Shazam: 5 Things You Need To Know Before The Movie

2. He's Just A Kid

Hey yeah, Billy Batson! We almost forgot to mention the one other big difference between Shazam and Superman. Where the Man Of Steel lives a fairly prosaic existence out of his costume, as a grown up newspaper journalist type at The Daily Planet, when Captain Marvel yells his catch phrase and reverts back to his street clothes, he...well, he's a kid. An actual kid. A small child. Which can make things interesting, to say the least. When he's all powered up he's "inhabited" with the wisdom and power of the gods he invokes, but when he's in his regular state? He's just a child, with a child's mind. And precociousness, to be fair. The way that precociousness comes across tends to vary. We're hoping the film Batson will be more like the standard depiction, a 12-year-old homeless newsboy who gets his life back on track thanks to his superpowers and getting a job on WHIZ radio. More likely is that he'll be based on the current incarnation of Shazam, where he's a kind of bratty teenager who uses his powers to indulge his worst hormone-fuelled desires. Like putting a ping-pong table in the Justice League headquarters. Either way, that's further evidence that this DC movie will be a little sunnier than the last few, what with Batson being all young and childish and naïve. That and the rumours that he'll exist in a separate universe to Batman and Superman and the like, meaning his fun adventures can't be dragged down with their depressing shtick.