Why New 52 Shazam is terrible and Out of character

New 52 Billy BRATson sucks. But wait, you claim he's more realistic. Ok, but Earth One or MOS Superman is out of character, right? Tell me again how those stories ruin the character and the writers obviously didn't get it.

BRATson is a whiny brat who uses his situation as justification for his asshole ness. That's like Superman robbing banks or raping people and using his status as the last Kryptonian to justify it. Not to mention that this "depressed kid with heart of gold" is lazy ass writing at its best (worst). Look at Shazam: The New Beginning from 1987. While not a great origin, let alone a great story, it is leaps and bounds better than New 52 Shazam. There, Billy is taken care of by his uncle Dudley, who does his best even though his lack of steady employment keeps him from being able to give Billy a lot of wants or even needs. Despite this, Billy loves his uncle, and sees past his flaws.

Speaking of which, when informed of the fact that being raised by his uncle would keep said uncle from going on the road as a traveling stage magician, Billy does everything in his power to make sure that his uncle of relieved of responsibility so that he can follow his dream job. To do this, however, he says some rather harsh things. To ensure his success, he remarks that he doesn't want to be with his uncle, as unlike said uncle, he wants to become something in adulthood and not be a joke playing with children's things. This scene is honestly rather heart-wrenching. To think of how the guy had to feel: he was obviously quite old, and by being told by almost everyone that he was a failure, he now must have felt that he had wasted his life. On top of this, this revelation is not brought from a previous aggressor, like Sivana, but rather his nephew Billy. To hear these words from a child who had theretofore looked up to and respected him as some sort of hero, and now being seen as a failure, is depressing to think about. However, this is much better done than New 52, where Billy lackadaisically makes a young girl cry and thinks nothing of it. Wow, Bill. Regular badass you are. Do you shoot pool with Wolverine?

Than we have the basic premise of Captain Marvel: Billy was chosen because he WAS/IS a good kid and had not been corrupted or made cynical by his situation. In New 52, this pompous little asshole is given power anyway, with Geoff Johns and his fans using the lame excuse of character development and such. I seriously wanna hear ONE GOOD ARGUMENT against pre-new 52 Billy's personality.

Detractor: lol old bil-e sux and is too niec. So boring, pollyanna boy. So perfect, act so silly and dumb.

Person who ISN'T ignorant: Um, maybe in silver age throwbacks, or kids books like Magic of Shazam, which were intentionally trying to capture the whimsy of the Fawcett stuff. Otherwise, he's still a regular kid. He doesn't need to cuss every other line, make little girls cry, or talk about how much wants to "bang that Stargirl with the hot ass" or some other "relatable" crap.

Take the episode of Batman:Brave and the Bold with Black Adam. Billy, while not brooding, is obviously sad at not being adopted and not having a family. Yet, he still is not an asshole. At the end of the episode, when he finally meets Mary, we see his world seemingly light up, as he's finally found his family. Naw, that's lame. Needs more BRATson.

Also, Harry Potter is not an asshole, and people apparently love him. He's a magical character that talks to a wizard, so what gives?

It pisses me off because, despite trolls whining, most of the New 52 characters have not been given character facelifts. Superman still acts like Superman. Don't talk about "he's a douchebag", cuz the early Action Comics is based off of the Golden Age, which was the true Superman before censorship forced the Silver Age/Donnerman god to become the norm. Wonder Woman, conversely, despite the huge mythos revamping, and the knowledge of her heritage, is still loving and caring. Meanwhile, Billy is turned into a jerk and everyone thinks it's great writing. It's especially sickening because Shazam: The New Beginning is held in such a low regard, and yet it succeeds at so many levels that New 52 Shazam fails at. It's disgusting and I hate it. Why the crap is this so popular?

Welcome to ComicVine as well as The New 52, where characters more or less suck.

I think what DC was doing was trying to make Billy more of a believable kid. Yes, I know his whole character is meant to be a good, wholesome kid, but you have to look at his predicament, he has been bounced from foster home to foster home, he has trust issues, and because of that, he feels like he has to rebel against people, a sort of "hurt them, before they hurt me" mentality, from what I understand, many foster kids have this ideology. However, I think, he's still a good kid at heart and risks his life ot help others, which is why Shazam gave him the power. He's not the perfect "Oh shucks pop, I'll drink milk and be in bed before 8pm!" Billy we know and love, but this one is good to...for different reasons.

