Sometimes I find that my mind goes in 15 different directions at once. Most weeks--at least where this blog has been concerned--I've fought the flow and tried to focus my thoughts. But I'm going to give myself a little more latitude this time and see where it takes us. (Heaven help us all.)So here's what's on my mind:
First, I want the Shazam movie to be good. This isn't commentary on the wider DCEU. I just really want this specific property to be good because I feel especially invested in it on multiple levels. I've liked Zachary Levi going way back--back even before the TV series "Chuck" premiered, back when he appeared in the 2002 Sara Rue-led comedy "Less Than Perfect." So fast forward through Chuck, Tangled, being a substitute Fandral (replacing Once Upon A Time star Josh Dallas) and one season of the hilarious "Geeks Who Drink" and yeah, we're fans. So I want it to be good on that count. But I also just want the character to get his due.
Captain Marvel--no, not the one in the Marvel Studios film coming out around the same time, but rather the original Captain Marvel--is an immensely underappreciated hero in the DC canon. His back story may seem corny--a centuries-old wizard brings a good-hearted orphan to his sanctuary via a magical subway train to grant him super powers--but I think that's the charm of it. It's an origin steeped in the Golden Age of comics. And while the good captain had an especially strange rogues gallery that will likely prove difficult to render on the big screen outside of the two obvious front-runners--Dr. Sivana and Adam Teth (Black Adam)--we're seeing that DC is having no problems addressing the same issue in its recently released Doom Patrol series.
How can you not root for this character? He's a hard-luck hero that almost makes Peter Parker seem privileged. Not only is the fictional character an orphan, but so is the comic series itself. Though Fawcett Comics was responsible for creating one of the most recognizable super heroes of the 40s--one that outsold the adventures of Superman--that couldn't prevent them from being sued over supposed copyright infringement to the point of bankruptcy. And with Marvel Comics subsequently trademarking the name "Captain Marvel," later publishers of his comics adventures couldn't even name the comic after him.
BTW - If you want to see an excellent treatment of his origin story, I suggest the "Superman/Shazam:The Return of Black Adam" segment of the 2010 DC Showcase Collection, featuring the voice acting of the late James Garner in one of his final roles (as the wizard Shazam). Note that the other segments are also good--particularly the Green Arrow story.
That brings me to my second random thought--which is, when am I going to get to see a Rom Spaceknight movie?
I'd originally heard that the character was going to be included in a shared Hasbro cinematic universe and some outlets teased the possibility that Rom--noble defender of the planet Galador--could be introduced (or at least hinted at) in 2017's Transformers The Last Knight. When those rumors proved to be false, screenwriter Zak Penn (Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, Ready Player One) was then announced--about a year ago--to be working on a script for Paramount. What has followed has been radio silence.
If Billy Batson was a bit older--and Rom wasn't a cyborg without a visible mouth--the two would certainly have a lot to talk about over a few beers. Based on a perhaps forgettable toy that I recently saw at a local comics convention, the Marvel-licensed comic turned him into a compelling, tortured hero who gave up his humanity to defend his homeworld. (Come to think of it, he'd have a lot to talk about with the Silver Surfer too.) Arriving on Earth in pursuit of the shape-shifting Dire Wraiths, he finds that they've already infiltrated society and they've branded him a dangerous alien invader. On the run from the army, he holes up in a small West Virginia town near his crash site where he's befriended by--and ultimately defended by--several of the local townspeople, including one who is a near doppleganger for his long-lost love left behind on Galador centuries beforehand.
Rom hopscotched eclectically across the Marvel Universe, touching the lives of characters ranging from the Nova Corps of Xandar to the Avengers to Alpha Flight and even Luke Cage. His foes the Dire Wraiths became ubiquitous enough to menace the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and New Mutants. But then his time in the sun ended--for a while at least, though the comic was recently relaunched with the revival of several Hasbro toy-themed comics at IDW.
For my part, I don't know that Rom needs to be part of a larger Hasbro-property universe--as the character could really stand on his own. So if tie-ins to Transformers, GI Joe and Micronauts are going to add unnecessary complications, I'm hoping Paramount will elect to move forward based on the project's own merits.
That said, Micronauts is another great property I'd love to see adapted. The comic by Bill Mantlo--who also wrote Rom Spaceknight--was an interesting mix of Star Wars and Inner Space, featuring a band of alien rebels who find themselves transported to Earth where they're only the size of action figures. But their pursuers are no less dangerous for their small size, and what ensues are some very cool fight sequences of dinner-plate-sized spaceships in dog fights across backyards and parking lots. (That description doesn't do it any justice--I'd suggest grabbing a few issues from the dollar bin and checking it out.)
OK--I'm going to stick a pin in this rant. The Micronauts frankly deserve a post of their own, so I won't try to cram that in here. If this week's stream-of-consciousness approach has shown me anything, it's that my mind tends to riff on itself pretty easily--as I pinball from one area of interest to the next. Thank you for joining me on this excursion; next time I promise to bring a map.
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