• I could not disagree more. This entire notion that comics readers are somehow unaware that his name is Captain Marvel is ridiculous. I have never known a comics reader who thought his name is Shazam. Now, non-comics folk - sure - but THEY DON'T BUY THE BOOKS ANYWAY!  This is why the whole DCnU experiment has left me behind. I am a lifelong fan of DCU but have gone from 25 titles a month down to 3.

• So is it because of Marvel that we don't get our Captain Marvel anymore?

• Who knew all these people who care SO MUCH about Captain ShaMarvelZam existed?

• Who needs 'em?

• It seems like a logical thing to do. I'm behind it. SHAZAM!!!

• *googles* I...I can't believe that wasn't some kind of joke...

• C'mon, DC's all about just recycling lousy old names like G.I. Combat or All-Star Western. So, man up, DC. Just call it WHIZ COMICS. I would eternally admire the comics professional who could manage announcing at a con with a straight face.

• Couldn't he just be named after the wizard, I feel this kinda makes sense.

• So Billy can't say his own name?

• You realize that your reason and logic will break the internet, right?

• And his non-threateningly ethnic friend, "Fo' Shazzle".

• How this comment has not yet gathered many likes after 10 hours is beyond my comprehension.

• shazam is just much less menacing than captain marvel.  i can't get "PYLE!" "Shazam" "PYLE!" "Shazam" "PYLE!" "Shazam"... out of my head now

• Here's the sad thing... what is Marvel even doing with Captain Marvel... besides keeping the name trademarked specifically to f*** with DC? Adding insult to injury... Marvel's Captain Marvel... is DEAD.

• Hey, what happened to the troll? I was about to post how honored I was and what a massive boost to my ego he was!

• I feel like hopping over to an alternate reality where Marvel got the character and the name so we wouldn't have to deal with this. Think about it, it works because most of the characters have the same naming scheme as most Marvel characters. Also if Marvel had Capt. Marvel, we'd avoid the headache that was The Sentry and Marvel certainly wouldn't screw up the character as much as DC has.

• The problem with DC and Capt. Marvel is that DC never knew what to do with him.  They already tried the Shazam thing with Marvel jr. and it was just as ridiculous then as it is now.

• what a lod of bull.........really people didn't know he was called Captain Marvel did they not read the comic and see everyone calling him captain marvel not the secret word he uses to turn into a super hero.........the whole reason he was called captain marvel was a "fuck you to Marvel" back in the day.

• I never understood how he became a 'Captain' in the first place. Military service? Sailor? Can he marry people on his boat?

• nothing considering Marvel had/has rights to Marvelman

• they did in the 70s he was named Captain Thunder

• All my buddies that know him know him as CM from the old days, personally. Also Geoff Johns is a douche these days. Just sayin.

• Disappointed... I've got more on my thoughts here: http://martelljt.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/shazam-loses-its-marvel/#more-178

• Who cares about Shazam...What does this mean for Miracleman?!?

• He can team up with Captain AC and make sparks fly.

• Sadly, Mary Marvel was already heading in this direction BEFORE the reboot, so it's unlikely to bother DC editorial.

• Mary Marvel would I guess become She-zam?

• Will somebody please think of the children!

• They should also rename some of their other heroes. The Thanagarian, Amazon, Atlantean! Why not?

• In that case she is perfect for the DCnU.

• I'd actually start buying their advertising filled comics if they did that!

• I'm not angry at this, just sad, a little. I used to like DC a lot and considering all the nonsense we have to put up with the reboot... I know a lot of people think his name is Shazam already, but a lot of people are really kind of stupid and that isn't a good enough reason to change the name. Hell, his insignia kind of looks like the Flash, why not change that too? I'd be okay with Captain Thunder, but Shazam sounds like a joke. DC; keep Winick the hell away from this character, keep him on Young Justice and you can call him Captain M: the Name Master if you want. Also he played a small but pivotal role in Underworld Unleashed, since he has the purest soul he was able to beat Neron. (Satan, essentially.)