I'm still waiting on a solo title for him though, so we can get more of his backstory and adventures.

Nah

@the_stegman: He usually isn't an "aw shucks" characters, people think he is cuz he isn't freaking Wolverine!!!!!!

@daiohnysis: I'm sure he's said "aw shucks" at least once in his career :p And you're taking it to an extreme. He's not Wolverine in the New 52 either, just a kid with trust issues who acts bratty.

You Mad?

@the_stegman: exactly. He shouldn't be. He's not a little asshole, and I can not believe that same people clamoring for a monthly for this little douche think MOS is out of character.

@daiohnysis: What's the point of a reboot if every character is the same as they were before?

@the_stegman: Superman is the same character,as is Batman and Wonder Woman. It's their mythos and storylines that have changed, not their characterizations.

New 52 Superman; the same character? Nyet.

I would like to have seen the Marvel family, Bulleteer, Black Condor and the Freedom Fighters have their own corner of the DCU. Oh and let Doc Shaner take a crack at a classic Capt. Marvel book.

I love new 52 Shazam/Billy.

@stardustcrusader: how is he characteristically different from before?

Earth One Superman is awesome.

no...superman is more "punch first ask questions later" now, and he seems to enjoy fighting. He tells batman to explain himself, but then chokes him out before he can even get the answer lol?

That's not the problem. What made Billy interesting was that in spite of everything that happened to him he was still good, which is a hard thing to be after all that. Billy is a good kid who faces the challenge of living in a world that's been terrible to him, and that's what makes him unique. I think trying to make him a rough kid who learns to be good is very unoriginal, and a bit lazy. I would have much rather enjoyed a story about Billy being good, and facing the challenges that come from being such a pure good person. I think that would be more interesting and far more original.

The problem is that he dosen't resemble his old self at all. I may not like all the changes they have made, but I can see why they did some of them. I don't like his new costume, but I can accept it because I know it's a necessary progression. But changing the very core of the character is a problem.

I don't see how it can possibly be bad. Like I said, Billy is still good at heart, he cares for his new family in time, he becomes a hero, he does the right thing, he's misguided, sure, he's brash and abrassive to some, okay, but at the end of the day, he's still a good kid. they didn't turn him into some completely irredeemable A-hole. He lives in a rough world, and it's rubbed off on him, but seeing that it actually affects him and have him still be the hero he was destined to be is more interesting (to me at least) than having him be a good kid in a bad world, being good despite everything around him being too the contrary. That actually seems lazy and one dimensional to me. But hey, different strokes.

@w0nd: That was suck-ass origin. You expected that to be held up as good writing?

Not to me, the "Rough kid who needs to learn to be good" story has been done to death. What made Billy's story so compelling was seeing a kid who couldn't do much in life just try and be good. Then becoming Captain Marvel and finally having that power is a real pay off for the reader. What really made it interesting was seeing him decide how to use that power to handle things, and to see his own inner conflict. To me, seeing Billy turned into such a generic character is a real shame.

"Superman is the same character,as is Batman and Wonder Woman. It's their mythos and storylines that have changed, not their characterizations."

I posted scans of their characterizations being "different" doesn't matter if it's suck ass writing he has shown to be like this more than once ina few 52 stories as well. A few characters even mention he's kind of D*&k" and it appeared to be a running gag. In that batman superman story he was mouthy and rushed head first into battles because he didn't have his parents to guide him the same way I assume and he got knocked on his ass by the older superman for cussing too much.

the other characters I have no comments about.

Gonna disagree. Not only was Billy completely likable by the end of the story, it was an AMAZING story and written and drawn amazingly. In fact, IMO, the only JL story in the New 52 better than that was Thrones of Atlantis. Now, ready for the fallback...

@the_stegman: Of course, the real point could be,"Why the reboot in the first place?"

@aquaman01: Sigh.... that image sums up how I feel every day I turn on my computer.

In all seriousness though, It is a good story, but it betrays the character it's about. I know how good of a writer Johns is, and I know he didn't need to change the core of Billy's character to make it good. When it comes to creating a proper mythos to a character, Geoff has that down, and is certainly doing a good job of that with Captain Marvel. However, I still feel like he doesn't quite get why so many people love the character. Other then that, he's doing a good job.

