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A Boy and His God: the Promise of Masculinity in Captain Marvel

A Boy and His God: the Promise of Masculinity in Captain Marvel

A Boy and His God: The Promise of Masculinity in Captain Marvel

Ryan Johnson, University of Texas at Dallas

Abstract It would be hard to deny that and the superheroes that populate them have Film and popular culture critic Bob been a major cultural in the eight Chipman has argued that, during the Golden decades since their premiere. For those who Age of comics, one of the primary draws for study such movements in popular culture, many readers was the relationship between one of the primary issues has been why the adult-male and his young . comic books in particular succeeded so well. Many boys, left without present fathers first debuted in #1 during the 1930s and ‘40s, found ersatz in 1938, and in less than five years he and masculine role-models in the superheroes of his ilk were starring in radio, film, and the day, particularly those who mentored a enough individual titles to flood the market young sidekick, as with and . and millions of readers. What was it While Chipman’s theory accurately explains that allowed the to rise so high one strong appeal of comics characters such and so quickly? Numerous scholars and as Batman, Superman, or creators such as Brad Wright, Grant to young boys, it does not account for the Morrison, James Gilbert, and many others interest in one of the most dominant figures have pointed to the identification of the of : Captain Marvel. reader with the superhero and/or his (or, The best-selling comics star for a rarely, her) alter-ego. In a similar vein, film number of years in the 1940s, Captain and popular culture critic Bob Chipman has Marvel was a super-strong, flying champion focused on the identification of readers not of , who in reality was preteen Billy with the adult hero, but with the young Batson. The relationship between boy and sidekick, who is closer in age and man was, therefore, markedly different for to the largely juvenile . He suggests the publication. In this that who bought and read comics analysis, the author examines the precise during the Golden Age (1938-1954) often nature of the relationship between Marvel lacked a paternal figure at home, as their and Billy through the lens of 1940s-1950s dads had left either to find work during hard masculinity in comics and culture, times or to fight abroad. When reading about examining how the Captain alters and adapts Robin’s adventures with Batman (or about the traditional heroic role of the ersatz-father , Speedy, et cetera) the boys found a to provide an idealized version of self-reliant much-needed father figure in the adult maturity. superheroes, who were both fathers and friends to the audience-insert characters

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(“”). Chipman’s theoretical simply lost faith in the system that framework is valuable not only because it prevented them from proving their refocuses the conversation regarding masculinity in the only way they identification on the young boys who knew.” (Kimmel, 140). formed the target audience, but also because it deals with this immersive aspect in terms And while WWII provided some chance for of masculinity; a concept that was economic, if not personal, security in the undergoing a great deal of flux at the time. form of regularly-paid positions for soldiers, Yet while Chipman’s frame speaks to the the newfound social freedom of women left appeal of numerous figures such as Batman, behind only further complicated things. Superman, Captain America, and so on, it Where the wife was a domestic force to be does not entirely explain the phenomenon of reckoned with before the war, now, she was Captain Marvel, perhaps the most popular also a member of the public sphere at the hero of the Golden Age. The appeal of cost of masculine hegemony. The fear of Captain Marvel and his alter-ego Billy feminine power, and the masculine Batson lies in his naïve interpretation of isolationism necessary to repel it, featured masculinity, in contrast to the patrician prominently in popular works from the model endorsed by Superman, et al. period, including a number of comic books. To read the writings of social One later issue of Captain Marvel featured commentators and contemporary academics, an evil witch who attempted to trick the do- the interwar period in America was not a gooder into marriage, whereupon she would particularly good time to be a man. The control him and be free to run amok. passage of women’s suffrage, changing social roles in the domestic sphere, and the [The witch’s] plan to render Captain invention of the teenager all contributed to Marvel through marriage the impending sense of . And things is cast specifically in the terms of the did not improve once the Great Depression domestic ideology’s masculine norm. began. In other words, the male breadwinner role is inherently emasculating, and Wages plummeted and relief rolls male powerlessness against the swelled. The unemployment level wife’s control is assumed to be a part rose from about 16 percent in 1930 of marriage in this parody… Thus, to just under 25 percent barely three male freedom outside marriage is years later and remained almost as presented as directly counter to high for the rest of the decade. With female freedom and power obtained nearly one in four American men out through marriage, and the latter is of work, the work-place could no evil (Best, 82). longer be considered a reliable arena for the demonstration and proof of Although often comedic, the overarching one’s manhood. And many men characterization of female control as

