4

When Billy Batson is gifted the powers of Shazam, the Wizard claims

Yes. I give you the power. And with it all my strength. Solomon's wisdom. The power of Hercules. Atlas toughness. The power of Zeus. The courage of Achilles. And Mercury's speed.

Shazam is shown to have super-strength (Hercules), invulnerability (Atlas), super-speed (Mercury), lightning (Zeus), but limited wisdom or courage.

From the wiki:

Wisdom: Billy has instant access to a vast amount of scholarly knowledge and objective. He possesses an excellent mental acuity and nearly infallible wisdom, including an innate understanding virtually all known languages and sciences.

Courage: This aspect is mostly psychological and spiritual in nature. The courage of Achilles gives the mental fortitude of the legendary Greek hero. This gives him superhuman levels of inner strength, willpower, discipline and resolve from which to draw upon in times of hopelessness, and possibly great fighting skills.

Throughout the movie, he sort of develops courage and has a eureka moment by the end, but it's not on the level as his other powers.

So, why is there this disparity between the physical powers he was given (and obviously has), and his mental powers (which he doesn't seem to have)?

Improve this question
3
  • Blame comics, In comics his wisdom and courage was never constant
    – Ankit Sharma ♦
    Apr 9, 2019 at 9:36
  • 2
    I can argue for courage But I dont have anything for wisdom. I straight guess would be that he is learning his powers gradually as he learnt to fly. Some obvious changes like visual strength and power is something which can't hide (and surely not in skin-tight costume). It is not that he don't have wisdom, his teenage brain is learning to make sense out of it slowly may be
    – RC0993
    Apr 9, 2019 at 9:44
  • In my head I always assumed he had those powers available but didn't necessarily have to access them. For example he is always able to fly but has to figure out how. Even OG Solomon was HELLA stupid sometimes.
    – GordonBennett
    May 13, 2019 at 7:28

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The movie used the entire learning experience to add a comedic aspect and pad the runtime. However, with the wisdom of Solomon, he would have instantly known how to use all his powers.

S for the Wisdom of Solomon: Solomon was the third king of united Israel in historical times. According to the Bible God blessed him with supernatural wisdom at his request to lead Israel. Captain Marvel has instant access to a vast amount of knowledge. The wisdom of Solomon is sometimes known as the Wisdom of the Ancients. Captain Marvel has superhuman clairvoyance and awareness. He is provided with counsel and advice in times of need. Captain Marvel has knowledge of all languages, ancient and modern warfare, and can hypnotize or enchant people with his power. The power of wisdom lends him knowledge far beyond mortal comprehension. The knowledge he possesses is unending, therefore he is capable of anything.

Zachary Levi addressed the idea of Billy Batson having the wisdom of a god:

“I asked this question with David at the camera test or maybe even right before it, I think. Having done the research on the character and being like, ‘How is this going to work?’ I think, if you’ve read the New 52, it does take a little license with that. In fact I don’t think it’s the only version of Captain Marvel or Shazam that’s taken license with this kind of paradox, right? Essentially what was settled on is the idea that while some of these powers or these namesakes and powers, be it Hercules or Atlas or what have you, are a little bit more evident as Billy is becoming [Shazam.]”

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .