We hasten to point out that when we say Shazam is imbued with the powers of the Greek pantheon of gods, we don't mean that metaphorically. We mean literally. The wizard with the confusingly similar name to him was friendly with Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury back in the day, and it was jolly nice of them to share their magical abilities with him. That technically means that, when you consider them toe-to-toe, Captain Marvel might actually be more powerful than Superman. Sure, the big blue boy scout can conquer tall buildings, locomotives and speeding bullets, but he can't strike down lightning bolts and, erm, have a heel, can he? So the main thing we want to get across is quite how different Shazam is to every other superhero we've seen on screen during the current comic book adaptation renaissance. Almost every one of those so far has been trying to ground their costumed characters in grim reality, or at least a recognisable one; Batman and Superman have been done as realistically as its possible for such silly concepts to get, and even in the Marvel Cinematic Universe the Norse god Thor has been explained away as a sort of alien or alternate-dimension being rather than a mythical so-and-so. Shazam, meanwhile, is pure fantasy, in the traditional sense. His origin story, superpowers and all of his adventures are to do with magic and mythical beings - which is pretty refreshing, really, and suggests that his film is going to be a heck of a lot different from his contemporaries. And not just because he's a bratty kid who works at a radio station with a funny name.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