It's funny to think that 20-30 years from now there'll be another DC reboot and the old guys who are new readers now will be like "billy is supposed to be rough!!! Superman is supposed to be aggressive!!!! Wonder Woman is Zeus' daughter not made of clay!!!!!" Etc. Such is the ebb and flow of life

Superman also sucks now in his personality. Snyder seems to be getting it right though

Funny thing is, I got into comics only a year ago and even I think Billy's change is too dramatic.

I know, right? I just wish people would be more respectful. I mean, I completely understand why people might not care for this Billy.

@aquaman01: Couldn't agree more, respect is the foundation of communication, and when you take it away conversations become disjointed and irrational.

@captainmarvel4ever:

I got into them about 8 months ago and never really had any exposure to pre52 billy. I love him in the new52 though. My point was that change is part of life and I just choose to roll with it in some cases.

Oh I get that, I really do. In fact, I'm usually the guy who defends almost every other change in the New 52. But the fact is that this Billy is such a severe contrast from what he was, that I fully believe people have the right to complain. Look at WW, I don't mind that she is no longer made of clay, because she still has that same personality, and still represents the things she always has, and because of the changes made to her, she now has what I consider to be the best book in the New 52. In Billy's case, he has had his origin, appearance, name, powers, and even city changed, so it feels wrong to even say he resembles his old character. However, I can accept all of those changes, except the name and personality, other then that I say change is a good thing.

Lol

@jayc1324: when he isn't busy writing Batgod in Unchained.

I agree to an extent, I also don't like as of right now New 52 Billy, but I do think he could become an interesting character after some character development, because as said earlier he's still a good kid at heart, and to see the progression of him turning from a kid who uses a jerk facade as a means to avoid showing his real self to people to a kid who finally can accept being happy and part of a family would be very touching, the thing is you have to get the right writer to do that sort of thing, and Geoff Johns isn't the one, the guy has no clue what character development is, all you gotta do is look is see the 10 years Hal was under his control and how little to nothing the character's personality changed after all that time, and it's sad because all the amazing work he did with the character's world, the thing is that if the character's world changes but the character himself doesn't it all seems pretty pointless. Hell, you can even see that happening right now with Billy, at the end of his new origin it seemed like he was on the right path and a few months later there you have him, acting like a brainless twat in Trinity War, it's like with GJ everytime he gets his characters to a turning point of growth he hits the reset button and start the process all over again.

Also, the argument of him being a better character now than before just because his behavior makes more sense now has no substance at all and is completely missing the point of the character, it's like saying that Charlie from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory should be an unlikeable brat because of his life situation, of course it would make more sense, but the story would suffer from it, and the character would be worse.

I didn't read a lot about him but hood looks cool

New-52 Shazam is awesome. They've made him much more interesting and more powerful. @lvenger thoughts?

@erik: I'm stealing that.

A very well expressed post that sums up my opinion on New 52 Billy too. Also don't we have enough threads to complain about the New 52 already?

I have problems falling in love with the New 52 Shazam because I really liked the setup and motivation for Pre-Flashpoint Billy. I get what the New 52 direction was going for with Billy, and to some level I respect the way they've handled it so far, but I can't help but feel that he lost the thing that made him such a compelling character, to me. I'm not adamantly opposed to New 52 Billy, but I would rather that they hadn't gone in that direction with his character.

@frozen: Use it wisely. It's my most powerful gif.

Agreed

I don't have that big of a problem with the new 52 Shazam, sure would I have preferred him to be a nice kid, yeah, but at the same time, he wasn't THAT much of a jerk and his character really does progress in the Shazam trade, he's not a d-bag all the way through the book.

The only problem that I have with the new 52 Shazam is that he doesn't have his own series, it's abundantly clear that becoming Shazam awakens the noble hero in him and that the longer he is Shazam, the more good Billy becomes, but one trade isn't enough to tell that tale.

Billy never said that...

Johns said he wants Shazam to have his own series but he wants people to ask for it on Twitter.

@frozen:

He.....he wants to make us beg?

@pperspectiveandreality: Lol, he stated in an interview that he wants support for it. I'd love to see a book, the origin was really a fun read.

I'm more curious on Shazam's power level, however.

@frozen: I would think the sales from the Shazam hardcover and the acclaim the story has achieved would be enough to prove that a Shazam book would solicit a good deal of support. I am also very very curious about that. I love the insinuation that he could cast spells. A superman level physical combatant with magical powers like a Fate-lite. I'm extremely interested in new 52 Shazam myself.