Episode 1738 Talkback - Spotlight on SHAZAM! in the Bronze Age, Part Two

Adam_Murdough

Back to the Bronze Age for more tales of mirth and woe with the Original Captain Marvel! This episode covers the years 1976-85, including the final year of the SHAZAM! solo series, Captain Marvel's four-year run in World's Finest Comics, and some significant guest appearances. Billy and Uncle Marvel set out on a road-trippin', TV-riffin' Tour of Cities! Black Adam returns! The Monster Society strikes back! Kid Eternity joins the Marvel Family! Cap meets Superman several times, and fights him once or twice! And CRISIS comes to Earth-S! Plus an 'Other Media' surprise or two! (2:10:56)

Listen here.

nweathington

Re: the artist Tenny Henson, around 1980 he left comics to work in animation. His first credit is as a layout artist for... The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam!

nweathington

@i_am_scifi, in 1989 Filmation released two or three volumes of VHS tapes, each with two or three episodes of the cartoons from TKSPHWS (I don't exactly recall). Maybe that’s how you saw the show? I have one that has the Black Adam two-parter. Basically all the stuff you can find on YouTube was ripped from these VHS releases. I never watched the show when it was on the air, because it came on opposite The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show.

i_am_scifi

That could very well be it, @nweathington! I remember having tons of white sleeved VHS tapes with random cartoons on it growing up.

chrisl

Great episode, guys. Issues #36 & 37 of All-Star Squadron are two my favorites from the series. I bought them off the rack and read the covers off them.

ChrisMurrin

Fun and educational, as always. You inspired me to finally crack open the Adventures of Captain Marvel blu-ray. I finished watching it through once and have started watching with the commentaries now.

Alpinemaps

Just finished these two episodes today. Greet as usual, but especially great because I love the Marvel Family!

Murd, you mentioned the first use of Fawcett City being in COIE. It got me thinking - I believe it was around this time that DC finally acquired the characters outright, instead of just licensing them (which you hadn’t mentioned early in the first episode).

Perhaps as part of the legal acquisition, there was a requirement to keep the Fawcett name around? Maybe “if your going to put Cap in a fictional city, it has to be Fawcett City” and if it’s a real world city, there has to be a Fawcett landmark (eg the Shazam! Movie). I wonder if the New Beginnings series, or any of the other modern stories in real world locations have a Fawcett landmark.

In my very limited personal research on the legal history behind the property, I’ve never found anything definitive on the exact date or terms of the change from licensed character to outright ownership.

Oh I love the Captain Thunder idea. That would have been a great reimagining for the late Bronze Age and I agree that he would have survived Crisis over the Esrth-S gang.

nweathington

I don't remember the exact year DC purchased the characters outright, but I'm pretty sure it was sometime around 1989, 1990. Jerry Ordway started working on his graphic novel in 1991, after John Byrne backed out of a Shazam! ongoing series. Byrne dropped out because he wanted the series to be set in its own universe and DC did not, but that was the first project planned post-buyout.

As for the Fawcett City name, I highly doubt there is any legal obligation to include the name Fawcett in any way, shape, or form.

Mark_Engblom

nweathington said:

As for the Fawcett City name, I highly doubt there is any legal obligation to include the name Fawcett in any way, shape, or form.

I recall the early 90's seeing an explosion of little "inside baseball" historical allusions and Easter eggs in comics and comics-related media (i.e. A police radio alert on the 90's Flash TV show saying "There's an incident at the corner of Infantino and Adams"). I think the Fawcett City thing was more a function of this "retro-tribute" movement, coming more from a sense of fun than fiduciary duty.

nweathington

Mark_Engblom said:

nweathington said:

As for the Fawcett City name, I highly doubt there is any legal obligation to include the name Fawcett in any way, shape, or form.

I recall the early 90's seeing an explosion of little "inside baseball" historical allusions and Easter eggs in comics and comics-related media (i.e. A police radio alert on the 90's Flash TV show saying "There's an incident at the corner of Infantino and Adams"). I think the Fawcett City thing was more a function this "retro-tribute" movement, coming more from a sense of fun than fiduciary duty.

Exactly.

BGPhilbin

Not sure if anyone here has seen "Echoes of Captain Marvel" by Alex Ross, which he created and shared specifically to foster discussion of how much influence the original Captain Marvel has had on comics, cartoons and other pop culture, but I'm attempting to develop a key to the characters contained therein.

I've identified all but two, so if you're willing to help identify those I've not been able to, please check out my post over here:

https://thecomicforums.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/4344/help-me-comic-geeks-youre-my-only-hope-alex-ross-echoes-of-captain-marvel#latest