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5 Upcoming Comic Book Movies That Must Be Stopped

By Robert Brockway November 14, 2007 2,221,454 views
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The Movie:
Coming in 2009, directed by Peter Segal (Link).

Who is He?
Shazam! is actually just the name of the comic book itself, not the character. Before you mock our punctuation, we'd like to explain that the name actually contains that exclamation point, a precedent followed only in the early '80s by that short-pant wearing duo of fancy boy-meat Wham! The character's name is really Captain Marvel, making it one of the very few comic books not named after the central character, but rather after the made up word he yells to gain superpowers.

Captain Marvel was essentially the generic brand Superman. The editors at DC needed another success like Superman, and decided to ape Captain Marvel nearly exactly. Captain Marvel is to Superman what GoBots are to Transformers, what Power Rangers are to Voltron, or what Cracked magazine is to MAD magazine. They just took Superman, dressed him in your grandfather's pajamas, paid a sexual deviant to write his back story and watched the cash roll in.

The origin of Shazam! is that young Billy Batson, a 12-year-old homeless newsboy, follows a mysterious stranger into a secret subway tunnel and boards an empty train that takes him to the lair of a wizard who gives him the secret word "Shazam!" The word is an acronym for Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury who all lend their respective powers to whoever yells the word with the least amount of shame.

Yes, you've read correctly, Captain Marvel in all of that skin-tight clothing, with his rippled muscles and dangling package is actually a 12-year-old boy who, thanks to a secret magic word he learned only by talking to strangers and following them into abandoned subway tunnels, has the amazing ability to instantly transform into the legal age of consent.

Previous Notable Appearances on Film:

Behold the glory of the live-action Shazam! TV show that aired in the mid-'70s. All the creepiness of the premise is on full display, as young Billy and his middle-aged male companion cross the country in their RV. Also, the Greek Gods appear to be represented by stationery cardboard cutouts.

Why Fanboys Are Excited:
The Rock is attached to play the villain, a likable enough actor who was seems genetically designed specifically to be in comic book movies. It's not a bad role, either. If you take away almost everything ridiculous that doesn't work about Captain Marvel, you have his antithesis and mortal enemy, Black Adam. Not to worry, though, sensitive readers, Black Adam is not a racist caricature of a black man that embodies everything evil. The "Black" only refers to his dark soul and corrupted nature. He's actually an Arab.

The script is being written by William Goldman, John August, and Bryan Goluboff whose individual past efforts have included Big Fish, The Basketball Diaries, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Princess Bride. So, there's some real, actual writing people there who can actually write action and character depth at the same time, if given the chance.

There are some themes to explore here, the hero transformation serving as a rescue fantasy for a boy abandoned by his parents and society in general. Maybe this film can explore some of the emotional complexities of the superhero that were so clumsily handled in Superman Returns.

Why Fanboys Will be Disappointed:
First of all ...

Also, these generic-brand rip offs only make sense if the original is doing monster business. That's not the case with Superman, though, whose last film was greeted with a thundering "meh." Here, you have a character with all the problems of Superman (namely, the all-powerful invincibility that makes him impossible to identify with), only without the familiarity and with a foppish gold sash around his waist.

I love how this article blatantly ignores aspects of the characters it mocks to push an ill-conceived point.

Namor is a badass. He's strong enough to take on the Hulk. He is a pretty terrible person most of the time. And he's ditched the green thong lately for a whole bunch of black leather. Admittedly, the wings are silly. But still, given the right script, Namor would make a badass anti-hero movie.

Luke Cage has ditched the crown and yellow blouse for jeans and a beater. While Power Man is a s****y name, he is infinitely more badass than Spider-Man, running around in red and blue tights with spiderwebs on them, shooting off all around the city, NOT f*****g the gorgeous red head (at least for a little while. Eventually I guess he grows a pair, but not in the movies, yet.)

Thor, at least in his Ultimate comics, has gone through quite the make-over, and I imagine that they'll go that direction with the movie. Much more realistic and rainbowy.

I know nothing about the Shazam guy and very little about Hal Jordan other than his ring can do sweet things like become a massive hammer to crush you with. He is easily much more powerful, because of his ring, than many other DC heroes.

Usually I like your stuff, Cracked, but do some research, kay?

7/3/2009 9:59:22 PM
OMalley

also, power rangers is an adaptation of a japanese series called super sentai which has been running for 33 years. i thought everyone knew that. don't f**k with the rangers.

7/1/2009 8:34:41 PM
theavenger121

Here's this article in a nutshell:

"Hey, check out these comic book movies that are coming out in a few years. They have great actors and writers and directors attached to them, but all the characters are uncommon and there books have minor flaws! These movies are gonna be rolling in inherent suckage."

I will admit though, the choice for writer and director on the Green Lantern does sound pretty crappy. Other than that, I'm exited about these.

