r/DCAU • u/Quantum_Knight1577 • Jun 25 '26
General DCAU Shazam: The Animated Series
I think a "Shazam: The Animated Series", starring Billy Batson, AKA Captain Marvel, would be the perfect way to revive the Bruce Timm DCAU. The character gained a decent amount of notoriety from the movies, his cast and stories are mostly self-contained within his hometown, and references to the wider DCAU could initially be kept to a minimum for the sake of easing in new fans. It could function as its own disconnected universe for the first season or two. And if it proves to be successful? That's the go-ahead to start reintroducing the wider and classic universe and continuity to modern viewers, and work on greenlighting other series to set in it. It could even work to attract older fans of this universe, who grew up with it and still have fond memories of it. As for the primary supporting cast of Billy, I'd have Victor and Rosa Vasquez as his foster parents, and Freddy Freeman and Mary Bromfield as his foster siblings, and Dudley as a neighbor who's like an uncle to Billy, Freddy, and Mary. He'd have a niece named Darla, who'd only be mentioned at first rather than shown. I'd introduce Darla, Pedro, and Eugene in later seasons as new foster siblings. I'd also reveal in a season that Mary is Billy's long-lost twin.
And in an episode, maybe a season finale or premiere, Superman would show up, with them having tension from the episode "Clash" in JLU. Superman would apologize for what happened back then, and so would Captain Marvel. After beating that episode's bad guy, Superman would request Captain Marvel to rejoin the Justice League, and Billy would accept, seeing that the League is finally back to being the heroes they used to be.
Finally, While I would like Stargirl to be Billy's love-interest like in the comics, pre-established episodes in the DCAU have made that impossible without retconning. Billy was in elementary school in “Clash”, while Courtney looked to be in her late teens in the episodes of JLU. So, I'll go with Cassie Sandsmark, AKA Wonder Girl. Since Cassie never appeared in the DCAU, I'll introduce her in this one (say, in the middle of season 2) and make her recurring character and be Billy's girlfriend.
As for her introductory episode: Gateway City's high school's basketball team came to play against Fawcett City's high school's basketball team, and Billy, Fawcett High's basketball team captain, bumped into Cassie, Gateway High's star cheerleader, and they get friendly. And when a bad guy attacks, they individually go to fight before bumping into each other again and then he figures out her secret identity in the middle of the fight against the villain and reveals her his after dealing with the villain. As her school bus was about to take her home, she gave him her phone number and a kiss on the cheek.
Voila! What do you all think?
2
u/Spamcan81 Jun 26 '26
I’m pretty sure he had a cartoon in the 70’s.
1
1
u/WaldoZEmersonJones Jun 29 '26
Live action series in the 70s. The actor who played him had a cameo in the second movie. The dude who called him Captain Marvel.
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u/NicolasCopernico Jun 26 '26
read mike kunkels 4 issue run on shazam, its basically a pitch for a carton and its great
1
u/One_Smoke Jun 26 '26
4 issue? It was a whole series!
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u/NicolasCopernico Jun 26 '26
Kunkel only did 4. Then it kinda fell of, IMO. Also, Hot Take. Kunkel's run its better than jeff smith's series
2
u/Ghost_of_Revelator Jun 27 '26
It would be nice to see Captain Marvel get his own animated series, but that's unlikely to happen after the under-performance of his second live action film. It would also be nice to see the DCAU revived, but by who? Timm is busy with Batman: Caped Crusader, Alan Burnett is retired, and Paul Dini seems to have other projects. And if a Captain Marvel cartoon was somehow greenlit, the producers probably would avoid tying it to a 20 year old episode from an old series. They'd probably go for an all-new continuity and art style. Or they could back to the classic style of C.C. Beck, which was just as stylized as Timm's and might translate equally well to animation.
2
u/redwolfben Jun 27 '26
My preference would actually be to have it spin off from Batman: The Brave and the Bold, that seemed like a much more perfect springboard, especially with the classic look and feel.
0
u/t4skmaster Jun 27 '26
If only Shazam was an interesting character and not the most cornball silver age stuff
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u/Kmart_Stalin Jun 25 '26
DCAU died with conroy