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 77 inherently opposed to male freedom was comforts of marital stability, [while] Lois indicative of a very real fear among the male had eyes only for his more manly alter ego, population of the pre-WWII period. who could not, and would never be tied In answer to this dread, artists Jerry down into a life of domestic drudgery. What Siegel and created an invincible Clark craved, Superman avoided” (Kimmel, male. This titan could meet bullets and 154). Though Superman was the first of his bombs with a hearty chuckle, outperform the kind, a slew of similar characters who greatest feats of humanity’s ingenuity, or sought to repeat his success soon followed. change the very shape of nature itself. And The vast majority served comparable needs he hid behind the façade of a regular white for their readership, if not the exact same collar-worker. Scholars such as Michael ones. were typically super, and Kimmel and have argued rarely allowed their lives to be disrupted by that, while Superman himself serves as a figures of the female persuasion. form of wish-fulfillment, the true to It is worth noting that the ’s popularity lay in his secret were almost entirely male-oriented. Whether identity: Clark Kent. “The man behind the readership statistics accurately reflected S—a man with a job, a boss, and girl such views or not, audiences were perceived trouble. Clark the nerd, the nebbish, the by publishers and creators alike as almost bespectacled, mild-mannered shadow self of entirely male. Female comics readers were the confident Man of . [Siegel and assumed to prefer romance tales and similar Shuster] had struck a primal mother lode” stories, which publishers were quick to (Morrison, 9). And, through the vehicle of capitalize on, but girls were rarely their four-colored avatar, male readers could considered an important factor in superhero- not only experience an existence of related epics. With that said, subsequent (imaginary) omnipotence, they could also sidekicks and hero-adjacent females were view a world where female power was introduced as the stars of their own series, neutralized. As the mild-mannered, but they remained relegated to the second cowardly Clark, the hero pursued the frigid string throughout the Golden (and Silver-, , an attractive, self-sufficient and some of the Bronze-, Dark-, and female who easily embodied the powerful Modern-) Age. Moreover, these super- woman. Yet this same powerful figure women were often pigeonholed into dashed endlessly after Superman, who domestic, or domestically-oriented, roles. refused to be ensnared by anyone’s While these comics and the men who womanly wiles (as seen in the first pages of created them were products of their age, and Action Comics #1, when the newborn a number of progressive movements can be character brushes off a murderous femme identified in the history of the medium, the fatale without a thought). In a cycle that common dismissal or outright misogyny of would provide regular material for the hero comics has been and remains a primary until their marriage in the 1990s, “Clark concern of scholars. Following the constantly pursued Lois Lane, seeking the publication trends of Fawcett and other

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 78 comics producers in the 1940s, however, the weak towered over that of the wealthy and remainder of this essay deals primarily with powerful” (Wright, 13). Whether the comic males and their understanding of the world, book focused on the hero fighting corruption as those are the issues that concerned the and theft or on the defeat of the Axis creators and what they assumed to be their , the universe was one “with a readers at the time. cynically realistic base: Once the odds were Returning to masculinity, for all their appraised honestly it was apparent you had fantastic elements a cursory inspection of to be super to get on in this world” (Feiffer). these publications shows that they contained While a highly lucrative trend, a fairly mature , especially in consumed by people of many ages, comparison to the stories that would typify superheroes of this type were noticeably the Silver Age. While the individuals in the close in tone to the adult-oriented pulps, tales presented might be figures of bright which some early creators were quick to wonder, their worlds did not share the same realize left a field of younger readers lacking distinction. The Golden Age version of in characters to which they could personally Superman, for example, was less the relate. messianic figure that he would become. Batman creator … and Siegel and Shuster’s original [his assistant Jerry] Robinson “were, character was actually a tough and naturally, concerned with boosting cynical wise guy, similar to the hard- sales and attracting younger comic boiled detectives like Sam Spade readers. For writers and who also became popular during the illustrators, the most logical, Depression years. Superman took to practical, and ultimately successful crime-fighting with an adolescent solution to this readership quandary glee, routinely taking the opportunity was the creation of an exciting, to mock and humiliate his -defying kid who would lighten adversaries as he thrashed them both the look and tone of Batman (Wright, 9). (Tipton, 322-323).

