I need to say something first before the die-hard comic fans storm my place with torches and pitchforks. I know that the character’s name is Captain Marvel, but dagnabbit, “Shazam!” makes for such a better headline!
Let me share a story with you. A long long time ago, I had to do some form of assignment for my grade 4 class. The details are exceedingly fuzzy, but I do know that Captain Marvel was the subject, and for some reason I recall hounding some guy at a local comic book shop for days, grilling him on everything Captain Marvel related. In the end, I somehow convinced him to come to my class and do a talk on The Big Red Cheese. Since then, I haven’t really given much thought to Billy Batson, other than seeing an image of him here or there in my travels. So imagine my surprise when I saw this image of Captain Marvel in the cartoon tattoo galleries.
I think what I like most about the image is that it’s closer to Alex Ross’ take on Captain Marvel, as opposed to the traditional “cartoony” feel that is normally associated with him.
It’s pretty interesting to think that there’s an entire generation’s worth of superheroes that never made the transition to modern popular culture. Be it simply because the publisher shut down, or the rights were never picked up by Marvel or DC when they took to the forefront of the industry. All the independent/small scale publishers fell by the wayside over 60 years ago, and anything that wasn’t bought up has slipped into obscurity.
Do you have a tattoo or something else related to an obscure comic/cartoon/other? Send it my way.
Comments
11 responses to “Shazam!”
Looks like it came from the comic “Kingdom Come” by Mark Waid and Alex Ross.
fantastic!
Original picture, just because I love Alex Ross and Captain Marvel :
http://www.bodoi.info/wp-content/images/0908_images/S0933/captain_marvel_alex_ross.jpg
This is awesome!
Die-hard comic book fans (like myself) would also understand that, due to the trademark laws, DC Comics cannot use the name of Captain Marvel on their comic book titles and advertisements. Even an upcoming DVD release of animated short films refers to him as “a fan-favorite DC character Shazam!”
mice
it seems like he’s holding his penis
Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury!
Hey, Captain Marvel may be an older character, but he hasn’t fallen by the wayside.
You still see him all the time. Especially in a lot of DC animated series. The Brave and the Bold, Justice League Unlimited, etc.
And a lot of those series are still going on now.
This is great. Despite his apparent drop in popularity, its also kind of notable that in addition to being included in the Kingdom Come comicbooks and the Brave and the Bold series, he was also one of the select DC characters to make it into the main roster for the Mortal Kombat vs DC video game… Anyhow, this tattoo made me giddy!
I thought it was the guy from “Shazam!”