He's been known as Captain Marvel for a while, but now Geoff Johns is working on a reboot for the hero who shouts Shazam.
In an interview with Newsarama, Johns talked about The Curse of Shazam! A new monthly series of 10-page backup stories in Justice League. He talked about why he chose the character saying, "It's such a different flavor. It's less a superhero story and more of a magical adventure about a kid who doesn't have a family. It's just such a different tone, and the pacing's very different."
When asked about the movie Johns said that the new series is not like what he's planned for a film version. "Some of the same character, obviously, because the characters cross over. Tonally, it's probably pretty close."
The film project is definitely not dead though. "There's always a possibility for Shazam. There's always talk about Shazam. And I can't get into the specifics on that, but yeah, there's hope for Shazam."
At the center of Shazam, Johns commented, "Well, the core of the character, obviously, is surrogate family. I mean, it's easy. That's what he's all about. The same with wish fulfillment. And tied into his wish fulfillment, even if he won't admit it, is a surrogate family."
One big change for the series is that Captain Marvel will no longer have that name. Here's what he had to say about the change. "Well, there are a lot of reasons for the change. One is that everybody thinks he's called Shazam already, outside of comics. It's also, for all sorts of reasons, calling him Shazam just made sense for us. And, you know, every comic book he's in right now has Shazam on the cover. So I think just by embracing that and calling him Shazam. That's just what he's going to be called for us from now on."
There's lots more talking over at Newsarama. Check it out if you like reading and news about what's coming up in the DCu.
