Superman Through the Ages! Forum

The Superman Family! => Captain Marvel => Topic started by: Uncle Mxy on June 08, 2007, 03:35:43 PM



Title: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Uncle Mxy on June 08, 2007, 03:35:43 PM
Just how does lightning strike underwater, anyway?!



Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Composite Superman on June 08, 2007, 09:00:42 PM
Well, it's magical lightning...


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Aldous on June 09, 2007, 02:59:31 AM
Quiet day at the office, Mxy?

As the lightning would create an idealised version of Lori, I suppose she would have two legs instead of that fish-tail, when the smoke cleared.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Super Monkey on June 09, 2007, 03:09:33 AM
or she would be all fish


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Aldous on June 09, 2007, 04:04:03 AM
or she would be all fish

No, because Lori's people are human beings artificially altered in order to survive the sinking of Atlantis.

If she were a fish artificially altered to appear half-human, I would agree.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Super Monkey on June 09, 2007, 04:31:47 AM
perhaps she perfers living underwater now?

I don't know, this is a very silly idea for a thread, LOL!


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Aldous on June 09, 2007, 09:19:20 AM
perhaps she perfers living underwater now?

I don't know, this is a very silly idea for a thread, LOL!

Maybe. But, as always, these sorts of super-hero things throw up ideas that are quite fundamental and interesting, ie. not necessarily to do with mermaids and lightning. For example, here is someone whose ancestors made radical changes to the way people live. Now: given the choice, and given the obvious possibility that the old ways are possible again (ie. surface living with two legs), would someone like Lori go back? After all, the transformation was a survival mechanism, and that's all. But somehow these old reasons are forgotten, and now it becomes the only way, the right way. Back then, who amongst them would have chosen the transformation if a safe and happy surface life elsewhere could have been found?


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Super Monkey on June 09, 2007, 09:44:33 AM
That is a good point.

You are from Australia (I think), where were your ancestors from? Would you want to leave and live there or maybe it is better to just have a short vacation there like Lori Lemaris does?



Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Michel Weisnor on June 09, 2007, 10:21:15 AM
Lori Lemaris with the power of SHAZAM! What is her magic word?   ;)


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Super Monkey on June 09, 2007, 10:43:04 AM
S - Power of Shark
H - H2o the purity of Water!
A - Atlantis ... Island of Atlas
Z - Zeus - since you know you still need those magic bolts and all
A - is for apple
M - is for hummm ...ermm... Holy Mackerel!


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Uncle Mxy on June 09, 2007, 01:53:04 PM
While dialed into a mind-numbing conference call and deciding that the boards were a nice diversion, the relatively bad grammar of the recent thread:

"What if Superman had lose with Captain Marvel?"

led my warped mind to "who in the Superman mythos would be interesting with the power of Shazam".  Jimmy, Lois, and Lana get powers way too often, so I was thinking Perry White (power word: "Great Caesar's Ghost!"), Steve Lombard (who doesn't interact with Superman enough, and looks like the actors who played him in the '70s), then (you guessed it) Lori Lemaris. 


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Aldous on June 10, 2007, 03:05:43 AM
That is a good point.

You are from Australia (I think), where were your ancestors from? Would you want to leave and live there or maybe it is better to just have a short vacation there like Lori Lemaris does?



Good question. It would be more difficult for me to answer than Lori Lemaris because she would have to choose between life on land or life underwater! (There are no grey areas.) A big chunk of my ancestry is English, and when I first went to Europe I was struck by how at home I felt in London right away. Yes, I could live there, but I am a native of New Zealand living in Australia, and how different are those places from Britain anyway? Not a lot, really, if you boil it down. I do have the ancestry necessary to live and work in the UK indefinitely, but I'm betting I'll always call the antipodes home, good reasons being the air and the space and the sunshine, which I would miss. Yes, I could live in England or Scotland no problem, however, so part of me belongs there.

I'm not sure if I answered your question decisively... If I sound ambivalent, it's because I am.

I am always fascinated by where people's ancestors are from (or even where they are from if immigrants), and how they feel about the old country as opposed to the new.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: JulianPerez on June 10, 2007, 06:32:01 PM
Actually, this might be an interesting way to have brought Captain Marvel onto Earth-1 in the 1970s or so: have a supporting cast member of an existing superhero become Captain Marvel. Hey, it worked for Rick Jones!

As for the question...my understanding is that the human being is the "bottle" for Captain Marvel, so anyone struck by Marvel's lightning would become the dark-haired, very male Cap we all know...which is weird, but no less weird than a little kid becoming an adult hero.

