SUPERMAN/SHAZAM!: THE RETURN OF BLACK ADAM (2010)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

I understand the rationale of most of the "DC Showcase shorts" series is to provide a venue in which to celebrate established DC franchises (in contrast to the DC comic book SHOWCASE, which usually debuted new features, or old features revived in some altered form, like the Kupperberg DOOM PATROL). Still, I suspect some business motive informed this 2010 iteration of the "Shazam" property, even though the original Captain Marvel didn't get his own live-action movie until nine years later.

It would be kind to call most post-Golden Age revivals of the Captain Marvel-verse "underwhelming." Even admitting that a lot of the original comics were as formulaic as any other comic of that time, the raconteurs working with the heirs of Shazam did come up with a good range of witty, charming tales. Most adaptations of this particular property have lacked both wit and charm, and SUPERMAN/SHAZAM is no exception. Its plot is mostly an excuse for big fight-scenes. Young boy Billy Batson lives a simple life, trying to be a good person despite his poverty, until one day a super-powered villain, Black Adam, starts trying to kill him. Fortunately for the boy, Superman is around to stymie Black Adam, though the Man of Steel alone can't defeat the evildoer. Then Billy is summoned to the sanctuary of the wizard Shazam, who bestows on the boy the powers of Captain Marvel. The newborn hero joins Superman to defeat Black Adam, and Black Adam dies (impermanently, since he had yet to be essayed by Dwayne Johnson). The only distinction of this ordinary short is that Shazam is voiced by James Garner in his final performance.

The other three shorts were, as I recall, originally shown as "extra added attractions" on one of the WB animated programs, and are about half the running time of the 25-minute showcase for Captain Marvel. First up, proving equally pedestrian, is "The Spectre." The Ghostly Guardian, in his civilian identity as policeman Jim Corrigan, investigates the murder of a prominent L.A. citizen and finds that the butler did it. Not really, but there's nearly no emotional engagement with the actual characters in this underbaked mystery, so it might as well have been the butler. The version of the Spectre here recalls the gruesome but repetitive incarnation of the 1970s.

There's also "Jonah Hex," who did get his own film that same year, and the most one can say is that this 12-minute short is better than the feature film. In this story the disfigured bounty hunter has to cross swords with a female schemer who proves a fairly dangerous adversary, and the outcome is congruent with the endings of the nihilistic spaghetti westerns on which the character of Hex was modeled.

The best of the lot is "Green Arrow," which packs a lot more into its dozen minutes that all the rest combined. While planning to pop the big question to his girlfriend Black Canary, the Emerald Archer is called upon to protect a young girl, the new queen of a made-up  European nation, from an assassination attempt. Not only is the dialogue clever and the characterization sharp, this short also features two of Green Arrow's best (if not only) costumed opponents, Merlyn the Magician and Count Vertigo. And since the Canary sings her own sweet song at the climax, that makes this short both a hero-crossover and a villain-crossover, for those of us who keep track.