Does Black Adam's current popularity come at the expense of Captain Marvel's?

[Buried Alien]

During the past few years, and especially during this most recent year with the publication of 52, the character of Black Adam has become increasingly popular - more popular than one would imagine the evil analogue to Captain Marvel could ever be.

Does Black Adam's current popularity, however, come at the expense of Captain Marvel? Have fans begun to see Black Adam as a much more compelling bearer of the Power of Shazam than Captain Marvel?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Powerboy]

During the past few years, and especially during this most recent year with the publication of 52, the character of Black Adam has become increasingly popular - more popular than one would imagine the evil analogue to Captain Marvel could ever be.

Does Black Adam's current popularity, however, come at the expense of Captain Marvel? Have fans begun to see Black Adam as a much more compelling bearer of the Power of Shazam than Captain Marvel?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

I'm not sure. I think there is always a certain attraction to evil and/ or ruthless characters. They bring more wish fulfillment. To be sure, that is part of Black Adam's appeal. I've heard rumors that Adam may get his own series. The question remains to be seen if 52 will evolve him into a character that can carry his own series as the main character. Further question would be, will as many fans like him if he becomes a less ruthless character? I don't think it is at the expense of Captain Marvel because DC has always struggled trying to get more sales from Cap even when he wasn't competing with Adam.

[Joe Acro]

For me, I find the Trials of Shazam! far more interesting than Black Adam's exploits in 52. When this stuff began in JSA, I found Captain Marvel to be the more interesting of the two characters.

They've essentially just turned Black Adam into a close analogue of Namor, who I've never found greatly interesting in his own right.

Has Black Adam's new popularity come at the expense of Captain Marvel? Maybe. There certainly has been greater focus on Black Adam. Maybe that was partially due to the Trials of Shazam! being in the works and then published. But even that doesn't showcase Marvel, or at least the traditional version. So, I think it's entirely possible that DC has shoved Billy Batson off to the side in order to build up his previous supporting characters. Mary Marvel will get her turn in Countdown.

I can't even tell what kind of popularity Captain Marvel has, as his current mini might be well-regarded just because it's done by Jeff Smith.

--
The JSA is mentioned!

[gunz]

truth be told, gotta say yeah

if for no other reason that black adam has actually been interacting with the d.c universe recently (all be it a year ago). Captain Marvel has been to busy guarding the negative zone prison for no apperent reason.......:cool:


but seriously, or as serious you can be when talking about comics, captain marvel has been off in his own little world in trials. It just feels like black adam is more apart of the d.c universe at this point. We will be seeing mary marvel in countdown, so that may mean we actually see marvel more, but right now black adam is definitly beating him in the popularity department

and ofcoarse HE JSUT KILLED 8 MILLION PEOPLE!!!!!!!:evilsmile

[Kara Zor El]

I don't think it's at Captain Marvel's expense. Black Adam is more popular than he has ever been right now, that's for sure and I'm more interested in him as a character but I'm not any less interested in Captain Marvel than I used to be, just not more interested.

In fact Black Adam's new found fame and fortune will only help all the Marvel's to find new fans.

[EZMOHR]

I would say no.

Captain Marvel has made his own niche in DC. Black Adam's character has made its own. They are in two, equally appealing places right now.

[PastePotPete]

It may seem that Black Adam has way more standing in the DCU right now, but you've got to remember, chronologically, all characters have ebb and flow to their popularity. We're about to hit the climax of 52, of which Black Adam is the catalyst and main antagonist. It's a big time for Black Adam. Eventually, though, Geoff Johns will move onto other DC characters and the character's popularity will wane.

Do you actually think having one character become more popular hurts another character's popularity? If Batgirl suddenly gets a boost of fan attention, does that hurt Batman?

[Buried Alien]

Do you actually think having one character become more popular hurts another character's popularity? If Batgirl suddenly gets a boost of fan attention, does that hurt Batman?

If the two characters are competing for the position of public face of a franchise, then yes.

For decades, Captain Marvel was the undisputed public face of the SHAZAM franchise. Everybody else was just a supporting character to Captain Marvel.

The trend with Black Adam and Captain Marvel in recent years indicates a shift. In the current state of the DCU, Black Adam is much more the public face of the SHAZAM franchise, while Captain Marvel has kind of drifted during the past few years.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[stealthwise]

If the two characters are competing for the position of public face of a franchise, then yes.

For decades, Captain Marvel was the undisputed public face of the SHAZAM franchise. Everybody else was just a supporting character to Captain Marvel.

The trend with Black Adam and Captain Marvel in recent years indicates a shift. In the current state of the DCU, Black Adam is much more the public face of the SHAZAM franchise, while Captain Marvel has kind of drifted during the past few years.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

I don't care, as long as I get my issues of Monster Society of Evil though.

[EZMOHR]

In the current state of the DCU, Black Adam is much more the public face of the SHAZAM franchise, while Captain Marvel has kind of drifted during the past few years.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)


Yeah, I don't agree with this at all. I have a Black Adam T-shirt, and when people in the public see it they say, "hey like your SHAZAM shirt." Or they say, "Like the Capt. Marvel shirt." When you tell them it's a Black Adam shirt, the standard question is, "Who?" Or it is "I didn't know SHAZAM had a villian named that."