Also: she'd have to go to the surface before saying the magic word or else the lightning would go everywhere.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Permanus on June 11, 2007, 03:49:45 AM
Actually, this might be an interesting way to have brought Captain Marvel onto Earth-1 in the 1970s or so: have a supporting cast member of an existing superhero become Captain Marvel. Hey, it worked for Rick Jones!

Snapper Carr! He turns into Captain Marvel when he snaps his fingers!


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: davidelliott on June 11, 2007, 09:17:51 AM
Actually, this might be an interesting way to have brought Captain Marvel onto Earth-1 in the 1970s or so: have a supporting cast member of an existing superhero become Captain Marvel. Hey, it worked for Rick Jones!
There you go... bringing the Marvel Universe into it again... AND referring to their Captain Mar-vell!
;-P

As for the question...my understanding is that the human being is the "bottle" for Captain Marvel, so anyone struck by Marvel's lightning would become the dark-haired, very male Cap we all know...which is weird, but no less weird than a little kid becoming an adult hero. 
According to Ordway's TPOS series (which had it's good moments), the power of Shazam gives Billy (or Mary or Freddie) super powers and they become an idealized version of themselves, either consciously or subconsciously.  That's why Mary doesn't become "the dark-haired, very male Cap we all know" and Freddie still looks like himself as Junior.

There was also an issue of Shazam! back in the '70's where Billy wore a turban with a jewel in it and that jewel deflected his lightning so it struck, among others, Mr Morris and a chimp.  They also didn't become "the dark-haired, very male Cap we all know".

BUT you get an A for effort and a cool spin on it!


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: JulianPerez on June 11, 2007, 02:38:23 PM
Quote from: davidelliot
There was also an issue of Shazam! back in the '70's where Billy wore a turban with a jewel in it and that jewel deflected his lightning so it struck, among others, Mr Morris and a chimp.  They also didn't become "the dark-haired, very male Cap we all know".

I seem to recall an issue in a 1940s collection where someone else was accidentally struck by the lightning bolt and THEY, not Billy, became Captain Marvel...but this may be the issue equivalent of that comic where Thor survives inside the sun, or Superboy and Krypto use “telepathy” on each other.

Quote from: ”davidelliot”
According to Ordway's TPOS series (which had it's good moments), the power of Shazam gives Billy (or Mary or Freddie) super powers and they become an idealized version of themselves, either consciously or subconsciously.  That's why Mary doesn't become "the dark-haired, very male Cap we all know" and Freddie still looks like himself as Junior.

An interesting concept, but if people turn into idealized versions of themselves, why would Mary Marvel turn into a teenager instead of a woman?

And though I’m not generally a fan of the SHAZAM! guys, Ordway is an incredibly gifted artist, and the whole series had a wonderful sense of humor. My favorite part was this interaction:

CAPTAIN MARVEL: “Why...you’d have to be thousands of years old!”

BLACK ADAM: “Yeah...and how old are YOU?”

Or “You betrayed the wizard Shaz…uh, you know his name!”


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Aldous on June 11, 2007, 05:33:42 PM
Actually, this might be an interesting way to have brought Captain Marvel onto Earth-1 in the 1970s or so: have a supporting cast member of an existing superhero become Captain Marvel. Hey, it worked for Rick Jones!

As for the question...my understanding is that the human being is the "bottle" for Captain Marvel, so anyone struck by Marvel's lightning would become the dark-haired, very male Cap we all know...which is weird, but no less weird than a little kid becoming an adult hero.

Also: she'd have to go to the surface before saying the magic word or else the lightning would go everywhere.

I think the only comic I have in which Rick is Captain Marvel is a Spidey team-up with awful Gil Kane/Jim Mooney art (I like the art of those two gentlemen very much, elsewhere, but not on Spider-Man and not together). And, to get to my point, I always liked that about Marvel Comics, the "unification" (is that the right word?) of their world, being one in which the Hulk's gofer can happen to become the secret identity stand-in for Captain Marvel.

Maybe you could clear it up, Julian, but from my memory of the story, Rick doesn't become Captain Marvel so much as as being replaced by him. (Where did Rick go?)

I think the Big Red Cheese is different. Captain Marvel is actually Billy, as Mary Marvel is Mary. Why is Mary still the same age? The lightning has an intelligence and will tweak the final super-heroic result as necessary. Ours is not to reason why.

So the situation for Rick and Billy is quite different (so far as I can tell).