Like his noir forbearers, this tough and As with Superman, Robin quickly proved to violent hero was the only appropriate answer be a trendsetter, and youthful sidekicks (of to the world in which he existed. The big nonspecific ages, usually a young teenager city in which he operated was not a utopian or what today might be called a pre-teen) wonderland, but one in which a man had to soon became a staple feature of comic fight “for social justice, [while] traditional books. The various Boy Wonder-analogues authorities appeared slow, ineffective, and provided for young boys—the assumed occasionally even corrupt…Superman’s readership and primary target audience of America was something of a paradox—a the comics—an escape like that which land where the virtue of the poor and the Superman provided for the Clark Kents of

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 79 the world. The sidekicks showed a reality in owners DC. Yet this seemingly derivative which young boys could not only go on series regularly outsold Batman, Superman, with their super-fathers, Captain America, and the other of the as Chipman argues, but also one which was Golden Age that are remembered today. uniformly masculine. In recalling why he Introduced in #2, the tale did not identify with young Dick , of Billy and the Big Red Cheese “started a Jules Feiffer notes that “while I lived in the series of well over 1,000 stories featuring east Bronx, Robin lived in a mansion, and either Captain Marvel himself or other while I was trying, somehow, to please my members of the …Peak mother — and getting it all wrong — Robin circulation was well over 2,000,000 copies was rescuing Batman and getting the gold per issue—a figure never reached by any medals. He didn’t even have to live with his other comic before or since [at least until mother.” Feiffer, by his own admission, may 1987’s Death of Superman]” (Lupoff, “The have been somewhat of an outlier among Big Red Cheese,” 63, 67). This massive young readers, but the salient point is that success, which includes the honor of being not only did the comic character enjoy a the first comic superhero to cross to the charmed life, but it utterly lacked a feminine silver screen, suggests that Captain Marvel influence. Like their older compatriots, spoke to a desire in his readership better young comics readers could escape from the than other comics of the time. The , malign influence of the dominating mother, then, is what role the Fawcett character an alternate expression of the dominating served so well? wife, and a concern discussed in greater Some of the answer relates, no detail in James Gilbert’s Men in the Middle doubt, to the process of identification itself. as “Momism.” When first drawn by creator C. C. Beck, As an orphan, young Billy Batson was Billy Batson was very simplistic. He also free of the maternal influence. appeared as “an oval-faced, dot-eyed, Following a strange figure into a mystic squiggly-haired boy familiar to any child subway station one night, he meets the who ever sent for a how-to-draw-heads ancient , who selects the boy course” (Feiffer). This is an extreme form of as his successor. Any time he shouts the visual simplicity, in which the primary word “Shazam!” (an acronym of the names features such as eyes and mouth are Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, presented clearly enough to create identity and Mercury), the child is struck by and function, but in a manner that is so far and transforms into the fully- abstracted from the real world that it allows grown superhero Captain Marvel. His alter- for a much greater degree of reader ego possesses super-strength, near immersion, according to comics scholar invulnerability, flight, super-speed, and a Scott McCloud (, ch. number of other generic attributes that 2). In these terms, young Billy almost would ultimately result in him being appears to be a case study of iconicity, and litigated into oblivion in 1953 by Superman this visual technique may have worked in

