Dr. Sivana is cast!

After months of rumors, Mark Strong, through an interview in London confirmed he is playing Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana in Shazam! "I'm playing an evil bastard called Doctor Sivana, they are always the best characters to play, the most fun."  He went on to affirm the film's concept as a superhero version of Big, "It's a funny film, it's about a young boy who can become a superhero but still remains a young boy so there's elements of 'Big' there's elements of 'Stranger Things'. I think originally the comic outsold 'Superman' in the 1940s."  He also spilled a major spoiler about his character, "I've been training like a mad man, I'm about to go over and see the stunt guys, I've been trying all of these harnesses on and I think I'm going to be doing lots of flying around and firing electricity out of my hands."  After the article hit the internet, director David F. Sandberg tweeted "I guess it’s official now then".

Speaking of spoilers, a few days ago, Zachary Levi may have also tipped his hand that Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman may have a cameo in the movie, gushing about the Amazon Princess, “I think getting a cameo from anybody would be super cool, but I just think Gal Gadot is so effervescent. She has such a charm. And she seems like a really cool broad. Like, she was in the Israeli army. She's a mom. And I'm like, 'You seem like you're grounded and cool, and you're Wonder Woman, and you rock,' and I think it would be really funny to have the 14-year-old Billy Batson inside of Shazam that's really awkward around this beautiful Amazonian. I just think that would be really awesome.”

Review: The Archies #4

Issue number 4 of The Archies features The Monkees.   Written by Alex Segra and Matthew Rosenberg, the plot deals with Archie who, during a gig with his band, gets knocked out and dreams about an adventure with The Monkees.  Davy is kidnapped and The Archies tag along with Mike, Micky and Peter to rescue him. Being a dream, the typical surreal, meta humor of The Monkees TV series fits into the narrative, laced with Monkees trivia and call backs. This includes the Monkeemobile, the Monkee's pad, the Monkees using their "Monkeemen" superhero guise, as well as the Archies donning their 1960s superhero costumes.  Also a character named Tony Tunes alludes to Don Kirshner. I don't know if it was intentional or coincidence, but as Davy is kidnapped in the story, much of the action focuses on Mike, Micky and Peter.  In real life, Davy passed away in 2012.  Joe Eisma is the artist of this issue, and does something clever.  The bookends are drawn in the current realistic Archie style, but the dream sequence reverts to the classic Archie style. My only critique of the art would be that Eisma didn't really capture the Monkees' likenesses in the interior art. They all seem to have the same generic face and the only way to tell them apart is by their hair. His cover art gets the likenesses better, as do the variant covers by Greg Smallwood, Mike Allred, and Tyler Boss. Overall, this is a very enjoyable issue and earns an A-.

Mary is cast!

Rumored for several weeks, it is now official Grace Fulton has been cast as Mary in the Shazam! movie.  Since signs point to the movie being an adaption of the unpopular and divisive Curse of Shazam new52 reboot, Mary is one of the foster kids in the home Billy goes to.  She is older than Billy, and to date in the continuity, nothing is established that Billy and Mary are blood related.  In the classic version, Billy and Mary are twins who were separated at birth, and reunited after Billy gains the power to transform into Captain Marvel.

Guys... guys... I'm gonna be in Shazam. I know! It's crazy! What? Ah! HOLY MOLEY!! If you couldn't tell, I'm super EXCITED! Thank you, Peter Safran and New Line for letting me join the Shazam club, I promise to keep its secrets! @ponysmasher and @maxime.alexandre, see you guys soon!! 😊

A post shared by Grace Fulton (@smoregrace) on Dec 15, 2017 at 12:20pm PST

More Shazam casting

Two more roles in the Shazam movie have been cast, both New52 characters.  It seems like we are beyond the point of no return.  This will not be a Captain Marvel movie, this will be a Curse of Shazam movie.  Considering my review of the divisive reboot, this will not be the Captain Marvel movie I want, but I am remaining somewhat optimistic it will at least be a good and entertaining movie despite the Curse source material. Hopefully there will still be a lot of Fawcett comics and Alex Ross inspiration in the final product.

Freddy Freeman is cast!

One of the young stars of the big screen remake of Steven King's It, Jack Dylan Grazer has won the role of Freddy Freeman in the Captain Marvel movie. Something of a good sign is that Grazer has dark hair, like the classic version of Freddy, opposed to the blonde New 52 Freddy.

However, with the alleged castings of Mark Strong as Sivana, and the 21 year old Grace Fulton as Mary, I am slightly pessimistic this movie will be Curse of Shazam: The Movie. Hopefully we will soon get more casting announcements and a confirmation as to whether Captain Marvel will be the basis of the movie, or New52 Shazam.

UPDATE: David F. Sandberg posted a pick of the casting process.  Of note is neither Mark Strong nor Grace Fulton are in the photo, confirming neither one has signed on.

With @jackdgrazer as Freddy that’s now three actors officially announced for Shazam!

A post shared by David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) on Dec 7, 2017 at 1:03pm PST