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: JulianPerez on June 11, 2007, 06:34:22 PM
Quote from: Aldous
I think the only comic I have in which Rick is Captain Marvel is a Spidey team-up with awful Gil Kane/Jim Mooney art (I like the art of those two gentlemen very much, elsewhere, but not on Spider-Man and not together).

Ahhh, MARVEL TEAM-UP #16, the story with Spider-Man and Captain Marvel vs. the Basilisk, the counter-argument to the idea that dead doesn't mean dead in comics. My old pal Basil Elks (get it?) croaked years ago and hasn't been seen since, and it's doubtful he'll ever be back. I love Len Wein's plots, but I agree with you about the art; I expect better from Kane. Though I believe Mike Esposito inked that one, not Mooney.

Quote from: Aldous
I always liked that about Marvel Comics, the "unification" (is that the right word?) of their world, being one in which the Hulk's gofer can happen to become the secret identity stand-in for Captain Marvel.

Agreed. It was interesting to see Roy Thomas bring this kind of interconnectivity to Earth-2 with his ALL-STAR SQUADRON; for a while there Earth-2 was way more interesting than Earth-1!

Quote from: Aldous
Maybe you could clear it up, Julian, but from my memory of the story, Rick doesn't become Captain Marvel so much as as being replaced by him. (Where did Rick go?)

Yeah, that's about the size of it. They'd switch their atoms on earth's dimension by banging the Nega-Bands together. When one was on earth, the other was floating aimlessly in the Negative Zone, able to communicate with the other telepathically.

Captain Marvel finally was able to escape from the Negative Zone and be on earth at the same time as Rick, by tagging along when the Fantastic Four left the NZ after a battle with Annihilus. This was done around the start of the Kree-Skrull Wars.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: davidelliott on June 12, 2007, 09:20:51 AM
A couple more examples:

The Lt. Marvels and Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny!  These examples outweigh the other one Julian referenced.  The magic lightning gives the powers.. the person receiving is transformed into what he or she thinks their ideal is.  A pre-teen Mary would transform into a full figured teenage girl, or young woman. A crippled Freddy would transform into himself at the same age, only super-powered.  Billy would transform into a man (his dead father perchance).

Back to topic, if Lori Lemaris was a recipient of the Power, she would transform into what SHE thought would be the ideal.  That's what I gather from the evidence of what's out there...


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Aldous on June 12, 2007, 05:48:17 PM
A couple more examples:

The Lt. Marvels and Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny!  These examples outweigh the other one Julian referenced.  The magic lightning gives the powers.. the person receiving is transformed into what he or she thinks their ideal is.  A pre-teen Mary would transform into a full figured teenage girl, or young woman. A crippled Freddy would transform into himself at the same age, only super-powered.  Billy would transform into a man (his dead father perchance).

Back to topic, if Lori Lemaris was a recipient of the Power, she would transform into what SHE thought would be the ideal.  That's what I gather from the evidence of what's out there...

In the comics of the 40s, was Shazam the old wizard dead or still alive when the other two kids got the powers? If alive, he may have retained control over transformations. There's a deliberate ranking there of the three... The man, the young woman, and the boy. There's no reason why Freddy wouldn't become a super-man like Billy, except if the wizard wanted it that way. Captain Marvel was obviously intended to be the grown-up and retain superiority over any further super-kids.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: davidelliott on June 12, 2007, 07:26:10 PM
A couple more examples:

The Lt. Marvels and Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny!  These examples outweigh the other one Julian referenced.  The magic lightning gives the powers.. the person receiving is transformed into what he or she thinks their ideal is.  A pre-teen Mary would transform into a full figured teenage girl, or young woman. A crippled Freddy would transform into himself at the same age, only super-powered.  Billy would transform into a man (his dead father perchance).

Back to topic, if Lori Lemaris was a recipient of the Power, she would transform into what SHE thought would be the ideal.  That's what I gather from the evidence of what's out there...

In the comics of the 40s, was Shazam the old wizard dead or still alive when the other two kids got the powers? If alive, he may have retained control over transformations. There's a deliberate ranking there of the three... The man, the young woman, and the boy. There's no reason why Freddy wouldn't become a super-man like Billy, except if the wizard wanted it that way. Captain Marvel was obviously intended to be the grown-up and retain superiority over any further super-kids.

Hi Aldous,

Shazam was crushed in the origin story and his "spirit" would be summoned by lighting the brazier by his throne.  I'm kind of referring the evidence of the Lt Marvels & Hoppy from the Fawcett era and Ordway's explanations from TPOS series.  Fawcett/Earth-S Mary Marvel seemed to remain her own age as Mary Batson/Marvel... TPOS Mary Bromfield was probably about 10 and became a young woman as Mary (or Captain) Marvel.