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 80 conjunction with the innate appeal of a relationship between Billy Batson and superpowered character one’s own age to Captain Marvel, it becomes clear that the draw in greater numbers of young readers. characters speak to the gender-based In addition, Captain Marvel had another concerns of the readership in a unique advantage in his competition with manner. In contrast to the “typical, Superman. heteronormative father and son dyad” that describes Batman and Robin, Superman and In terms of reader identification, , and countless other heroes of Superman was far too puritanical: If the day, the stories in Whiz Comics, Captain you didn’t come from his planet you , and The Marvel Family couldn’t ever be super — that was did not star that eponymous Captain (Tipton, that. But the more liberal Captain 326). Marvel left the door open. His method of becoming super was the Billy Batson was the real hero of all simplest of all — no solar systems or the Captain Marvel stories, from the test tubes involved — all that was first issue until the last…Without needed was a : Billy Batson, Captain Marvel would “Shazam!” (Feiffer). have been merely another overdrawn, one-dimensional figure Indeed, Jules Feiffer (“Introduction”) and in a ridiculous costume, running Grant Morrison (Supergods, 32-33), among around beating up crooks and others, independently recall attempting to performing meaningless feats of use Billy’s powers on their own, walking strength like all the other heroic around as boys shouting out “Shazam!” in a figures of the time who were, with childish hope. While Fieffer responded to almost no exceptions, cheap the spell’s failure with disappointment, and imitations of Superman (Beck). Morrison poured through dictionaries in search of a working spell, both are Billy was not only the protagonist of the representatives of what was almost certainly tales, but the proper hero. The introductory a near universal phenomenon among title page of each comic described for new readers. After all, what reader, child or readers the basic premise of the series, and adult, could honestly resist trying the word although the wording used was known to once, just in case. change from issue to issue, they always While these aspects of the many titles described the boy as the primary character. published under the Marvel Family banner One such introduction stated that “to help go some way to explaining their appeal, they him in his untiring efforts to overcome nevertheless fail to take into consideration wrong-doers and crush crime, Billy can the crisis of masculinity that was occurring become Captain Marvel at will merely by in the American psyche during this time speaking the magic word: Shazam” (“Make period. Through examining the precise Way for Captain Marvel,” 48). The fight

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 81 against crime, and subsequent heroics, were boy remains defiant in the of grown directly stated to be not the province of the foes that have him at their mercy (a giant figure on the book’s cover, but to regularly recurring dramatic moment in belong wholly to the boy newscaster. Captain Marvel stories). In one particularly Although one of the most overt striking instance, a captured Billy stands in instances, this and other introductions front of Dr. Sivana, who is one of the only portray the story not as one of Captain to know that Billy and the Captain Marvel versus the forces of evil, but as are one and the same. Though small and Billy’s fight against the same foe, in which hunched, with a distinct visual similarity to contest the good Captain is but one tool for Nosferatu, the is still a head taller the boy’s use. When an army led by his than Billy and surrounded by his henchmen arch- Dr. Sivana invades the United and diabolical machines. Instead of States, for example, the hero infiltrates the cowering, however, the young boy responds enemy camp to spy on the enemy generals to him with nothing but contempt. When the not in the invulnerable form of the Big Red scientist pokes at Billy and says “Well, I’ve Cheese (as Sivana, and his creators, were got a story for you. And you’re going to read known to refer to the Captain) but as the every chapter of it—except the last one,” the very vulnerable Billy (Whiz Comics #3, 40). hero responds “If you’re writing it, I’m sure His bravery is not limited to braving live it will be most uninteresting.” While his battlefields, however, as the child is statement alone is defiant, the look on young regularly captured by large thugs and other Billy’s face is one of utter contempt for his physically stronger foes that are able to foe. His eyes are closed and eyebrows the hero because, so long as he arched, while his chin juts out in what can did not say the magic word, Billy “was just a easily be imagined to be a scoffing flip of boy. In the early days he was, in fact, rather the head in the face of a man who is a little boy, although of indeterminate age” currently assembling a literal private army. (Lupoff, “The Big Red Cheese,” 72). This For a child facing truly adult peril, Billy’s fact did not, however, prevent him from tone is impressively insulting (“Captain displaying physical bravery as well. In one Marvel Battles the Winged Death,” 140, instance when several of Sivana’s goons Fig. 2). In this scene and all the others of his jump the newscaster, instead of saying his existence, Billy Batson is the consummate word he turns and “puts up a game fight,” hero, despite being a small, young, punching one of the suited thugs straight in physically weak little boy. the chin, which at the time rests a few inches Fortunately for Billy, when his physical higher than the of Billy’s head (“Captain attributes prove to be a hindrance, either Marvel Crashes Through,” 63, see Fig. 1). allowing grown men to overpower and gag Though quickly overpowered and gagged, him, or preventing his entry to certain areas he continues to struggle against his on account of age, he has a secret weapon. opponents. And though he does not always Upon saying the word “Shazam!” Billy get into fistfights with full-grown adults, the instantly transforms into the physically