• It would at least make sense to name him Captain Shazam.  We already have the Wizard Shazam. It's weird to call him just Shazam. Meanwhile, after losing a lawsuit with the DC shoe company, DC Comics will now change its name to Action Comics Detective Comics Comics, or AC/DC Comics.  Though after a lawsuit with band AC/DC, they will change their name to Wildstorm Comics.  Rob Liefeld gets put on half the books. They put Jim Lee on five titles and he only gets three issues in on two of them, two on one of them, and they pretend the other two were never solicited. Geoff Johns creates new origins for anyone he hasn't yet.  Including Wonder Woman who is aiming for her dozenth reboot by 2015.  Plus the estate of the royal family of England sue them for the use of the name Diana Prince, so she is renamed Diddy P... which leads to more legal problems.  Eventually, after too many suits and too few actual comics or actual good comics published, Time Warner ceases publication of comics as a whole.  Michael Bay is given the Batman franchise.. and.. well.. it just goes even down hill from there if that is even possible..

• I enjoyed the issues where they showed Black Adam mumbling to himself trying to figure out his power word. Best thing that Captain Marvel had done since Kingdom Come.

• Yes, I know, <i>52</i>. I own it, I've read all of it, it's awesome, one of my fave comics, but Captain Marvel's part there is relatively small compared to the rest of the story, if memory serves me right. Black Adam was a bigger focus. Besides, practically every major DC character played a part in it anyway. Thanks for reminding me, though.

• Lets pull the trigger and let DC finally give us a black Shazam!

• Captain Marvel changed Black Adam's power word to Chocolate Frosty Milkshake or something like that. After Black Adam was accused of killing a bunch of people and it took the whole DCU to take down Black Adam.

• Finally someone mentions the power word

• no it's they can't use the name Captain Marvel in the title

• Mary Marvel can still be Mary Marvel.  It's not the word "Marvel", it's that THERE'S ANOTHER CHARACTER NAMED CAPTAIN MARVEL. Geez louise people.

• I'll concede your point, gladly. Shocking oversight on my part, really  

• There is only one Shazam! and that man is...Gomer Pyle.

• á mööse öñce bit mý sister... We apologise for the fault in the spam-bot. Those responsible have been sacked.

• Yeah, couldn't he be, like, 2nd Lt. Marvel?

• The Big Red Cheese and family were pretty damn cool in Brave and the Bold. Mainly because they were EXACTLY like their old 40's incarnation, wry humour, weird villains, corny values and all.

• First they change the logo for legal reasons, and now this.  Seems like they're getting ready to fire the legal department.

• This needs to be elaborated on. Changing the name is not as trivial a thing as you're making it out to be. He's been called "Captain Marvel" for 70 years, too much of his mythos is built around that name. What is the wizard gonna be called now if not Shazam? And what Mary Marvel's name gonna be? Mary Shazam? You can't just take every instance of the word "marvel" and replace it with "Shazam". You'd wind up with stuff like Uncle Shazam, Hoppy the Shazam Bunny, the Lieutenant Shazams, The Black Shazam Family, etc. Plus, how awkward is it that he can't say his name without summoning transmogrifying bolts of lightning! "Never fear, citizens of Fawcett City! Shazam is he--" *ZAP* "Oh darn it!" This is why Captain Marvel Jr. had to go by CM3 (his magic word was Captain Marvel).

• They can always call him "CAPTAIN PLANET", eh, wait I mean "CAPTAIN KANGAROO", no not that either. How about "CAPTAIN DC"

• Meh. Captain Marvel (I mean Shazam) hasn't been cool since he was on Justice League Unlimited

• One of the things I enjoyed about the Winnick Trials of Shazam series is that it introduced the change that the word alone is not enough to cause a transformation. The word has to be combined with the intent. I think this would be the best solution to the problem. I do really hope they don't use the name Mary Shazam, or Shazam Jr. though.

• Maybe he'll say "F&%k you, Marvel" to turn into Shazam.

