The future of Captain Marvel

Asked about the future of Captain Marvel at DC, Geoff Johns at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con replied, "Speaking on behalf of DC Entertainment, Captain Marvel is a big character for us. If you wanted to ask specifics about Captain Marvel, Billy Batson and the Marvel Family in comics, you’d have to ask Dan [Didio] and Jim [Lee]. Obviously, I know there is a lot of passion for Captain Marvel but just know, outside the comic books, he’s a character that we talk a lot about in Burbank. He’s a very important character. His whole mythology is terrific. I think Billy, Mary and Freddy and everybody have so much potential. It’s like Harry Potter and superheroes. It just a fantastic superhero universe and one that I think really needs to be further explored as do a lot of other people. I would expect Shazam to become an increasing presence, among many others."

So I get the impression that if Captain Marvel has a future as a viable character, it may not be in comic books, but rather in other media, such as film, animation, video games, perhaps even prose novels. And it looks like the key demographic of that would be kids and teens, similar to the Harry Potter and Twilight target audience.

Johns later confirmed this at a panel forum when he admitted there are a lot of discussions about Shazam outside of comics, and when asked about the Shazam movie, he replied, "I can't talk about that."

At a forum featuring Michael Uslan and Chip Kidd to discuss Kidd's upcoming book, Shazam! The Golden Age Of The World's Mightiest Mortal, a book he says will be similar to his Batman Collected, Uslan, when asked about the status of the movie, gave a sly response, "Stay tuned".

Also announced was that Captain Marvel will be a semi-regular on the new Cartoon Network series Young Justice, and he will be voiced by Rob Lowe. Young Justice will also be getting a Johnny DC comic book series. There will also be an animated DVD titled DC Showcase that will feature a 22 minute short titled Superman/Shazam: The Return Of Black Adam. Jerry O'Connell will once again be the voice of Captain Marvel, Arnold Vosloo will be the voice of Black Adam, and James Garner will be the voice of Shazam. Release date November 9.

Also to be released on DVD on October 19, is the official Warner Brothers edition of the 1979 Legends Of The Superheroes TV specials, which featured Garrett Craig as Captain Marvel, and the first live action appearances of Dr Sivana (played by Howard Morris) and Aunt Minerva (played by Ruth Buzzi). It also features the reunion of Adam West, Burt Ward, and Frank Gorshin.

Expected to be published next summer is Grant Morrison's Multiversity, which will be a collection of one-shots set on different earths, that will act as possible spring boards for new on-going series. The Earth-5 Captain Marvel will have his one-shot titled Thunderworld. Morrison explains about Thunderworld, "it’s just a classic Shazam book but it’s done in a way almost like a PIXAR movie or the way we did “All Star Superman.” It captures the spirit of those characters without being nostalgic or out of date. Each of them has got a real different feel to it. And that adds to it." The artwork will be by Cameron Stewart. Thunderworld could be Captain Marvel's best chance at getting a new on-going series outside of the Johnny DC line. At another panel forum, Gail Simone expressed interest in writing a Captain Marvel on-going series.