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 82 grown Captain Marvel. Although the precise he wore a shirt with a yellow collar. At nature of the relationship between the boy times this shirt would bear the monogram and man has varied over the years “BB” in a staggered, overlapping pattern on depending upon the author and/or the chest. After first saying “Shazam!” the incarnation of the series, boy’s shirt became a red tunic with gold cord around the neck, supporting a white most aficionados are in agreement half-cape, while a yellow lightning that Captain Marvel was Billy stands vividly in the center of the uniform, Batson’s alter ego (and vice versa); clearly transforming the young Billy’s that in a metaphysical sense they sartorial aesthetic along with his physical were the same person in two form. different embodiments; and that in His face, moreover, also hints at a more truth Billy did not so much give way precise definition of the relationship to Captain Marvel as become between (super)man and boy. As discussed, magically transformed into Captain the youth’s face is largely iconic, with only Marvel, retaining even as Captain a few defining features. In , it may be Marvel, the basic personality and said to be more of a rounded-square than identity of Billy Batson (Lupoff, truly ovoid, with some softness to the “Big Red Cheese,” 72). features. Billy’s black hair hangs over a large forehead in several locks. He has black This is an important distinction to make, as dots for eyes, but they are given definition it suggests that the appeal of the comic was by thick black brows, and the image is not Captain Marvel in and of himself. Were completed with a small-but-noticeable cleft he a separate entity, an argument could be in his chin. Upon transforming, the made that the superpowered muscleman was roundness leaves Billy’s face, replaced by a the primary attraction. If, however, the Big stereotypically manly straightness of lines. Red Cheese was only an aspect of Billy Nevertheless, the thick black eyebrows and Batson, then the boy remains the hero of the cleft chin remain, while the black dots have series; reader identification rests with Billy become thin lines of a masculine squint. as the hero, and thus in his childlike “With his slicked-back Brillantined hair, he aesthetic, rather than in the physically looks like the boy Billy grown up, perfected. mature hero. He looks, in actual fact, almost exactly like While this manipulation of identification the actor Fred [MacMurray], upon whose was never explicitly dealt with in the pages features Charles Clarence Beck based those of any Fawcett comics, it was nevertheless of his hero” (Morrison, 32). This, then, is the clearly expressed visually. Most particularly, true relationship between Batson and his the physical similarities between Billy and alter ego; Captain Marvel is not an alternate the Captain were striking (as in Fig. 3). version of Billy, but rather is the child When the young boy first entered the grown physically. Instead of one identity subway tunnel and in all future incarnations serving as a for another—as Batman

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 83 masked the identity of , or Captain Marvel is engaging. Nevertheless, it Clark Kent’s glasses masked the is the very thing that a boy suddenly given Kal’el—Captain Marvel’s face is a superpowers would be likely to do. magnification or amplification of Billy’s. Moreover, he reacts to the rest of the world The softness of childhood is replaced by the with the same child-like spirit, especially hardness of masculinity, but otherwise the when it comes to the opposite sex. features remain the same, just as the boy’s When first meeting the appropriately shirt changes into a man’s military-style named Beautia, she suggests that he would tunic. The same sort of transmutation marks enjoy being her emperor when she and the changes of the Lieutenant : Sivana eventually conquer the world. The Three boys known as Fat Billy, Tall Billy, Captain’s mouth hangs slack, his eyebrows and Hill Billy who, because they, too, are are arched in what appears to be shock (and named Billy Batson, can use the magic word perhaps horror) as three beads of sweat to transform into Fat Marvel, Tall Marvel, off his head (“Make Way For Captain and Hill Marvel, respectively. They also Marvel,” 52, Fig. 4). This is not the reaction have their prepubescent faces infused with of a grown man, much less a powerful magical testosterone and become instantly superhero, but of a young child who is manly. utterly and horrifyingly out of his depth. It is important to note, however, that Similarly, when the hero saves a young none of the Billy Batsons can be said to cowgirl in a -themed adventure, he is become adults. Though physically larger and offered the standard hero’s recompense. The stronger than his alter ego, and indeed girl throws her arms around his neck and almost everyone in existence, Captain says “You wonderful man, you saved me— Marvel was not what one would call I’m going to kiss you.” Captain Marvel, imposing. “A friendly fullback of a fellow visibly trying to pull himself from her with apple cheeks and dimples, he could be embrace, shouts “Help! Help! Shazam!” and imagined being a buddy rather than a hero, the puzzled girl is left holding onto Billy an overgrown boy who chased villains as if Batson, who safely throws her off the trail they were squirrels” (Feiffer). The Big Red (“Captain Marvel Out West,” 31, Fig. 5). Cheese revels in his abilities in a much more From the perspective of a young boy, this wholesome, boyish way than the was a close shave as, after all, though he destruction-prone Superman, using a pair of might be the world’s mightiest mortal, not torpedoes as water skis, for example, or even Captain Marvel is immune to cooties. heckling an airliner as he flies past. As he The Captain is, physically, a man. He dashes by a plane in a one-panel aside, has a man’s strength, a man’s size and Marvel waves and shouts “Yah, yah, you stature, and even a man’s face. Specifically, can’t catch me!” (“Captain Marvel Scores it is the face of contemporary film action- Again!,” 82). This scene has nothing to do hero Fred MacMurray, whose visage was so with the overall arc of the story, nor to the stereotypically masculine that when he aged very (diegetically) serious crisis with which out of playing younger roles he was

