Shazam! Perfectly Brings a Wonderful Aspect of the Comic to Life
**Spoilers for Shazam! and they’re big spoilers—so big, like super big. Get it? Because he’s a super big superhero?**
Billy Batson flying around Philadelphia? Delightful! But Shazam! does a great job of introducing the rest of his family, as well—meaning both his mother and his foster family that he meets throughout the film. Billy Batson has a rich history and a story that reaches out to many, a young boy who becomes a superhero and protects the world from the seven deadly sins.
But one of the more important aspects of Shazam!‘s history is that of the Shazam family. You can see the history of the family here (which was formerly known as the Marvel family, since Shazam used to be called Captain Marvel … it’s complicated) but the wonderful thing about Shazam! is that it introduces the normal people behind the family throughout the story, allowing the audience to grow with these characters. So, when it’s revealed that they’re all heroes in their own right, you feel as if you’re watching your own family take their rightful place beside each other.
And it helps that they cast Adam Brody as the older version of Freddy Freeman, a fact that had me screaming in the movie theater. (Adam Brody became famous for Seth Cohen on The O.C., a character who loved comic books and superheroes in much the same way that Freddy does.)
The Shazam family is special, though, because not only does it give us a whole group of heroes to support, but it gives Billy Batson the family he’s searching for the entire movie. Batson, who loses his mother at a fair and can’t find her, spends his entire life in foster homes, escaping them to go in search for his mother. So, to see him find his family, grow with his new siblings, and become superheroes together? There is nothing better.
Hopefully, we get a movie with the Shazam family and get to watch as Billy and Freddy grow into their powers and grow as brothers, but if not, at least we have this beautiful third act of Shazam! to give us all the Shazam family goodness we dreamed of!
(image: Warner Bros.)
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