Alex Ross and Geoff Johns made a pitch for Captain Marvel recently that DC had no interest in--Ross updated CM's look with lightning shooting off the costume and his hair teased up like a wild man's, and Billy Batson was living in LA, with long hair and a cell phone on his hip. It looked great, very modern while respecting the past.

Sadly, DC seems intent on keeping Captain Marvel done in a silly, overtly-kiddie style and then wondering why his books don't sell.

So what do we do with Captain Marvel, Erik? Have him as a ten year old standing on the street corner selling newspapers, yellling "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!"? Why is it Captain Marvel is the one character who has to remain stuck in the 1940s?

What about the Ross/ Johns proposal strikes you as shitting on the character? We're talking about the appearance of change versus change that does real damage.

CM needs a Man Of Steel reboot like no other character in comics.

The 'updated' Captain Marvel mentioned above sounds stupid, and looks like another attempt to ground a fantasy character in 'reality'. In a similar vein, the recent Trials of Shazam has dragged the character so far from his roots, he's barely recognizable (or even interesting).

Why is it Captain Marvel is the one character who has to remain stuck in the 1940s?

Staying true to the simplistic stories and Golden Age approach (which worked rather well, back in the day) might not be 'hip' or appealling for today's sophisticated reader of 'graphic novels', but it might be fun for kids (who should be the target audience, IMO).

Dave Phelps:

(I don't recall the initial post-Beck artists, but Alan Weiss closed out the Shazam run and Don Newton did the World's Finest run.)

Kurt Shaffenberger drew quite a few issues of the '70s title, as well as some of the reprints from the early '50s.

Captain Marvel with a lightning motiff and Billy Batson carrying a cell phone "ground" the characters in reality? Why do fans get so pissed over the appearance of change?

And the Ross/ Johns reboot would have undone the abysmal Trials of Shazam, so I'm not sure why you're comparing the two.

DC tried the Golden Age approach in the early seventies, and the experiment failed. Captain Marvel (like all mainstream superhero books) should indeed be aimed at kids. Nothing I mentioned in the Ross/ Johns proposal took away from that.

And again, kids today carry cell phones. They don't stand on street corners selling newspapers to men in fedoras.

Maybe Marvel should relaunch Spider-Man as a teenager, but keep the characters like they were in the sixties--skinny ties, bobby socks, malt shops, and jalopies.

Because stories where Peter Parker uses computers and cell phones would just shit all over the character, wouldn't it?

The same fans who object to Billy Batson carrying a cell phone sound like the same folks who screamed bloody murder when Peter got a computer from Uncle Ben in S-M: CO.

The late Bob Oksner also drew several of Captain Marvel '70's adventures, and was responsible for a very attractive version of sister Mary, as well.

In defense of Alan Weiss's lone Shazam! story, since Junior was the star, a more realistic, less-cartoony style, a la Mac Raboy's, was not at all out-of-place, in my opinion.

Is there no love out there for Jerry Ordway's fine '90's effort?  I enjoyed it, from the sold-out graphic novel to the last issue of the regular series, #47 (although I was always pissed that DC couldn't have kept it going for three more issues, and ended it with a double-sized 50th).