In Ordway's series, this whole subject was addressed after Freddy became Cap Jr.  I think Mary asked why Freddy was still the same age when she and Billy were older as their Marvel selves and Shazam straight out offered the subconscious ideal explanation... which makes sense to me


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Aldous on June 12, 2007, 08:10:13 PM
The "subconscious ideal"... I presume this is what Christians believe will happen to them (and their comrades) in the beyond; that their new bodies will be perfect and their minds will be improved so as to eliminate all of the usual conflicts. Which begs the questions: why wouldn't God just make them "ideal" to begin with, and why would someone like ex-crippled-Freddy say the magic words again to go back to how he was? Or, put another way, when Shazam the wizard grants this idealisation of body and mind, why is there any way back at all? What's the point?

Actually, I suppose Superman answers that particular question, being the granddaddy of them all. Clark, like little Billy, keeps the big guy in touch with the rest of us. I suppose the Big Red Cheese would lose sympathy for our shortcomings after a while if he didn't spend most of his time as a small helpless boy.

It doesn't answer the afterlife question, though.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: davidelliott on June 13, 2007, 09:29:47 AM
Hi Aldous,

Well.. I want to keep this thread on topic, but would like to discuss more of the religious aspect further!  Send me a message if you want to do that!

Otherwise, it's funny.. Ordway addressed all this in the Power of Shazam series. Why Freddy couldn't be Jr full time. Also the effects were also addressed in the Marvelman/Miracleman series in the '80's


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Just a fan on June 13, 2007, 09:53:46 AM
If I remember right, wasn't the wizards power shared by each of the marvels? So if more then one was powered up they each only received a share? I don't recal if it was equal shares or not, but I do recall when Capt and Mary brought freddy to the old wizard he told them that they would each have to give part of thier powers to him.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Permanus on June 13, 2007, 04:34:31 PM
I rather like Jeff Smith's take on this, though I'm not sure how canonical it is: Captain Marvel is shown to be a separate being from Billy, a sort of genie in a lamp, whose existence precedes Billy's. They're even depicted interacting at the Rock of Eternity. Mary, by contrast, just seems to turn into Mary-with-powers, presumably because she wasn't really planned.

I still think Alan Moore came up with the best explanation for all this sort of thing in Miracleman: You get yourself cloned, then the clone is subjected to some sort of genetic manipulation that makes it highly evolved, and then it is shot out into infra-space or sub-space or whatever. Then, you say a word that is actually a post-hypnotic trigger, and your body gets replaced with the superclone, though apparently your consciousness remains. However, since your consciousness goes into a more evolved brain, you think differently (apparently in a more poetic manner). Then you say the magic word again and you're a middle-aged bloke in Thatcherite Britain again.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: davidelliott on June 14, 2007, 02:34:06 AM
If I remember right, wasn't the wizards power shared by each of the marvels? So if more then one was powered up they each only received a share? I don't recal if it was equal shares or not, but I do recall when Capt and Mary brought freddy to the old wizard he told them that they would each have to give part of thier powers to him.

Yeah, until the first year's arc was complete, then Ibis took Shazam's place at the Rock and all 3 Marvels had full power... it wasn't divided


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: JulianPerez on June 15, 2007, 07:43:52 AM
Incidentally, is this the seventh christdamned thread about Captain Marvel in as many weeks? When did this website become SHAZAM! through the Ages, anyway?

There needs to be a moratorium on Captain Marvel threads, stat. I'm sick of hearing about the guy.

Quote from: Permanus
I still think Alan Moore came up with the best explanation for all this sort of thing in Miracleman: You get yourself cloned, then the clone is subjected to some sort of genetic manipulation that makes it highly evolved, and then it is shot out into infra-space or sub-space or whatever. Then, you say a word that is actually a post-hypnotic trigger, and your body gets replaced with the superclone, though apparently your consciousness remains. However, since your consciousness goes into a more evolved brain, you think differently (apparently in a more poetic manner). Then you say the magic word again and you're a middle-aged bloke in Thatcherite Britain again.

In some ways the Marvel imitators are more successful because they think it through so well.