I think in our community, Black Adam has rose to more prominence, but in the public view, Black Adam is still a "Who?"

[ultramandingo]

cap has nothing to wory about - three words - mego action figure . you aint nobody till you get one of those . heck even the stinkin penguin got one.
plus shazam underoos !

[CYOTI]

Does Black Adam's current popularity, however, come at the expense of Captain Marvel? Have fans begun to see Black Adam as a much more compelling bearer of the Power of Shazam than Captain Marvel?
Why should they? Black Adam however isn't popular because he is part of the Shazam franchise, but rather because because he represents a rather dark and medieval aspect of heroism in the DCU.

[Powerboy]

They've essentially just turned Black Adam into a close analogue of Namor, who I've never found greatly interesting in his own right.



That's interesting. I had never thought of that but, the moment you said it, I thought, yeah, it sounds right.

What was the name of that series where the guy said Atomic backwords and gained his powers? I know it was originally a takeoff on Captain Marvel and then there was an updated and extremely dark version of it. In the dark version, there was a Black Adam analog that slaughtered millions of people so I wonder if now they are having Adam parallel his actions.

[ultramandingo]

What was the name of that series where the guy said Atomic backwords and gained his powers? I know it was originally a takeoff on Captain Marvel and then there was an updated and extremely dark version of it. In the dark version, there was a Black Adam analog that slaughtered millions of people so I wonder if now they are having Adam parallel his actions.

kimatoa ! allan moores marvel man . the villian, bates, was an evil version of captain marvel jr .and made black adam look like mary marvel

[Jack Zodiac]

Does Black Adam's current popularity, however, come at the expense of Captain Marvel? Have fans begun to see Black Adam as a much more compelling bearer of the Power of Shazam than Captain Marvel?

No, I'm not gonna' blame the decrease in Captain Marvel's popularity on Black Adam, I'm gonna' blame it on crappy writing. For all the good Johns has done to give Black Adam more dimensions, he and other writers just cannot write a compelling Captain Marvel. I never liked the teenage boy in the mind of a thirty year old man idea, and it was creepiest in Johns' JSA when Billy was oggling Courtney in Cap's body.

The only person who's written Cap well in years is Jeff Smith. Johns didn't do the character any good in JSA, though he certainly didn't do anything to make the character worse. No, they saved that job for Winick. Black Adam's popularity comes from the fact that people, Johns especially, handled him well, took his core concept and expanded on it in a way that made sense. Any expanding on the character of Captain Marvel has just made the character unreadable.

Again, no, I don't think Black Adam's current popularity comes at the expense of Captain Marvel. That'd be placing all of the responsibility on Johns, who decided to build up Black Adam and not Captain Marvel, when plenty of people could have had the chance to do something interesting with him and didn't.

[Darth Joker]

Black Adam's current popularity doesn't come at the expense of Captain Marvel's... but his current level of exposure might.

Aside from Superman himself (and partly because of Superman himself), there's only so much room for Superman-esque (in power-set, and style of costume) characters in the pages of DC comics.

For example, if you have a big event, and you have an awful lot of pages devoted to Superman, X number of pages devoted to Martian Manhunter, X number of pages devoted to Supergirl, and X number of pages devoted to Black Adam... you might find it hard to get any significant role (if any role at all) for Captain Marvel.

Black Adam fills a niche role within the DC universe that is otherwise left largely vacant. He's the very powerful badass anti-hero who doesn't mind killing villains at all, and is anything but a nice guy. Since he fills this role well, and has very little competition for this role (Lobo probably comes the closest out of prominent DC characters), his popularity is naturally soaring.

That niche role is not something that Captain Marvel could ever fill - the personalities of the two characters are just too diverse.

So... I doubt that Black Adam is stealing fans from Captain Marvel, though he may be stealing exposure/publicity from him.

[PastePotPete]

Black Adam's current popularity doesn't come at the expense of Captain Marvel's... but his current level of exposure might.

Aside from Superman himself (and partly because of Superman himself), there's only so much room for Superman-esque (in power-set, and style of costume) characters in the pages of DC comics.

For example, if you have a big event, and you have an awful lot of pages devoted to Superman, X number of pages devoted to Martian Manhunter, X number of pages devoted to Supergirl, and X number of pages devoted to Black Adam... you might find it hard to get any significant role (if any role at all) for Captain Marvel.

Black Adam fills a niche role within the DC universe that is otherwise left largely vacant. He's the very powerful badass anti-hero who doesn't mind killing villains at all, and is anything but a nice guy. Since he fills this role well, and has very little competition for this role (Lobo probably comes the closest out of prominent DC characters), his popularity is naturally soaring.

That niche role is not something that Captain Marvel could ever fill - the personalities of the two characters are just too diverse.

So... I doubt that Black Adam is stealing fans from Captain Marvel, though he may be stealing exposure/publicity from him.

I like how you explained Adam's niche here, and character niches definitely play into who gets a starring role in certain stories.