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 84 repeatedly cast as the model 1950s-era changes into a homemade costume to patrician. But despite all this, the comic star become the -powered, warm-hearted is clearly not a man, remaining instead an comic-relief character Uncle Marvel. Even overlarge boy. Billy’s sister, , the only regular feminine influence in the Marvel titles, has It is not size or age or childishness the courtesy to live several blocks away in that separates children from adults. It her own house, appearing only when some is “responsibility.” Adults come in familial closeness is desired but never to all sizes, ages, and differing varieties pester or intrude. And whenever this boy’s of childishness, but as long as they paradise might be less-than-perfect, either have “responsibility” we recognize, endangered by outside forces or liable to often by the light gone out of their age- or size-based restrictions, Billy says his eyes, that they are what we call word and assumes an adult stature, but grown-up (Feiffer). remains free of the “responsibility” that characterizes true adulthood. Rather, Marvel It is clear to the reader that the Captain is not is the ultimate child, free of any restrictions burdened with any of this weight. Instead, or limitations and able to indulge his power his great power brings primarily great in boyish sport and adventure. freedom. Indeed, Brian Cremins has argued And it is Billy’s power that resolves the that “Captain Marvel is often more child- troubles. Because Captain Marvel is an like—prone to mistakes, silly, and aspect of the boy, rather than being an immature—than Billy Batson is” (“Captain external individual, he provides young Marvel and the Art of Nostalgia,” 75). This readers with a of themselves and their is demonstrably true as, if nothing else, Billy roles unique among the comics of the is the one with a day-job. Still, lack of Golden Age. Readers could also identify adulthood for the hero forms the center of with young sidekicks like Jimmy Olsen, the appeal of the Fawcett titles. who has every boy’s theoretical potential to Boy readers identify easily with the boy one day “be a fine specimen of normative Billy, and through him they are able to male adulthood. Still, as Superman’s pal he escape into an idyllic world without functioned as a different model of childhood restrictions. In Billy’s life there is inadequate masculinity to play off the no mother to dominate, no school to bore, superior masculinity of Superman. Thus, and no arbitrary rules about bedtimes or Jimmy’s adventures place him repeatedly in diets. Even the paternal figures are benign at danger, requiring Superman’s rescue” (Best, worst, such as the dignified but kindly Mr. 90). Though strong and impressive, Robin, Morris, Billy’s boss, who gives him Speedy, Bucky, Jimmy, and the other boy assignments and support and disappears adventurers were ultimately children who from the tale, and farcical at best, as in the required the protection of the father- case of Uncle Dudley, a “lovable old fraud” analogues to guide them into security and and conman who shouts “Shazam!” and show them the way into the world of

