10 Comic Book Movies That Changed Characters For The Better

The wisdom of Solomon. The strength of Hercules. The undeniable charm of Zachary Levi. These are but a few of Shazam's wondrous abilities.

The original Captain-Marvel-But-Not-That-One was originally created by Fawcett Comics in 1939, and was briefly the most popular superhero on the planet, even outselling Superman himself. Billy Batson was a homeless orphan who was recruited to be the successor to the wizard Shazam for being pure of heart, and could transform into the superhero Captain Marvel if he said the magic word "Shazam". Captain Marvel acted like a fully grown adult, very similar to Superman and his other contemporaries.

The recent film Shazam! decided to go a different route, making him more relatable to a modern audience. Instead of being a chosen one and pure hearted, the film instead focused on him simply the last viable option, which helped to emphasis the film's theme of the dark side of the chosen one narrative trope.

In addition, Billy still acts like a child when he's Shazam, helping to further tie Billy with his alter-ego and allowing the film to have a more child-like sense of wonder with allusions to films such as Big. It's these slight alterations to the lore that make Shazam a character that connects with a far bigger audience than a boy who simply turns into a grown man on command.