Just Appreciating Doc Shaner's Shazam! #1 Variant Cover

As some know, my favorite character is the original Captain Marvel and I do part-time work as a contributing writer for Fawcett Collectors of America.

Seeing Doc Shaner’s variant cover for Shazam! #1 the other day, where he illustrated Captain Marvel in his classic flying “Y-“ pose made me happy to see.

This pose used to be a big part of Captain Marvel’s visual language for decades, distinguishing the way he flew from other superheroes who could fly as well.

It’s even a way to distinguish the character that inspired his creation, Superman.

It made a wish of mine come true and it feels like Doc Shaner listened, which means the world.

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No way, I had no idea. You should make a question and answer topic for Captain Marvel.

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Ha!

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That is very cool (Marvelous, even).

So far, the new Shazam ongoing is looking very good (and again, Marvelous, even).

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I’m excited for a Captain Marvel ongoing for the first time since the 90’s.

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How do you feel about “The Captain” compromise?

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I’m disappointed that they’re not opting to use the Captain Marvel moniker in full, despite having done so multiple times in the last 10 years (even going so far as to debut a new version of the character from Earth-5 under that name) and despite the law being on their side.

It’s not something that I feel necessitated a compromise, not when there was already 40 years of prior history where DC used the Captain Marvel moniker for their character, and he co-existed with Marvel’s various Captain Marvels.

That said, “The Captain” is WAY better than calling him “Shazam” and it is a huge, massive improvement.

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That’s about where I am too. It’ll feel good to see people calling him “Cap” again.

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Yay! That’s awesome. (both the cover itself and your wish made real!)

This is still my favorite Doc Shaner Captain Marvel drawing. I want to be able to buy it on a (tea) mug.


(He also did this one (a while later I think) for the obvious gag. Gives me hard Bilquis Evely vibes - I thought it was misattributed until I saw the sig…

)

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That cover is everything Shazam. Marvelous. Hopeful. Hero of the impossible.

Shazam!