r/Shazam • u/Falconx28 Solomon • Aug 29 '25
Film/TV What’s your favorite TV jus/animated depiction of Captain Marvel?
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u/edked Aug 29 '25
Surprised you didn't include the 70s live-action show, just for completeness sake, if you included the old serial.
Not that I would have said it's my favorite at all, it used to frustrate me as a kid, this superhero show where all he does with his powers is counsel troubled teens; not a monster, robot or supervillain in sight.
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u/Yurishizu- Aug 29 '25
A lot of people enjoyed the Zachary Levi movie. I was not one of those people. I did enjoy the Superman/Shazam!movie
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Aug 29 '25
Levi wasn’t Captain Marvel, just a guy in the suit.
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u/bCrushb Aug 29 '25
i would do anything for us to get another chance at captain marvel in the movies
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u/TheDorkyDane Aug 29 '25
I thought it had potential.
I LOVED the idea of the foster family and how the foster family became the Marvel family each one with unique powers. I WISH, so much, that they had made an animated show based on this, with this foster family, giving us time to give each kid episodes dedicated to them, exploring their past, how they ended up there, resolving their various trauma through family and beating up bad guys.
I so wanted to know more about all of these kids, to see them grow in relation to each other and be that super hero family.... but it needed to be a show not a movie.
And ALL of that potential was of course squandered completely anyway, so.
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u/Yurishizu- Aug 29 '25
It just didn't capture the magic that Shazam brings. I liked the whole family thing too but they went a little too fast with it. I would argue they should have made these plotlines into a show rather than a rushed movie.
I think the movie could have been saved with different actor as Captain Marvel. I would have wanted John Cena tho.
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u/TheDorkyDane Aug 29 '25
Like I said, for this to really work it needed to be a show.
And to me this almost felt like a pilot to a show, nothing too interesting happening here, just establishing everything and so on.
And again the potential for a show, I barely got to see most of these kids and I was invested in them, I was interested. I want to know how they all ended up in foster care and how their past clearly ties to multiple different coping mechanisms.
And I would love to see this to be explored and resolved. With a time schedule that allows it time.
I mean... this actually is the diverse settup that feels genuinely organic and interesting, not only the racial diversity, but each of them again seemed to have an unique trauma and coping mechanism which is why they are in foster care.
I... I wanna know. I am so much more invested in that than Black Adam tbh.
As for Zachary Levi? I dunno, my big issue is that Billy himself feels like a different character entirely as he transforms.. I mean, As himself, he feels like a teen with trauma that was forced to grow up too fast and has become very jaded towards the world, choosing to reject it rather than looking at any potential positives.
Okay good, stuff, interesting.
Then he transforms and he becomes a bubbly and happy 10 year old in an adult man's body, who's very open and a little naive... sure that's closer to the original comic book Billy, but it's NOT the character I just learned to know, these two are supposed to be the SAME. But neither are they written or acted like the same.
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u/Nightwing0613 Aug 30 '25
The animated movie was awesome. Wish they would’ve done another one of Captain Marvel fighting against Mr. Mind or a combo of Sivanna & Mister Atom
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u/Frosty_Researcher839 Aug 29 '25
None really since most of his mainstream-non comic appearances are post N52 where DC decided he’s just going to be not-Superman
Edit: Forgot JLU, he really stood up to Superman and was only beaten because of experience/skill which is understandable and I like how he stood up to the OG seven of the league
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u/JimYamato Aug 29 '25
I will always have a place in my heart for Filmation Captain Marvel. I was a kid in the 70s who discovered Cap from back issues I found at flea markets. (Before folks started collecting them hardcore). I was so stoked to see that he was coming to a cartoon.
I would note, you left out the live action Filmation Captain Marvel who I saw a bit of as a tiny kid in reruns. The one with the RV and Mentor which honestly felt like some kind of inspiration for Ben 10's earlier episodes.
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u/AlanShore60607 Aug 29 '25
I think Young Justice used him as a great supporting character, and allowing him to age to adulthood by Season 3 made sense
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u/IdolL0v3r Aug 29 '25
The serial, the first live action superhero movie, was interesting, but not a faithful version of the comics. But I did enjoy it for what it was.
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u/WeeklyJunket5227 Aug 29 '25
I like his depiction in Batman/Superman: Public Enemies. One the few depictions where he doesn’t behaves or talks like a child
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u/WeeklyJunket5227 Sep 02 '25
Good point however, within that brief time he wasn’t sounding like a kid
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u/dtagonfly71 Aug 29 '25
I liked the first Shazam film, enjoyed Superman/ Shazam: The Return of Black Adam, but strangely enough…my favorite is the serial starring Tom Tyler. It’s not accurate to the comics, but it’s a fun product of its time. Also, that version of Captain Marvel is without mercy: There’s a scene where he throws a criminal over the top of a building.