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 85 adulthood. But Billy Batson did not suffer particularly responsible as they grew. from this problem. Billy saved himself. If Because Billy’s transformation was his wits and courage were not equal to the instantaneous, he could avoid the various challenge, he could change his outer aspect growing pains that accompany aging. Not into that of an adult. “In the language of for readers of Captain Marvel were the trials ceremonial magic, Shazam! summoned the and tribulations of acne, puberty, holy —the exalted future awkwardness, and girl trouble that would self—to come to one’s aid” (Morrison, 33). come to plague Peter Parker. They could The Captain was never an to direct skip all that and become the adult that they the growth of Billy, and through him the knew they would eventually be, without any reader, but rather was an incarnation of the of the loss of innocence that always man that the boy would become. The face of accompanies growing up. Because the youth Captain Marvel is the face of Billy Batson did not require a man’s help to become a with the addition of years, just as that of man, neither was he required to accept the Captain Marvel would eventually age into apparent realities of a man’s world. This the visage of the wizard Shazam, who is the innocent worldview was especially same man minus hair and plus wrinkles and impactful during the Golden Age, occurring a beard (Beck, refer again to Fig. 3). The as it did in of world-shaking vision of Billy’s transformation into Captain events such as the Great Depression and Marvel, though magical, is nevertheless an World War II. The adventures of Billy and inevitability. The Big Red Cheese is, as the Captain could easily have become dark Morrison suggests, Billy’s “future self,” and serious, since “if the world is filled with requiring only the turning of the to villains like Hitler, Goebbels, and Goering, come into being. And as such, young Batson all of whom Billy encountered during World is not a child to be rescued and reared, but is War II, what good is a magic word that the self-made man by his own will. Through forces him to grow up?” (Cremins, “Captain Billy Batson, young male readers where Marvel,” 75). But Billy did not really grow shown a world where they did not have to up, he just got bigger and stronger, rely upon their fathers, absent or otherwise, remaining innocent and boyish at heart, nor upon their ersatz equivalents, to make “more like J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, the little them into men. All they required, Billy boy free from the vanity, petty hatred, and assured them, was time. the evil of adults” (Cremins, “Captain The lack of external influence had Marvel,” 75). another effect on the Marvel vision of In discussing his understanding of the masculinity, however. Because Billy appeal of Captain Marvel, Brian Cremins brought himself into manhood, neither he has argued that it presented a vision of the nor his readers were reliant upon adults to nostalgic past. Throughout the 1940s, GIs reach their potential. There was no need, in fighting abroad read about “home” in the the world of Captain Marvel, for children to pages of Captain Marvel, while those on the become serious, dour, cynical, or even domestic front could be equally reassured by

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 86 the idyllic vision of inevitable Axis defeat. Works Cited And when these soldiers returned to a home that had been irrevocably changed by war Beck, C.C. Interview with Tom Heintjes. and social forces, the broadcasts from radio Hogan’s Alley, no. 3, August 2016. station WHIZ provided a glimpse of the Uploaded 28 June 2017. simple, innocent life they had lost (“What http://cartoonician.com/an-interview- Manner of Man Is He,” 39-41). This is a with-c-c-beck/ Accessed April 20, 2018. strong explanation for the popularity of the Best, Mark. “Domesticity, Homosociality, Fawcett titles, but it speaks to an adult’s and Male Power in Superhero Comics of needs, rather than a child’s. Where a soldier the 1950s.” Iowa Journal of Cultural returning home might search for an Studies, 6, no. 1, 2005, 80-99. innocence that has been lost, a young boy Chipman, Bob. “Sidekicks” The Big Picture. would seek not to lose it in the first place. From The Escapist, 24 October 2012. This is the promise, and thus the ultimate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdG appeal, of Captain Marvel to children. For k9omUeJ8. juvenile male readers, Billy Batson’s world Cremins, Brian. Captain Marvel and the Art was not only one without the threat of of Nostalgia. University Press of females—be they mother, wife, or sister—it Mississippi, 2016. was one without the threat of alien ---. ““What Manner of Man Is He?”: Humor “adulthood.” No matter what enemy he may and Masculine Identity in Captain face, or how big he grows, “Billy’s magic Marvel’s World War II Adventures.” word allows him to exist in a permanent, Studies in American Humor, n. s., 3, no. idyllic, carefree state of wonder and 27, 2013, 33-62. innocence” (Cremins, “Captain Marvel,” Feiffer, Jules. “The Great 85). And the figure of Captain Marvel Heroes Intro & Afterword.” The Comics promised that such wonder and innocence Journal, no. 200, December 1997. would never disappear. In the face of a Uploaded 22 August 2014. cynical and dangerous world, the http://www.tcj.com/the-great-comic- relationship between Billy Batson and his book-heroes-intro-afterword-by-jules- alter-ego/future-self Captain Marvel showed feiffer/ Accessed 29 April 2018. young readers not the idyllic past of their Gilbert, James. Men in the Middle: older compatriots, but rather an optimistic Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s. future. The hope of eternal innocence and University of Chicago Press, 2005. freedom, and the promise of a child’s Kimmel, Michael. Manhood in America: A version of adulthood, is what made Captain Cultural History, 3d ed. Oxford Marvel such as phenomenon among readers University Press, 2012. in the Golden Age, and may be what older, Lupoff, Dick. “The Big Red Cheese.” All in nostalgic readers have sought to recapture. Color for a Dime, rev. ed., edited by Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson, Krause Publications, 1997, 58-83.

