Heavily Penalized Stories Lacking the Flawed Alter Ego Shazam - The Fury of What Could have Been

Spoiler Warning for Shazam Fury of the Gods

Hey story fans, it’s your old pal the Writing Ref back with part two of “Stories Lacking the Flawed Alter Ego” series. This time, thanks to the opening weekend of Shazam: Fury of the Gods, we will be taking a hard look at the character, define what makes his alter ego special, and then go through how modern Hollywood writers earn penalty flags by getting the alter ego wrong. And oh man, do they get a lot wrong about Shazam.

            Who is Shazam anyway? He looks pretty generic. Just some guy in a red super suit with a yellow lightning bolt on the front and a white cape. The look kind of gives the impression of a kid who put on his red pajamas one day, grabbed a white pillowcase, and then cut out a lightning bolt out of yellow construction paper. Bam! Superhero.

In actuality, Shazam was created in 1939 and first appeared in Whizz Comics #2 under the publication Fawcett Comics. Captain Marvel, as he was known, defended Fawcett city. Artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parke brought the new hero to the page as a direct competitor to Superman. The main difference between the two heroes lay in the fact Captain Marvel was a young boy named Billy Batson, granted his powers via magic by a wizard. We will not focus on why the name Captain Marvel entered a trademark dispute which resulted in the character being called Shazam, but rather focus on the alter ego, Billy to explain how writers of the Shazam character can often earn themselves a big penalty.

There have been many iterations of the Shazam Character in comics, cartoons, and even a television show starring Michael Gray from 1974 to 1976. But the most recent in the public conscious are the recent films Shazam from 2019 and Shazam: Fury of the Gods 2023. Both of these films unfortunately earn a penalty against the alter ego because this version of Shazam can be described as the 1988 movie “Big” starring Tom Hanks, except a Superhero movie. Or maybe it is more accurate to say “Big” took inspiration from Shazam. The 1988 Tom Hanks movie even had a poster inspired by the long time comic.

It is worth noting how comparing the Shazam films to Big misrepresents some key aspects. These films are also the story of a jaded orphan finding a family and they also push the boundaries of family fun with some seriously terrifying horror-inspired moments sprinkled in. However, the comparison works well for purposes of this blog.

There is nothing inherently wrong with making the superhero a powered up version of the teenage alter ego. It makes for an entertaining and emotionally engaging story. However, this hero to ego relationship cannot be sustained indefinitely. There are several reasons why.

The difference in critical and audience reception between the 2019 movie and its sequel Fury of the Gods will go down in history as a classic example of not what to do with your superhero alter ego—assuming Hollywood writers or executives ever realize the mistakes outlined below.

2.     The Alter-Ego cannot be more competent or mature than the Hero.

 In both films, Billy Batson (played by Asher Angel) is very down-to-earth and dealing with a lot of emotional trauma. Contrast this to Zachary Levi’s Shazam, who acts like a thirteen year old fanboy of superheroes. In the first film, this dynamic nearly works, because the audience believes the superhero persona sets Billy free of his trauma. It also works because his new best friend Freddie Freeman (Played by Jack Dylan Grazer) is the epidemy of a superhero fanboy. It is almost as if Shazam in the first film is actually the hero version of Freddy even more than Billy, but the audience suspends its disbelief because we feel like Billy wants to see the world through more optimistic eyes.

However, in the second film Billy is even more even keeled. Asher Angel is not in the film as Billy much, and we do not get to see if time has made him loosen up to be more like Shazam. Instead, Zachary Levi does most of the lifting and he still plays it the same as a thirteen year old. They even turn the lack of dynamic into a joke, remarking about how Shazam lacks the Wisdom of Solomon he is supposed to have. The joke is cleaver, but it highlights the essential problem in the ego to hero dynamic.

In otherwards, the Hero should always be the more mature, confident, and capable version of a dual-identity character. The best version of the alter ego.

1.     The Alter-Ego must in some way aspire to be the hero he or she transforms into

 This dynamic is often very subtle. Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent are actually the mask covering up the hero beneath. The ideal self of these two heroes already exists. Spiderman is the responsible version of Peter, but Spiderman is NOT just peter in a mask with powers. Peter parker is perhaps the most interesting and complex of the alter egos we will cover in this series. (We will get into more detail in a future entry). In contrast, Shazam is the most on-the-nose when it comes to this rule.

Billy Batson has always been the superhero fan boy in the comics, and he aspires to be just like them. In the second film, the writers actually get closest to this hero-worship than the first with how he dreams of going on a date with Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, it comes across of course as more about the sexual nature of the fantasy rather than the hero idealism it should have been. It is a shame he could not also admire Superman more as Billy does in most comic runs. The reasons Superman is suddenly absent (yet again) is a sore spot for DC fans, and worth its own essay.

As I pointed out earlier, throughout the two films they accidently give Freddy the correct alter ego for Shazam. Freddy should have awakened the fanboy in Billy more, not just in Shazam. Billy being a rejected orphan, rather than an actual orphan with his twin sister Mary, changes the simple dynamic and complicates the trauma Billy must overcome, but it was not insurmountable to achieve. The issue is the thread of the theme got lost for the second film and did not hit as hard.

Conclusions: There are many other penalties I could call on the second film in particular. Shazam: Fury of the Gods seemed doomed to fail, and most of the reasons seem to be because the studio was between a Rock and a Hard place.

But moving all that aside the Alter-Ego to Hero relationship is critical to get right. The first step any writer must realize is they cannot be the same person. The hero is either the mask or the ideal for the alter ego. In the absence of the hero, the alter ego can struggle to reach the ideal and either succeed or fail at this journey—but it must be attempted, and it cannot be abandoned.

This has been another Heavily Penalized, and I’ll see you all at the next entry. Would love comments and discussion, so please sign up for notifications and leave your thoughts!