I’m old enough to remember when Captain Marvel was on Saturday morning television (and also that there was a specific genre of television geared to kids on Saturday morning.) As such, the ‘Shazam or Captain Marvel’ dichotomy is old news to me, one of the nerd arguments I can’t bring myself to have anymore, right up there with “Plastic Man isn’t in the Fantastic Four” and “Barry Allen’s superhero name is not Flash Gordon.” Yes, those are real. You young’ns don’t know how lucky you have it with people knowing who Tony Stark is and why Doctor Strange is cool, leading us to today’s nomenclative query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is really torn on this one, as I expect that a portion of the comics community hates the Shazam change because we no longer get to “Um, ACTUALLY…” random people about it, asking: When it comes to the Big Red Cheese, is he Shazam or Captain Marvel to you?
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Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel.
Shazam. I have Gomer on my side for this one. And he’s a frickin’ marine who will kick your butt! And then sing you a song.
Shazam
I’m slowly getting used to Shazam. Still mostly Captain Marvel to me.
Neither. I’d prefer if he was to be called by his original name: Captain Thunder.
Not sure that an unpublished ashcan from 1940 really counts as the “original”, but mileage varies.
I personally find Captain Thunder to be super-generic and boooring.
Captain Marvel, definitely.
Captain Marvel of course but I read legally he can’t be called Captain Marvel?
DC cannot publish a TITLE called Captain Marvel, as Marvel holds those rights. This is why his last ongoing was called ‘Power Of Shazam.’
It’s gotta be Shazam! The name “Captain Marvel” is one of the worst superhero names there ever was.
Marvel, cuz Shazam Jr, and Mary Shazam doesn’t really work for me. I also like Captain Thunder.