For example, in Countdown, I bet they wanted a young, naive-ish hero to be seduced to the darkside and THEN decided on Mary Marvel, instead of saying "I want to do something with Mary Marvel" and figuring out a way to work her in.

Writers want to tell certain stories and they cherry-pick the characters that let them tell those stories.

So Black Adam is getting more play-time because the niche he fills is unique, and fits into the larger themes of 52.

[handOFfate]

I don't think a whole lot of readers even associate Adam with Marvel anymore. The two haven't had a whole lot of interaction in recent years, and its clear they are no longer enemies.
If anything Adam is a more popular Namor, while Capt.Marvel needs to find a place of his own and lives off his past glory. DC is trying; they currently have two Marvel minis and Mary will get a lot more exposure soon. I think both characters will get ongoings within the next year, and they will attract generally different audiences. If Dr.Fate can get his own ongoing, I can't see Adam and Marvel doing any worse.

[Darth Joker]

I like how you explained Adam's niche here, and character niches definitely play into who gets a starring role in certain stories.

For example, in Countdown, I bet they wanted a young, naive-ish hero to be seduced to the darkside and THEN decided on Mary Marvel, instead of saying "I want to do something with Mary Marvel" and figuring out a way to work her in.

Writers want to tell certain stories and they cherry-pick the characters that let them tell those stories.

So Black Adam is getting more play-time because the niche he fills is unique, and fits into the larger themes of 52.

I completely agree. For most of the 'big event' stories, writers have certain 'roles' picked out (these roles being similiar to stock characters in plays), and then sift through the list of all available characters to see who fits the role the best. That character is selected, and ends up filling a key role because of it (though they may be wrote a bit OOC... or way OOC... depending on how wise their selection for the role was).

[Darth Joker]

I don't think a whole lot of readers even associate Adam with Marvel anymore. The two haven't had a whole lot of interaction in recent years, and its clear they are no longer enemies.
If anything Adam is a more popular Namor, while Capt.Marvel needs to find a place of his own and lives off his past glory. DC is trying; they currently have two Marvel minis and Mary will get a lot more exposure soon. I think both characters will get ongoings within the next year, and they will attract generally different audiences. If Dr.Fate can get his own ongoing, I can't see Adam and Marvel doing any worse.

I agree that Black Adam has completely 'out-grown' his days as one of Captain Marvel's very best rogues (well, unless a Captain Marvel cartoon series or movie was to come out - you'd have to be insane not to use Black Adam as a villain for either of these, given his much greater name recognition than any other current or past Captain Marvel rogue).

I really don't see Black Adam ever reprising the Captain Marvel enemy role.

[Mac Danny]

During the past few years, and especially during this most recent year with the publication of 52, the character of Black Adam has become increasingly popular - more popular than one would imagine the evil analogue to Captain Marvel could ever be.

Does Black Adam's current popularity, however, come at the expense of Captain Marvel? Have fans begun to see Black Adam as a much more compelling bearer of the Power of Shazam than Captain Marvel?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

This makes me wonder if, during the early 90's, The Punisher's popularity affected Captain America. Venom and Spidey for that matter. Venom was hugely popular in the 90's.

I think if anything it introduces more people to the mythos and shows readers who might find the concept of Captain Marvel too "Hokey" a way into the character.

[phantom1592]

Does Black Adam's current popularity, however, come at the expense of Captain Marvel?



No.


In order for that to happen, Your implying that Captain Marvel is popular. He really isn't. He hasn't been in Decades. Cap is JUST as popular now as he has for years. which isn't Very. Black Adam getting the spotlight hasn't made Cap "less" popular.

As for the Marvels getting a push.... That doesn't apply to Cap at all. If anything he's getting screwed over pretty bad right now. Black Adam is arguably the most popular Marvel right now with JSA and 52 pushing him strong. Mary is having a big push with WWIII or Countdown... Can't remember where her story is. Not to mention the whole "formerly known as Justice league-Superbuddies" thing that got her some exposure. Trials of Shazam is all about Jr. becoming the New Captain Marvel (from what I heard), Poor Cap has been delegated to sitting in the rock. This is not what DC would have done if they actually planned on promoting Billy.



Personally I would like to see BA be unapolagetically Evil again. I'm tired of them always trying to make bad guys "sympathetic." 52 seems a step in the right direction. He just wiped out a country. THATs Evil! I would also like to see him become a Superman Villian. Superman/Captain Marvel fights are always fun. But Black Adam is someone Superman can really cut loose on. Without Zod around and Darkseid not showing up very often, superman needs a villian in his league. :)

[Jack]

Black Adam's popularity comes from the fact that people, Johns especially, handled him well, took his core concept and expanded on it in a way that made sense. Any expanding on the character of Captain Marvel has just made the character unreadable.As I understand it, they didn't take Black Adam's core concept and expand on it, they completely changed his character and took it in what would with an outside perspective be a completely radical direction. The real difference between what happened to Black Adam and what happened to Captain Marvel is just that you liked one and disliked the other.

The success of Black Adam shows that these characters can be changed for the better, at least to some degree. The fact that the changes made to Captain Marvel haven't been as well executed or received doesn't change the fact that the actual process was pretty damn similar.