• Odds are that no one on this page has loved Cap as long and as much as I have.  I L-O-V-E that big red cheese and all of his insane extended family.  BUT...they are from another time and another world.  There can be no new Captain Marvel stories inside the DCnU, not without getting Alan Moore to reboot him a la Marvelman, and why do that again?   That being the case, I am pleased to see them retire the name with some dignity.  (Harley Quinn deserved as much.)  Let the new kid be named Shazam.  It evokes the old without stuffing the new character into a red-and-gold straitjacket.  I see this as a win/win, and when was the last time DC managed one of those?

• Didn't realise Kingdom Come was so old!        ...it's awesome though right? Oh my God I love it 

• I'm pretty sure Mary Shazam is a porn star.

• Aw HELL no, dawg!  "Shazzam" sounds like a most excellent name.  Who's the baddest-ass lily-white dick ever to slap a gunsel?  Why, Shazzam Spazzade, of course!  Who be sticking by his master's side through the thickest and the thinnest?  Only Shazzam Gazzamgee, fool! /borderline racist patois

• Trojan Man

• He's a hero! Gonna take conception down to zero!

• Repost Cause the formating got messed up I know the solution to the word of power problem... Originally in the backstory of the Wizard Shazam, he envoked his own word of power VLAREM! Vlarem (an anagram of "Marvel"). V for the strength of Voldar L for the wisdom of Lumian A for the speed of Arel R for the power of Ribalvei E for the courage of Elbiam M for the stamina of Marzosh And before you go one about the difference in gods...  Black Adam's gods were as follows... S The stamina of Shu H The speed of Heru A The strength of Amon Z The wisdom of Zehuti A The power of Aton M The courage of Mehen Also a side note, after Freddy completed the 'Trials of Shazam' in the 2006 series, he did not take the name Captain Marvel, but the name Shazam. So they could drop the Greek Gods as being his power base all together, since the Greek gods are tied more to Wonder Woman now more than ever (never liked how Zeus and the others had supposed influence on WW and CM but there is no connection between the two). Also Solomon wasn't part of Greek mythology nor was he a god, which never made sense why he was tied in the whole Shazam thing anyway, other than they needed someone that could fill in the "S". I say use Egyptian gods (Black Adams's list). Have the power word be VLAREM (MARVEL), which was the Wizard, Shazam's power word. Problem solved.

• I know the solution to the word of power problem... Originally in the backstory of the Wizard Shazam, he envoked his own word of power VLAREM! Vlarem (an anagram of "Marvel"). V for the strength of VoldarL for the wisdom of LumianA for the speed of ArelR for the power of RibalveiE for the courage of ElbiamM for the stamina of Marzosh And before you go one about the difference in gods... Black Adam's gods were as follows... S The stamina of ShuH The speed of HeruA The strength of AmonZ The wisdom of ZehutiA The power of AtonM The courage of MehenAlso a side note, after Freddy completed the 'Trials of Shazam' in the 2006 series, he did not take the name Captain Marvel, but the name Shazam.So they could drop the Greek Gods as being his power base all together, since the Greek gods are tied more to Wonder Woman now more than ever (never liked how Zeus and the others had supposed influence on WW and CM but there is no connection between the two).Also Solomon wasn't part of Greek mythology nor was he a god, which never made sense why he was tied in the whole Shazam thing anyway, other than they needed someone that could fill in the "S".I say use Egyptian gods (Black Adams's list). Have the power word be VLAREM (MARVEL), which was the Wizard, Shazam's power word. Problem solved.

• My first thought was to laugh out loud about how this will look on the "I Am Not Shazam" TV tropes page.

• Who cares it's the crappy DC universe. So crappy that they relaunched it! >.>

• Me too... as a (dumb) kid, me and my friend used to play Superman and Shazam when we ran around the yard... I didn't figure out he was called Captain Marvel until years later.