One character I always found interesting was the Captain Marvel-slash-Wonder Woman of the Phillippines (an unlikely region to create superhero comics), Mars Ravelo's Darna. What I found most interesting is yes, there's the usual Captain Marvel business about a girl who becomes an adult heroine, but JUST when we think this chick is just the little girl in a different body...we learn this female heroine had a life and a backstory and indeed different MEMORIES. Darna was a warrior on a planet of alien superbeings.

Quote from: davidelliot
The Lt. Marvels and Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny!

Oh, c'mon. The Lieutenant Marvels were pretty much negligible forces in Captain Marvel history with a handful of appearances. The idea they're a permanent fixture of the Marvel world is a retroactive, inappropriate concept. It's like making a list of Superman supporting cast members and including Ed Hamilton's "Brainiac A."

And if they all became ideal versions of themselves, why is Fat Marvel still fat? Some people look better with a few extra pounds, but still.

Quote from: davidelliot
These examples outweigh the other one Julian referenced.  

If all it was, was one issue from 1940-whenever, I'd agree.

It's not just that one comic, though. There's the overpowering implication that Billy Batson and Captain Marvel are two different individuals, which permeated the book. Captain Marvel referred to Billy in Third Person as "he" and "him."

Also, their thoughts, their very "voice," or way of speaking is different in a way that wouldn't make sense if CM was just Billy who briefly upgraded to an adult body.

One of the deliberate reversals done in the 1987 "Earth-1" Captain Marvel was the idea that Captain Marvel was made to explicitly have Billy Batson's mind...and if the Cheese always HAD Billy's mind even back in the day, how would that in any way be a reversal?

Part of continuity is the implied sense of how things work.

Quote from: Aldous
Yes, I could live there, but I am a native of New Zealand living in Australia, and how different are those places from Britain anyway? Not a lot, really, if you boil it down. I do have the ancestry necessary to live and work in the UK indefinitely, but I'm betting I'll always call the antipodes home, good reasons being the air and the space and the sunshine, which I would miss. Yes, I could live in England or Scotland no problem, however, so part of me belongs there. 

Ahh, this whole conversation makes me want to read Pat Wrightson again.

Of all the writers I loved as a kid (circa age 10 - some years before discovering Tolkien and Heinlein at 12 and Moorcock and Edgar Rice Burroughs at 14) the one I loved best was Patricia Wrightson, even more than C.S. Lewis, because he was English whereas the Australia Pat created in NARGUN AND THE STARS was a cool, awesome world where every billabong had a giant mischief-making Potkurok in it and every tree had playful Turongs.

The thing I liked best about Pat Wrightson was she could do something Tolkien could not do as well: create this overwhelming sense of melancholy and antiquity. Her Nargun was a sympathetic, slow, alien monster. There was one particularly moving scene in THE ICE IS COMING where a Dreamtime Ninya creature died, and it was an occasion of great mourning, because no new Ninya had been born since the dawn of the world.

With Pat you felt as if Australia really WAS the world's oldest continent.

Interestingly enough, at a science fiction event I was able to corner the line designer for TSR, and I asked him why there were no Australian "monsters" in AD&D. To his credit, the guy actually knew what I was talking about, and his response was that they avoided doing so not because these creatures aren't well known outside Australia, but because they are spiritually significant to Koori peoples, and it would be possible some might take offense.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: MatterEaterLad on June 15, 2007, 10:35:06 AM
There ARE a lot of threads about Captain Marvel, aren't there?


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: davidelliott on June 15, 2007, 11:08:23 AM
Julian, everything you say makes sense... I kind of forget that there are SO many versions of Cap, so many takes on him that it's hard to pin down one characterization.

There was a reprint story in Shazam! No. 17 about a Theo Hagge planning to marry Cap for her own nefarious purposes... On page 8 of the story, Cap let's "Billy take over" since he's so confused.  Billy then says "Captain Marvel's a big dope!  He's so woozy about getting married he can't think straight! But I know what's been going on and I'm going to put a stop to it!"

Versus the "Billy in Cap's body" version.. versus the Ordway version.

The Lt Marvels and Hoppy, I think are still valid references, though.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: JulianPerez on June 15, 2007, 12:06:11 PM
Well, I didn't mean to single out your comments on the Lieutenant Marvels in particular, but one tendency in general that bothers me is the way a few truly rare, uncommon things are pointed to as typical. Mae West and W.C. Fields only did ONE movie together, MY LITTLE CHICKADEE.

The Lieutenant Marvels had a number of appearances during the Golden Age I can count on one hand (and that would still be true even if I lost a couple fingers due to frostbite, clumsy carpentry, and shark attack); they weren't a normalized part of the world to the extent that say, Supergirl and the Fortress of Solitude are for Superman.

