Marvel, but since there was a spot-on series by Jerry Ordway back in the mid-'90s, it can't be that elusive.  There've been a lot of changes in the Marvel Family since then, though.

Originally, 10-year-old Billy Batson was empowered by the wizard Shazam and became Captain Marvel upon saying his mentor's name.  Among the growing Marvel Family was Freddy Freeman, who would gain a portion of that power as Captain Marvel Jr. whenever he said the name of his mentor, Captain Marvel (making him one of the few super-heroes who can't say his own name without losing his powers).

Since then, Shazam was killed, Billy Batson took his spot using the name 'Marvel', and Freddy fleeted up to take Captain Marvel's role under the name 'Shazam.'

Guess what Freddy "Shazam" Freeman has to say now 

to turn on and off his powers.

Despite being written by Judd Winick, I hadn't heard anything bad about the Trials of Shazam mini-series which gave Freddy his new powers and identity, so I'm inclined to keep him as the main guy despite my preference for the boy-to-man shtick of Billy Batson.

However, since My52 isn't beholden to marketing concerns, I'm going to take advantage of the return of the wizard Shazam to at least fix that name business.  In the pages of JSA, Shazam (the wizard) was rescued from the Rock of Finality and was more than a little grumpy at the failures of his chosen champions.  He took back the powers he'd granted to Billy and was critical of that upstart Freeman who'd stolen his name.

Moving forward into My52, the wizard Shazam catches up with Freddy and hashes things out. Shazam reclaims his name, and Freddy takes on the identity of Captain Marvel.  Because Freddy is empowered directly from the gods, he's not a minion of Shazam as Billy was, but they've developed a partnership of sorts (although there's still room for some antagonism between the two of them for flavor.)

I'm not sure how old Freddy is, but he was at least a teenager when he started, and my +5 years to the sliding timeline puts him at least to college age and adulthood.  Unfortunately, I lose the adolescent wish fulfillment of the original concept, but Freddy's mortal identity does come with lame legs (courtesy of the villain Captain Nazi), so we do get to dabble with the lame-to-hero status formerly held by Don Blake.  Recent art has sadly moved away from tying Freddy to Elvis and instead shown him as some 90s-style hipster.  Because Elvis admitted Capt. Marvel Jr. was his favorite (and an inspiration for his glam years), recent artists returned the favor by giving Freddy a rockabilly appearance.  Under My52 guidance, that art direction will return.

Alex Ross knew what he was doing, 

although we might not go that far in My52.

Recent years have seen an effort to differentiate Captain Marvel from Superman. They did this by declaring that, since Captain Marvel's origin was mystical, he would only concern himself with mystical threats.  I may have hinted at this before, but I don't cater to anything that limits the story potential of a character.  It'd be like saying Superman can only fight aliens, or Batman can only face off against orphans.  Some of Marvel's more famous enemies include such science-based enemies as Mr. Mind, Dr. Sivanna, and Mr. Atom.

I do, however, agree with the need to differentiate between Supes and Marvel.  I'll do that here by playing Captain Marvel a bit more seriously (what with the wisdom of Solomon and all) while Superman regains his sense of humor.  On the other hand, Superman's adventures will be a bit more "mainstream," while Marvel will be doing more time travel or alien world or just generally gonzo style adventures.  Bottom line, readers will be getting two different kinds of stories from these nearly identically-powered characters.