There are yet again rumors of a Captain Marvel Movie with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson claiming to be playing the World's Mightiest Mortal. I generally ignore these rumors because I've heard them for years but this time I'm thinking it may just happen with or without "The Rock". For one thing Warner Brothers has to be kicking themselves daily for essentially sitting on the sideline during the golden age of Superhero movies. Not only are Marvel property license owners raking in the dough but Disney/Marvel is building up the brands to tremendous heights. WB's coma is absolutely inexplicable but it sounds like they are finally waking up and Captain Marvel looks to be one of the main characters they're looking to capitalize on.

The biggest problem I see with a Captain Marvel movie is differentiating him from Superman. To comic layman he appears to be Superman in a red costume. Even if you add Dwayne Johnson many people will just think of him as the black/Samoan Superman. This concern may be somewhat overblown as Captain Marvel and his lightning bolt transformation SHAZAM! has made its way into the collective consciousness of our society to the point where SHAZAM is sometimes used as an exclamation by even non comic book fans. I'm also not sure what the copyright issues may be with the damn Marvel version of Captain Marvel.

To integrate Captain Marvel into the DC movie universe you'd need to eschew the lightheartedness like Tawky Tawney. As much as I'd LOVE to see a fun Captain Marvel movie in the spirit of the 1950's hero the economic facts are that the producers would be swimming upstream and would likely have to go with a much smaller budget than the current $150+ million dollar movies. Plus, characters like Tawky Tawney, Mr. Morris and the Lieutenant Marvels just don't mix with Snyder's Superman or Nolan's Batman and I don't think WB wants to create a separate universe for Marvel.

Captain Marvel already has some darker elements particularly in his creepy origin with the dark subway train and the suicidal wizard. An interesting template would be Miracleman by Alan Moore although that might be going a bit too far.

A successful Captain Marvel film might be somewhat of a sister kisser for me. On the one hand I get to see one of my favorite superheroes on the big screen. On the other hand it may boost the popularity of the comic which would be great for my existing collection but if enough interest is generated I may get priced out of the market. Captain Marvel will never rival Superman, Batman, Captain America or Spiderman but currently similar issues at similar grades are up to 10 times more for a Superman comics than Cap. If I saw even a 50% rise in cost I would probably bail out and just keep what I have. Maybe I should pray for a kick franchise... in ten years.

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