In addition to comics, Shazam/Captain Marvel also appears in other media, such as films, television and video games.
Film[]
- The first filmed adaptation of Captain Marvel was produced in 1941. Adventures of Captain Marvel, starring Tom Tyler in the title role and Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy Batson, was a twelve-part film serial produced by Republic Pictures in 1941. Often ranked among the finest examples of the form, its release made Captain Marvel the first superhero to be depicted in film. Whitey Murphy, a supporting character in the serial, found his way into Fawcett's Captain Marvel stories, and elements of the serial's plot were later worked into DC's The Power of Shazam continuity. The Adventures of Captain Marvel (the man-in-flight effects techniques which, ironically, were originally developed for a Superman film serial that Republic never produced) predated Fleischer Studios' Superman cartoons by six months.
- In 1950, Columbia Pictures released the comedy/mystery The Good Humor Man with Jack Carson, Lola Albright, and George Reeves. The storyline has Carson as an ice cream vendor who also belongs to a home-grown Captain Marvel Club with some of the kids in the neighborhood. Fawcett released a tie-in one-shot the same year the movie appeared, Captain Marvel and the Good Humor Man.
DCEU[]
Shazam![]
- Main article: Billy Batson (DCEU)
Billy Batson (portrayed by Asher Angel) is a mischievous and troubled teenager from Philadelphia in the foster-care system. Having been abandoned at a carnival at a young age by his single mother, Marilyn, Billy has gained a reputation as a "problem child", repeatedly escaping from foster homes and hijacking police cruisers to locate his mother. After being apprehended again, Billy is placed into the home of the Vazquez family, which also has other foster children such as Freddy Freeman and Mary Bromfield. Upon returning from school on the subway, he is contacted by the dying wizard Shazam, who bestows his powers to Billy after deeming him worthy as his champion.
Gaining the ability to transform into an adult superhero (portrayed by Zachary Levi) upon calling the name "Shazam", Billy creates a YouTube channel with Freddy to display his superpowers and continues to act mischievously until friction occurs with his foster siblings and Doctor Sivana emerges, being envious of Billy's powers and wanting them himself after being denied by Shazam earlier. Billy realizes the importance of using his powers for good, battling Sivana and the Seven Deadly Sins with little success at first. After he learns why his mother abandoned him, Billy accepts his foster family as his true family, sharing his superpowers with his siblings and creating the Shazam Family, which allows them all to defeat Sivana and imprison the Seven Deadly Sins and fully staff Shazam's temple.
Justice League: The New Frontier[]
Captain Marvel's first appearance in Warner Bros.' line of DC Animated Universe direct-to-video films was a brief cameo in 2008's Justice League: The New Frontier.
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies[]
The character had a more substantial role in the 2009 animated film Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, based on a Superman/Batman comic book arc in which Marvel battles Superman under orders from United States president Lex Luthor. Captain Marvel was voiced by Corey Burton. An uncredited Rachael MacFarlane voiced Billy Batson.
Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam[]
Captain Marvel appears in an animated short film entitled Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam (released on the DC Showcase Original Shorts Collection DVD compilation as part of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies) with Jerry O'Connell reprising his role as Captain Marvel and Billy Batson voiced by Zach Callison.
Television[]
- Captain Marvel first came to television in 1974. Filmation produced Shazam!, a live-action television show which ran from 1974 to 1977 on CBS. From 1975 until the end of its run, it aired as one-half of The Shazam!/Isis Hour, featuring Filmation's own The Secrets of Isis as a companion program. Instead of directly following the lead of the comic, the Shazam! TV show took a more indirect approach to the character: Billy Batson/Captain Marvel, accompanied by an older man known simply as Mentor (Les Tremayne), traveled in an RV motor home across the USA, interacting with people in different towns they stopped in to save the citizens or help them combat evil. The wizard Shazam was absent from this series, and Billy received his powers and counsel directly from the six "immortal elders" represented in the "Shazam" name, who were depicted via animation: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. Shazam! starred Michael Gray as Billy Batson, with both Jackson Bostwick (season one) and John Davey (seasons two and three) as Captain Marvel. An adapted version of Isis, the heroine of The Secrets of Isis, was introduced into DC Comics in 2006 as Black Adam's wife in the weekly comic book series 52.
- Shortly after the Shazam! show ended its network run, Captain Marvel, played by Garrett Craig, appeared as a character in a pair of low-budgeted live-action comedy specials, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions under the name Legends of the Superheroes in 1978. The specials also featured Howard Morris as Doctor Sivana, and Ruth Buzzi as Aunt Minerva, marking the first appearance of those characters in film or television. Although Captain Marvel did not appear in Hanna-Barbera's long-running concurrent Saturday morning cartoon series Super Friends (which featured many of the other DC superheroes), he did appear in some of the merchandise associated with the show.
- Filmation revisited the character three years later for an animated Shazam! cartoon, which ran on NBC from 1981 to 1982 as part of The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! with Captain Marvel voiced by Burr Middleton. The rest of the Marvel Family joined Captain Marvel on his adventures in this series, which were more similar to his comic-book adventures than the 1970s TV show. Dr. Sivana, Mr. Mind, Black Adam, and other familiar Captain Marvel foes appeared as enemies.
