I like how Shazam! is playing up the he’s-a-kid bit in this one.
Other details: this is clearly meant to be Philadelphia (‘Penn City,’ and the buses are SEPTA). I’m down with that; it’s as close as New Jersey’s gonna get to its own DCEU superhero. Come to think of it: it would be absolutely hysterical if Shazam shows up in later DCEU movies. Wonder Woman and Superman would be appalled that a kid’s out there risking his life, Cyborg would probably mope, the Flash would be confused about why people are freaking out, Aquaman would probably be chill with the whole thing and get yelled at by the others accordingly — and Batman would have a plan.
I have a bad feeling about this.
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It seems to me like the writers/director is tapping into the wrong aspects of childhood.
Captain Marvel (accept no substitutes) is the capey-est Cape in capedom because he *believes* with all the devotion of the child’s heart. He believes there’s good in everybody
He believes that good will inevitably triumph. He believes that white is white, black is black, and grey is some weird adult thing.
He’s partially defined by his opposition to Black Adam, who isn’t so much a villain, as a jaded, cynical antihero trying to protect his people.
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For that reason, dropping him in the Philly/Jersey area strikes me as a mistake. It grounds him in that milieu, and sets him up to encounter wrongs that can’t be easily be righted by the awesome power of a superhero on a more-or-less constant basis.
Batman always has a plan.