6/3/2009 1:56:59 PM
Sun-Wukong

Hey I was going to talk about Shazam! It wasn't started by DC. It was a rip off of Superman like the article says. But the company doing it went out of business. When DC secured rights to the character in the beginning of the 70s, Marvel had already made a, very different, character named Captain Marvel. That's why it was called Shazam! from that point. I think it's a good character. Jerry O'Connel should play him. Well he did a pretty good cartoon rendition in JLU. But as for it being about luring kids to subways and sexual deviants, I don't think that was on the forefront of people's minds when the story was concieved. Even Mister Rogers died just in time. Like the movie, Doubt, suspicious minds can ruin innocence. Not that it isn't a possibility.

5/5/2009 2:19:07 AM
Seal87

... Have you guys SEEN "Rome"? Lucius Vorenus was f*****g metal. The idea of that same actor playing Thor makes me MORE optimistic about the movie.

I just hope they base the character more on the Ultimates version than the Avengers version. "Pagan god punished with life as a mortal" was done better on "Cupid".

4/23/2009 11:17:50 PM
CLAVDIVS

Following up on JakeCamAction, yeah, Martin Campbell, best known for his work with on Goldeneye and Casino Royale, as well as Zorro and a couple of early 70's softcore porn (yeah, really), is indeed the new director, and Chris Pine, the new Captain Kirk, is supposedly signed on as Hal Jordan.

4/16/2009 7:55:51 AM
Daisho

The Green Lantern is now being directed by the guy who directed Goldeneye and Casino Royale. Two of the biggest and best Bond Films. And being written by a guy who has written some smallville episodes and some of the better heroes. and some other stuff. look it up yourself.

4/11/2009 5:07:20 PM
JakeCamAction

They had some crossovers between Superman and Captain Marvel. In most of them Captain Marvel had the advantage before something happened that caused the fighting to stop.

4/3/2009 6:01:18 PM
bustos26

thor wouldent be to bad, cept that fagg mckid is playing him, who the f**k made that decition!

3/25/2009 12:43:37 PM
jbroverman

well...they gotta do the Thor movie, no matter how bad itll suck, right? The Avengers is coming out in a year or two i believe, so theyre doing all the charcacters by themselves first. Thats why the new wolverirne movie was made....

3/24/2009 3:03:09 PM
pacey

I realized how old this article was when I got to the page about The Mighty Thor... Kenneth Branagh is directing, and Alexander SkarsgÄrd is rumored to be playing Thor, so the arguments presented on Thor's page in this article are no longer valid.

3/22/2009 5:10:18 PM
SillySausage69

The Green lantern movie could be good if they incorporate all of the different green lanterns, in a sort of league of extraordinary gentlemen sort of way.

3/19/2009 9:19:54 PM
Kainotheman

Thor is a great story, but live action flight fights will be sketchy at best. I am being remined of someone climbing a tree in the twilight movie(that i did not watch but could not resist viewing the tree climbing scene 20 times).

3/19/2009 9:17:36 PM
Kainotheman

Actually, according to the marvel universe he is an Atlantian Demigod with nearly limitless powers. In one comic he takes complete control of someones' mind, though i can't quite remember who it was. His abilities are on par with Hercules, Apochalypse, or Sinister. If graded under the X-mens level rating, with magneto and xavier at 4, Phoenix at 5, Namor would be like a 6 or 7. Also, why is he being compared to DC's aqua man? Not even similar in origin or powers, aqua man was pretty useless though. I bet it was hard to find a place where you could fit the need to talk to fish into a super friends episode rofl.

3/19/2009 9:03:53 PM
Kainotheman

By the way is that >>SUPER DAVE

3/17/2009 9:54:33 PM
thunderguppy

I watched the old shazam! show when I was around four and I that it was kinda neat. Then again strech armstrong was the hottest toy at the time.

3/17/2009 9:50:31 PM
thunderguppy

@ sgt, your giving her far to much credit xD if shes insulting people who like kick ass comic based movies, then shes probably 13 and basing her ideas of the opposite sex off the last teen movie she saw.

Trust me, Im the biggest geek here xD.

3/16/2009 7:23:55 PM
bloodyneptune

Wow, people sure get attached to their comic books if theyre willing to call each other such names in order to prove a point... Remind me to stay away from comics

3/15/2009 8:01:39 PM
pyromaniacal13

CreepyCrawly, that's a cute comment, did your boyfriend write it. So if someone has some knowledge over a subject like comic books then the natural stereotype would be to label the person a nerd. I find that funny since you probably wrote that message on a break from world of warcraft. Here is a thought, why don't you crawl out of you parents basement, pull you d*ck out of your boyfriends a$$ and get a social life. The next time you feel like insulting someone who knows a thing or two about what they are talking about, why don't you listen and get past the whole getting jealous cause they know how to read and you don't thing.

3/10/2009 10:34:40 PM
sgt

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3/9/2009 11:43:22 PM
Grace66