- Captain Marvel and/or Billy Batson made brief "cameo" appearances in two 1990s TV series. Billy has a non-speaking cameo in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Obsession", while live actors portraying Captain Marvel make "cameo" appearances in both a dream-sequence within an episode of The Drew Carey Show, and in the Beastie Boys' music video for "Alive".
DC Animated Universe[]
Captain Marvel's first formal appearance in a DC Animated Universe series, the name given to the animated DC Comics spin-off productions produced by Bruce Timm and/or Paul Dini, was as the main guest star character of the Justice League Unlimited episode "Clash", originally aired in 2005 on Cartoon Network. Captain Marvel was voiced by Jerry O'Connell and Billy Batson voiced by Shane Haboucha. In this episode, Captain Marvel joins the Justice League, but his positive opinions about supervillain Lex Luthor's apparent reform create a heavy strain on his relationship with Superman. This tension eventually leads to an all-out battle between Marvel and Superman which destroys Luthor's newest creation, Lexor City. Marvel loses to Superman. Although Marvel is eventually proven to have been right all along, he is still understandably hurt by Superman's actions, and resigns from the Justice League in disgust despite Superman's efforts to apologise, unaware that he was unwittingly a pawn in a plot by Luthor and Amanda Waller to damage Superman's image.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold[]
Four years later, Captain Marvel made seven appearances in Cartoon Network's Batman: The Brave and the Bold series with Captain Marvel voiced by Jeff Bennett and Billy Batson voiced by Tara Strong. He appears in the opening teaser to the episode "Death Race to Oblivion!" helping Batman battle the supervillain Blockbuster. A later episode in the same 2009-10 season, "The Power of Shazam!", was set in Fawcett City and featured Captain Marvel/Billy Batson, as well as the Sivana Family, Black Adam, the wizard Shazam, Aunt Minerva, and Mary Batson. Marvel later appeared in the two-episode storyline "The Siege of Starro!", in which he joins a small coalition of heroes, among them Firestorm, B'wana Beast, and Booster Gold, in helping Batman stop a malevolent alien from invading and devouring the Earth. The entire Marvel Family was featured in the episode "The Malicious Mr. Mind!", which pitted Batman, Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr. against Sivana, Mr. Mind, and the rest of the Monster Society of Evil. He later covered for Batman, while wearing his costume, fighting Bane, Blockbuster, Solomon Grundy, and Killer Croc in "Night of the Batmen!". He became a member of the Justice League International in "Crisis: 22,300 Miles Above Earth!".
Young Justice[]
Captain Marvel also appears in the ongoing DC Comics-based Cartoon Network series Young Justice, with his voice provided by Rob Lowe. In "Alpha Male" Captain Marvel is introduced as the team's new "den mother" after what happened to Red Tornado. He accompanies the team to India where mutated animals have been attacking people. The culprits are later revealed to be the Brain and Monsieur Mallah who captured Captain Marvel and want to experiment on his brain before they are stopped by the team. Captain Marvel also gives Aqualad (who is questioning his role as the leader of the team) some advice on how to be an effective leader, which proves to be pivotal in the rescue mission. His identity as 10-year-old Billy Batson is only revealed at the end as he is shown living with Uncle Dudley. He is briefly included in the following episode, "Revelation", where he is seen eating Kid Flash's food. He then proceeds to join the team on their mission, but is stopped by Batman, and is told to join the League in fighting the plant creatures. In "Humanity", Captain Marvel takes care of Wally, who broke his arm in the fight against the Injustice League. The team then sets him up when they send him out to play with Wolf so they could "kidnap" Zatanna to find Red Tornado.
Justice League Action[]
To be added
Video Games[]
- Captain Marvel made his first official video game appearance as a playable character in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe played by Stephan Scalabrino and voiced by Kevin Delaney, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game consoles. In the story, Captain Marvel is among several DC superheroes teleported to the Mortal Kombat video game universe when the two universes merge and characters from each franchise are forced to do battle.
- Captain Marvel also appears as a jump-in hero character in Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Videogame voiced by Jeff Bennett.
- Captain Marvel appears in DC Universe Online.
- Shazam appears as a playable character in Injustice: Gods Among Us. He dies in the Story Mode while trying to explain to Superman that what he was doing is wrong. Shazam overheard Superman's plans to destroy Metropolis and spoke out (mentioning Lois). This prompted Superman to grab Shazam around the throat. SHazam attempted to transform back to Billy but Superman used his arctic breath to freeze his mouth so the spell did not work. Superman then used to heat vision to lobotomize him in the forehead instantly killing him. This act prompted the Regime Flash to defect to the insurgents. Solomon Grundy buried his body.
- Shazam appears as a DLC pre-order playable character in LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes. The character had the abilities of flight, super strength, invulnerability and the unique ability of shooting lightning bolts from his chest. He is also set to appear in LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham this time as an in game character.