• First through Fourth were credited as "Doctor Who". It was "The Doctor" after Davison's tenure - that's why Tennant had it changed, because he was a Tennant fanboy. So it's anything but consistent. The point is that his name's officially been, at least as far as the credits are concerned, "Doctor Who" for no less than HALF of the Doctors ahead of Matt Smith.  And I'm pretty sure the vast majority of episodes credit him as "Doctor Who" since the first four appeared in far more episodes than any actor since.

• Only with pouches.

• Well, I said it above in another comment, but I really don't think it's stupid, even as someone that really does like the character.  The reason to keep it as is has to be either that the character is so iconic that you really can't (Batman), or that it's just something the fans are so comfortable with that we don't want to change it.  While the latter is definitely true, I don't think the former is.  Actually, quite the opposite, since most people think he's called Shazam anyway.  On the other hand, you've got decades of litigation with Marvel.  It's amazing they didn't change it decades ago.

• Pssst, look at what all the Doctors before have been credited as. Plus, most of the actors who've played the Doctor freely refer to the character as Doctor Who, the media's completely down with it and refer to the character as Doctor Who, hell, even some of the old books and merchandise just go ahead and label him Doctor Who.

• Who's to say it's not already? Every media out there, much of the promotional tie-ins, the actors themselves and even most of the show's credits refer to him as such, so.. yeah.

• Well, he IS poised to become an interesting character in the Young Justice cartoon, so, I dunno. He pops in and out. I enjoyed his run in Justice Society, but I'm the only person who actually reads that.

•  Because of course, you should name yourself the one word you can't say without giving away your identity. Seriously, that was a major, in-canon problem with Captain Marvel Jr.. And it was stupid then, too.

• This only bothers me because I grew up on the reprints of the Golden Age Captain Marvel stories, and those were a textbook example of how to do comics for kids, which, if you ask me, is pretty much a dead art form these days. That my childhood hero can longer be identified by name just makes me sad. (As a kid, I was so into Captain Marvel that my mother handmade me an accurate Captain Marvel costume from scratch, including vinyl boots. She was a comics-freak during the Golden Age, so she was only too happy to contribute to my own burgeoning geekery.)

• Well, I guess by "important" I mean a combination of "stories that have actually had some sort of impact on the character/DC/the comics world/etc." & "stories that are damn good". But yeah, outside of Kingdom Come, I can't think of anything that really showcases the character that well, hence I don't feel that much of a connection to the character, hence why I'm not as annoyed (yet I felt compelled to send this tip in...go figure). But after looking through a lot of comments...Yeah, I can definitely see why this can be a stupid decision, & why people would be pissed.

• Wow just read the article.  that is pretty douchey on DC's part: Fawcett ceased publishing Captain Marvel-related comics in 1953, due in part to a copyright infringement suit from DC Comics alleging that Captain Marvel was an illegal infringement of Superman. In 1972, DC licensed the Marvel Family characters and returned them to publication, acquiring all rights to the characters by 1991. DC has since integrated Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family into their DC Universe

• Pssst.... look what the Ninth Doctor was credited as. It was only when Tennant came on-board that it was changed back, because he is the true King of All Who Geeks.

• I think this is a great idea because when I was a kid I thought his name was Shazam and when I found out his name was Captain Marvel I thought it sounded stupid so I still call him Shazam anyway so now I will be right.  Also Mary Marvel can become Shazam Girl or something and the other one can be Shazam Boy, problem solved, you are all welcome.

• Screw DC. Their petty lawsuits (as National Comics Publications) are why Fawcett ceased publication of Captain Marvel comics in the 50's (at one time Captain Marvel was more popular than Superman...yeah, SUPERMAN). They don't deserve to publish Captain Marvel comics at all.  It's a little offensive that the hero's wikipedia entry says Captain Marvel (DC Comics).

• I guess it depends on what you mean by "important".  I liked the Trials of Shazam series, and the limited series "First Lightening" was superb.  As others have mentioned, he was put to interesting use in Kingdom Come (though I'm afraid to mention to people that Kingdom Come was almost 20 years ago).  I've also liked him on Young Justice.

