Shazam: 5 Things You Need To Know Before The Movie

3. A Man Of Many Names

You'll notice we've been calling this potential movie's star Shazam throughout, but he's only been going by that name for the past decade or so. For the majority of his publication history he's been better known as Captain Marvel, something else he ended up losing the rights to for obvious legal reasons. Still, after DC scooped up the copyright to the character after smashing Fawcett into the ground they did publish the character as Captain Marvel for a while, thumbing their nose at their nearest rivals. Now he's called simply Shazam, an acronym for the six mythological figures he possesses the powers of: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. It's also a little confusing, because Shazam's the name of the wizard who first bestowed Black Adam and then Marvel with those self same powers. And it's the super secret special phrase that Marvel's alter ego, Billy Batson, has to yell out when he wants to transform into his superpowered self (memorably used as a joke in the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man, when Peter Parker's trying to figure out how to get those webs to shoot out of his wrists). So, just so we're clear for any future updates about a Shazam film: he used to be called Captain Marvel, now he's called Shazam, that's also his catchphrase and the name of some dead old magic guy. That's all clear, right? Don't worry if it isn't, this is just comic books, after all. It never makes sense. And it's probably about to get even more confusing.