Posted: 25 November 2017 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | 12
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This topic is fingernails on the chalkboard to me.
If the original creators had come up with an idea so idiotically simplistic as "Billy is Cap and Cap is Billy," the comics would have been written that way. Granted, "Cap's just Billy" is easier to understand and I know how comic fans like their stuff really, really direct and laid out for them, following the most elementary applications of "if this, then that," but this particular line of reductive reasoning strips the very concept of Captain Marvel of everything magical about him. Every damn thing.
Had the creators gone with something so elementary, we'd have had years and years of what we've been getting since fans-turned-pro like Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway began demolition on the character back in the Eighties and Nineties, Billy-as-Cap would simply say, "I've got to get back to the station before Mr. Morris notices I'm missing" or "Wow. What a beautiful girl! But in this body, she doesn't know I'm only ten!"
And, in general, the characters did not speak that way. Captain Marvel would instead say, "Billy's expected back at the station. Got to wrap this up quickly." The two spoke of one another differently. They could be made to mistrust one another under certain circumstances. They bought Christmas gifts for each other and were surprised by what one bought the other. Two different people.
"Billy-as-Cap" is an asinine overwriting of the character's history that everyone today seems completely comfortable with, in part because it differentiates the character from Superman. They also bend themselves into knots over the inevitable question of "If Billy isn't Cap, then who is?" Jerry Ordway flipped himself inside-out over that one so badly that he gave us an answer (Billy's dead father) AND went with the "Billy-as-Cap" concept as well.
"Oh, yeah?? Well, then what about the rest of the Marvel Family??" They're different people as well, for the most part, with the templates for the magically created beings more closely resembling the originals than Cap does. While there are discrepancies, for the most part, Mary and Freddy refer to their secret identities in the third person as well and not as "I." It's not "thank heavens I changed in time!" It's almost always, "Holy Moley! That was a close one for Mary!"
Captain Marvel is a magical champion created in part from the childlike idealism, good heart, and physical reality of Billy Batson. The two are intrinsically linked to one another. If one dies, so does the other. Overthink leads to Miracleman's Q-Space and such, but at least that model preserves the notion that the two are different beings, even if Miracleman is essentially a perfected version of Mike Moran. Mike doesn't know what Miracleman does, nor does Miracleman know what Mike is doing. They are not the same guy switching clothes and appearances in a flash of lightning as Captain Marvel has been portrayed since the god-awful "New Beginning" mini-series lo these many moons ago.
Remember that one? Where Uncle Ebeneezer may as well be Sivana because, well, no one actually knows TWO awful old men in their lives. Y'know what else we can reduce? The number of heroes the concept has, from two down to one. Just Billy. In a grown-up Captain Marvel suit. Like the Ultraverse character Prime, but not as gooey.
I'm so tired of the "Billy with wisdom would act differently" bosh as well. When did we get so comfortable with looking down on these characters? Billy is no dummy. In fact, he gets Cap out of a number of scrapes back in the Golden Age. He also doesn't require the courage of Achilles to leap into danger or put himself at risk for others. Cap is part Billy and part Achilles. And part Solomon. All of them had something to contribute. But we don't see Captain Marvel flashing back to that time he had to threaten to chop a baby in half. Cap is magical. He's not just Billy grown-up or with a couple of bells and whistles added.
Here's what C.C. Beck thinks Billy looks like grown-up. Kurt Schaffenberger once showed what he thought Cap looked like as a kid. (Not Billy.) But whatta these clowns know, right? Right! They were never fans! Not like we were! We got a much simpler answer these days, and we're stickin' with it! See here, this "Kingdom Come" book by fans-turned-pro Mark Waid and Alex Ross? Pure fanboy magic! Love the whole skeevy Billy, evil Cap mind-control stuff! And look!! Billy looks juuuuust like Cap. Isn't it so much simpler that way? Don't we all feel better now with an easy answer?
Gail Simone recently indulged her inner troll on FB by putting forth the very clear, obvious fact that Cyclops has heat vision. There were lots and lots of panels to back her up. Her fanbase was more than delighted to pitch in. Here's Scott setting the grass on fire. Here's Scott melting the ice off Warren's wing. Here's Scott lighting the frickin' candles on a birthday cake. What fun! Haha! Whatta laugh on all the anal-retentives out there who think any of this stuff matters! It's all been gotten wrong so often that we can form entire schools of debate on the matter, with tons of evidence to back up the "wrong" argument as readily as the "right" one. Pfah! As if right or wrong mattered to anyone in comics! Haha! That Gail! What. A. Card.
DC long ago scrapped the original concept of Captain Marvel in the holy crusade of making him "interesting" and "different from Superman" by first turning him into a glandularly-challenged naif with his thumb up his butt and nowadays an edgy teen with edgy teen issues dealing with his teenage edginess in an edgy teenaged way ("Hey, are we interesting yet?" No. But keep at it. Who knows? Maybe the next re-imagining will get you there. Or the next.)
Doesn't matter, I know. Most everyone here is convinced of the simplest throughline for the concept. Everyone's happy with getting it wrong. And hey, Hollywood's about to chime in on the matter with their big, new re-imagining of the character with a lead actor who could believably play the kid-in-a-grown-up-suit role just fine. What could be more high-concept and lowbrow at the same time than, "He's Superman! But a kid dressing up to play Superman! For real! And they all treat him like a grown-up! He really IS a grown-up super-hero! And a kid at the same time!!" What a hoot it's going to be, no doubt, no doubt. Oh, the wacky hijinx that will ensue. Maybe they'll even throw in a nod to the "dancing on the keyboard" sequence from Big. Or the fortune-telling machine. Ho ho. What a guaranteed knee-slapper it's all going to be...
Edited by Brian Hague on 25 November 2017 at 8:16pm
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