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McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: ---. “Make Way for Captain Marvel.” Whiz The Invisible Art. William Morrow, Comics #4, in The Shazam! Archives Vol 1993. 1, DC Comics, 1992, 47-58. Morrison, Grant. Supergods: Our World in ---. Whiz Comics #3, in The Shazam! the Age of the Superhero. Jonathan Archives Vol 1, DC Comics, 1992, 33- Cape, 2011. 46. Parker, Bill and C. C. Beck. “Captain Tipton, Nathan G. “Gender Trouble: Frank Marvel.” Whiz Comics #2, in The Miller’s Revision of Robin in the Shazam! Archives Vol 1, DC Comics, Batman: Dark Knight Series.” The 1992, 19-32. Journal of Popular Culture, 1, no. 2, ---. “Captain Marvel Battles the Winged April 2008, 321-36. Death.” Whiz Comics #10, in The Wellman, Manly Wade (attr.) and Shazam! Archives Vol 1, DC Comics, Kirby. “Captain Marvel Out West.” 1992, 134-146. Captain Marvel Adventures #1. Fawcett ---. “Captain Marvel Crashes Through.” Comics, March 1941, 16-31. Uploaded Whiz Comics #5, in The Shazam! 28 December 2010. Archives Vol 1, DC Comics, 1992, 59- http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=18340 71. Accessed 1 April 2018. ---. “Captain Marvel Scores Again.” Whiz Wright, Bradford W. Comic Book Nation: Comics #5, in The Shazam! Archives Vol The Transformation of Youth Culture in 1, DC Comics, 1992,72-84. America. John Hopkins University Press, 2003.

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Figure 1: Young Billy Batson takes on two full-grown thugs. Parker, Bill and C. C. Beck. “Captain Marvel Crashes Through.” Whiz Comics #5, in The Shazam! Archives Vol 1, DC Comics, 1992, p. 63.

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Figure 2: Billy defies and insults Sivana. Parker, Bill and C. C. Beck. “Captain Marvel Battles the Winged Death.” Whiz Comics #10, in The Shazam! Archives Vol 1, DC Comics, 1992, p. 140.

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Figure 3: Note the similarities between Billy Batson, Captain Marvel, and the wizard Shazam. Parker, Bill and C. C. Beck. “Captain Marvel.” Whiz Comics #2, in The Shazam! Archives Vol 1, DC Comics, 1992, p. 24.

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Figure 4: Captain Marvel is not comfortable with Beautia’s proposal. Parker, Bill and C. C. Beck. “Make Way for Captain Marvel.” Whiz Comics #4, in The Shazam! Archives Vol 1, DC Comics, 1992, 47-58, p. 52.

Figure 5: A narrow escape! Wellman, Manly Wade (attr.) and . “Captain Marvel Out West.” Captain Marvel Adventures #1. Fawcett Comics, March 1941, 16-31. Uploaded 28 December 2010. http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=18340 Accessed 1 April 2018, p. 31.

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