A thing that makes me go hmmm...

[ceebeegee]

So I'm reading the wikipedia entry about the '70s TV show, Shazam!, all about Captain Marvel, the World's Mightiest Mortal. My brother Bart and I used to watch this show when we were kids--I remember asking my dad what a mortal was, and liking that Captain Marvel's altar ego, Billy Batson, had such an alliterative name. (This was around the time I was learning to read, or had just learned, and I remember really responding to the sound of things. Living in South Florida, we would see I-95 signs everywhere, and I would chew over the assonance of those signs. Eye...nine...five.... I suppose it's no surprise I ended up loving poetry.) Here's the question--SHAZAM (the word Billy says to invoke the power of the gods to transform into Captain Marvel) stands for Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury. Why are some of the names in their Greek forms (Zeus instead of Jupiter) and some in their Roman forms (Hercules instead of Heracles, Mercury instead of Hermes)?

Comments

[son-of-ottie.livejournal.com]

Because Gilligan had a radio made from a coconut. Same thing here. Children weren't meant to learn! They were meant to pester parents into purchasing presents.

[king-duncan.livejournal.com]

Probably in order to spell "Shazam!". "Shazah!" wouldn't have sounded right. And Solomon's not Greek or Roman.

I read that article this morning, too. I loved Shazam when I was a kid.

[king-duncan.livejournal.com]

And probably Hercules because the other Marvel comics character made it a more common spelling.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Yes, but it's not consistent--even if you leave out Hercules, Zeus and Mercury still make it weird.

I guess they didn't want to make it "Shajam!" either. "Shazam!" does sound best, but I wonder if with a little tweaking they could found some other names that would sound good and be consistent.

And Solomon had only one common name which was neither Greek nor Roman, which is why I didn't mention him.

[planga.livejournal.com]

I think it's because, being neither Greek nor Roman, American audiences just use the more common name. How many Hercules movies have we seen in which he is the son of Zeus? Just about all of them, right? It all comes down to common usage.

And "shazam" was already a catchphrase of Gomer Pyle, and you don't want to mess with him - he's a marine!

[nppyinzer.livejournal.com]

Captain Marvel was around a looooooong time before the 70's; if I remember my geek history correctly, Fawcett Comics (where Cap first appeared) dates back to the 30's at least, and certainly predates the existence of Marvel Comics.

More than likely, some high muckety-muck at Fawcett heard someone say "Shazam!" and told an editor to use it in a comic book, and have it done by Monday, so he tossed something together and grafted it onto an existing Superman pastiche.

The folks at Howling Curmudgeons could probably give a better answer, if you're curious enough to ask one of them: http://www.whiterose.org/HowlingCurmudgeons/

[darksheik.livejournal.com]

I remember watching that when I was little.
I thought the guy's name was Shazam!

[nppyinzer.livejournal.com]

Shazam is the name of the wizard that gives Captain Marvel his powers.

I know this off the top of my head, yet have to take a second to think when someone asks me my phone number. I think I need professional help at this point.

[omni-bot.livejournal.com]

Shazam, shazam, shaaaazaaaammm