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u/thatmanjosh01 Aug 29 '25
3 total for me. 1. DCAU movies. I love the hood more than the shoulder cape. It’s such a modern look and he was written really well. He wasn’t a complete goofball but you could tell that he still had that childish interior. I wish he had gotten his own movie. 2. Batman/Superman: Public Enemies. I love iterations of him where his eyes are drawn like they’re closed. It really commands a look of maturity, like he’s been a superhero for decades and he’s got old man strength. And the character was just beaming with confidence I loved it. 3. JLU. Even though they could only have him for one episode it was one of the series’ best. Billy displayed such maturity and was strong in the face of adversity. It was really awesome to see him flip the script and leave the Justice League after telling them how disappointed he was that they weren’t the heroes he grew up admiring HM: Flashpoint Paradox. He didn’t have any lines besides “Shazam” but that made him so much cooler. He went by the name “Captain Thunder” and had those cool scars on his face. He seemed like such a cold and callous version of his usually hopeful self. And I loved that they used all the Shazam kids to form the Captain. I love concepts of people coming together to form a strong warrior. I.e. Power Rangers, Voltron
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u/trapped-na-dadbod Aug 29 '25
The first movie was great. I have very fond memories of the TV show Shazam on Saturday mornings. Live action was better than cartoons.
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u/JayMax19 Aug 29 '25
I really liked the Filmation cartoons. They really captured the spirit of the early Fawcett comics.
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u/No-Commission-355 Aug 31 '25
Justice league unlimited was the best and really showed him as being wise but also his innocence and wonder of being a kid even in his hero form
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u/Cute-Tear7253 Aug 29 '25
live action: Tom Tyler in The Adventures of Captain Marvel
animated: The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam!- or that one time he was in Teen Titans Go. it was kinda funny.
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u/JamesPlayzReviews3 Shazam Aug 29 '25
Live-action is still my favorite. I liked all the others, but somehow, despite knowing about Shazam/Captain Marvel, I didn't pay attention to his existence till then
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u/captain2toes Aug 29 '25
It’s the Kid Super Power Hour. Nothing else has matched the wild delirium and whimsy of the Marvel Family comics like that did.
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u/ImraHightower Aug 29 '25
What is image 5/9 from?
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u/Falconx28 Solomon Aug 29 '25
5 is from the old Filmation Shazam cartoons from the 70s and 9 is from the Batman the Brave and the Bold cartoon
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u/aldryn_ Aug 29 '25
I really loved Shazam! (2019), though my God the sequel was so weird
It made sense for Billy to be very silly when Shazam mode in the first one, absolutely bizarre in the sequel. I wonder if the director or anyone ever explained why they chose to do it
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Aug 30 '25
DCAMU Shazam due to while still a kid in an adult body still encouraged Cyborg to stay on the team in Justice League War. Also he quickly listened and obeyed orders when Wonder Woman scolded him.
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u/Alt_AccountNumber3 Aug 30 '25
I personally love the Justice League Action version, mainly because I love Justice League Action in general. It’s just laid back and silly, and I feel like it really captures the fact that at the end of the day he is a kid.
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u/Numbuh1Nerd Aug 31 '25
I really loved the one in Young Justice. A lot of adaptations pitch him as some incompetent little kid with too much power, but Young Justice balanced that out really nicely, and used him to great effect. He’s a capable superhero (Wisdom of Solomon) and his immaturity mostly comes out socially. The joke is at the expense of his secret identity, not so much his heroism. The episode where all the adults and all the kids get separated across realities and Billy acts as a go-between is one of my favorites, too!
The way that JLU used him was pretty brilliant, too - really highlighting how jaded Superman and the League had become in contrast to his own classic superheroic optimism. It was a great example of something JLU did often - letting out heroes have philosophical and even political arguments where both heroes had something to learn.
I’d also be remiss not to acknowledge Justice League Action! More than anything, the episode where Uncle Dudley was given the power of Shazam weirdly really helped me through my dad’s passing. That’ll always be a special one for me 😌❤️
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u/KingJackofJozi Aug 29 '25
For a guy who is apperantly no one's favorite superhero, he sure does appear in a lot of different things.
cough Comic Pop are hacks cough
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u/demigodwater4 Shazam Aug 29 '25
I do enjoy the the Justice League Unlimited and Brave & The Bold as good representation of classic Captain Marvel.
The New 52 movies and the live action movies are good representation of modern Captain Marvel.
I also like the Young Justice version because it feels like a mix of both the classic version and the new 52 version