• I know that they wanted to change his name to not-confuse newer readers/people, but what was his name in the two most recent appearances of the character?  In <i>both</i> Brave and the Bold and Young Justice, the character is referred to as "Captain Marvel."

• Actually, I did know about Kingdom Come, hence why I said <i>past decade</i>. I knew he played an important part in that, nothing else just sprang to mind, even looking for non-KC stuff.

• Actually, I did know about Kingdom Come, hence why I said <i>past decade</i>. I knew he played an important part in that, nothing else just sprang to mind, even looking for non-KC stuff.

• Actually, I did know about Kingdom Come, hence why I said <i>past decade</i>. I knew he played an important part in that, nothing else just sprang to mind, even looking for non-KC stuff.

• It's not frivolous, it's the result of years of litigation and pressure.  The bottom line is that DC has had to fight this for as long as most of us have been alive, and it really doesn't make sense to spend money fighting so that you can have a character with the same name as a character of your biggest rival, which is also coincidentally the name of that rival.  There's nothing special about the name Captain Marvel except that it's what we've always called him.  If changing his name to Shazam makes it more accessible for non-hardcore people to pick up and saves DC a bunch of headaches, then it's totally reasonable to do.  Plus, we're at the start of the new DC universe, so it's a perfect time to make a change like this.

• Captain Trojan!

• What?!?!  Something has CHANGED?!?!?!  I am a nerd!  I cannot accept change!  I SHALL BE ANGRY!!!!!

• Nay, I bet they stick with him saying, "Shazam!"  Keeping the Captain Marvel moniker around just confuses things.  I imaging there will be some new name for the Wizard, probably something like The Wizard.  

• I didn't even know they were making Shazam/Captain Marvel comics anymore.

• Xibit. "Yo dawg..." and such.

• "Shazbot"

• Love Captain Marvel. This isn't the first time they changed his name.Would rather they keep it and just use the Power of Shazam title. sidenote funny how the headline picture is from Post Crisis Captain Marvel mini that was quickly forgotten. Let's hope this reboot is more Power of Shazam awesome then Byrne's Captain Marvel What?!?!?. Winick's series wasn't that bad I liked but just wasn't the Big Red Cheese or Cheese Jr i this case

• Right that's it. Not only Captain Marvel but also acronyms and exclamation marks are now RUINED FOR EVER! On the plus side, at least maybe now Marvel comics can get on with calling their character Noh-Varr "Captain Marvel", instead of "The Protector", which just sounds like an extra thick condom.

• Thanks DC, you've finally invalidated Legends of the Superheroes.

• "Thank you, sir, you saved my life. What's your name?" "I can't tell you..."

• Read Kingdom Come. Captain Marvel had Superman beat and then saved the day.

• Yes, but he inspired Elvis, who is awesome.

• As I've never read Captain Marvel, I'm not really qualified to say if this is good or bad.  it does help to clear some things up, however.  I swore that his name was Captain Marvel, but all of the merchandise featuring the character (well, mostly the action figures) kept calling him "Shazam" (the quotation marks included), so I could never verify things properly (and thus could never truly express my nerd rage).  Now, I have a few more months where I can complain that his name is not "Shazam."

• In a shocking twist, Shazam was Batman.

• FUCK YOU I WAS PROUD OF COMING UP WITH THAT

• this will have a lot of cuss out for fans who prefer to call him Captain Marvel ,the term Shazam is an incantation spell to accquire god like power but something tells me the Marvel company had a hand in this predicament.

• In Alex Ross and Mark Waid's Kingdom Come (perhaps my favourite DC mini series ever) he plays a big part and is actually kind of creepy. He's an older Billy Batson who's grown up to resemble Captain Marvel but is still sort of a man child. Also he gets brainwashed by a fat Lex Luthor and Alex Ross' Old Batman is even more awesome than his Regular Batman. Just read the book, it's great.

• The only thing I can think of is him almost destroying then saving the future of the DC universe in Kingdom Come

• I can see the Hitler video now...... Loosing his mind over the change......

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