The Lieutenant Marvels' inclusion as supporting cast members is not 100% appropriate. I remember SuperMonkey mentioned to a website owner that had bios of Captain Marve characters that the Lieutenant Marvels were left off. Well, gee, no kidding. Of course they'd be left off. Unless the goal was to squeeze in everybody Captain Marvel ever knew.

For that matter, when people think of the Weisenger Age, they think the Super-Pets...but with the exception of Krypto and Comet, the Super-Pets had only a few appearances, and they were cute comedy stories where their existence made sense. It wasn't like Krypto was showing up regularly to save Superman's bacon. Some Super-Pets only showed up once: Mynah the Super-Bird, for instance.

What's worse is a lot of writers, including Alan Moore, interpret the pets as being typical of Superman's "mood" in the 1960s. Which is a little like pointing to holodeck episodes set in the 1930s as being your "average" NEXT GENERATION episode.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: MatterEaterLad on June 15, 2007, 01:14:28 PM
For that matter, when people think of the Weisenger Age, they think the Super-Pets...but with the exception of Krypto and Comet, the Super-Pets had only a few appearances, and they were cute comedy stories where their existence made sense. It wasn't like Krypto was showing up regularly to save Superman's bacon. Some Super-Pets only showed up once: Mynah the Super-Bird, for instance.

What's worse is a lot of writers, including Alan Moore, interpret the pets as being typical of Superman's "mood" in the 1960s. Which is a little like pointing to holodeck episodes set in the 1930s as being your "average" NEXT GENERATION episode.

Mynah was never a super-pet, a one and done character, far less appearances than a Flame Dragon.

Pets are typical of a mood of the 60s, as are an entire decade of light-hearted or strange Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen titles, almost an equal number of comics to the Action, Adventure, and Superman of the same time.

Did Alan Moore overuse Streaky?


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Permanus on June 15, 2007, 04:09:50 PM
Did Alan Moore overuse Streaky?

Nope, he didn't, and neither did anybody else. Dammit if I'm not going to work on my Streaky miniseries idea and pitch it to DC, I'm obviously the only person who cares about Streaky.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Super Monkey on June 15, 2007, 05:00:46 PM
The Lt Marvels and Hoppy, I think are still valid references, though.

Well, in the old Fawcett days, Hopy was NOT cannon. He lived in a different funny animal universe.

Captain Marvel and Billy were treated as two different people, just like in the new Jeff Smith series.

Quote
For that matter, when people think of the Weisenger Age, they think the Super-Pets...but with the exception of Krypto and Comet, the Super-Pets had only a few appearances, and they were cute comedy stories where their existence made sense. It wasn't like Krypto was showing up regularly to save Superman's bacon. Some Super-Pets only showed up once: Mynah the Super-Bird, for instance.


True, Super Monkey rarely was in any comics, and even then most were just cameo appearances, yet in the 1990's Iron Age fanboys would always bring him up in order to "prove" that the pre-crisis Superman was only silly nonsense and the 1990's was the best. So I picked my name to spite them ;)

Quote
There needs to be a moratorium on Captain Marvel threads, stat. I'm sick of hearing about the guy.

Yet you keep posting in each one ;)

deep down you know you like him :)



Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Permanus on June 15, 2007, 05:14:40 PM
Incidentally, is this the seventh christdamned thread about Captain Marvel in as many weeks?

No, it's christblessed! For some reason, Our Lord wants us to post messages about a guy with polytheistic powers. Personally, I don't mind, because I'm happy to talk about Captain Marvel until Mount Everest turns to mushroom soup; say what you like, but that dude has one fine costume on him.


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Super Monkey on June 15, 2007, 07:54:56 PM
Quote
but that dude has one fine costume on him.
yes he does, but it is not a costume, it is an uniform! :D


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: Criadoman on June 15, 2007, 11:25:47 PM
Oh, come on... Cap'n Marvel's a great character.  Where else are you going to have a decent discussion about him?  DC's?


Title: Re: What if Lori Lemaris got the power of Shazam?
Post by: TELLE on June 25, 2007, 01:12:43 AM
A little bit more On Topic:

I wonder if Lori's ideal image of herself would include having legs.  Does she think that her mermaid form was the major barricade to her romance with Clark/Superman?  Is Clark/Superman still her ideal mate even after she marries whassiname, the alien merman?

I wonder what the gods of Tritonis (besides Triton/Poseidon) are and if they would be more a propo for a mermaid Capt. Marvel.