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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.

None of these mythical characters fly, but Shazam can. What gives him the power of flight? Was that part of the Wizard's original powers? Or why wasn't a flying mythical entity referred to in this line of dialogue?

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    Solomon's wisdom...In the film, he wasn't shown as being particularly wise. I'd just take the whole quote as more symbolic and not literally related to his power set. At least in terms of this movie's interpretation of the character
    – Mike S
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 14:54
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    I would say that the title is a spoiler. I haven't seen Shazam yet and the trailer actually seemed to suggest that he wasn't able to fly.
    – Ivo
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 15:04
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    @Wmbuch He also wasn't shown as being particularly good at flying, until he got the hang of it. I think we can safely interpret his actions at the end of the film as evidence that he'd gotten the hang of tapping into Solomon's wisdom as well as he had done with the other powers.
    – Monty Harder
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 18:24
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    Since this is set in the same universe as Wonder Woman it coud be part of Zeus' power set, because at the end of "Wonder Woman" we see Ares fly, and Diana (a demi-god and daughter of Zeus) was, at the very least, floating in the air. So it stands to reason that Zeus is also capable of flight. But I'm just guessing here.
    – Oliver_C
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 20:34
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    When you ask a question like that, a wizard did it.
    – AJFaraday
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 8:58

1 Answer 1

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Hermes/Mercury is well known for his winged shoes, also known as Talaria

According to wikipedia(citation needed), they flew the god as swift as any bird.
So I would say that even if it not explicitely stated, Flying falls under Mercury Powers.

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    I hadn't realized that, Mercury's page didn't say anything about flight, and I didn't search for wings. +1
    – BlueMoon93
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 9:47
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    Huh, I'd read stories with the character in for years and never spotted the links to the mythological figures spelling SHAZAM
    – user61958
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 10:55
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    The acronym was explained in the older comics, though not often.
    – RBarryYoung
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 3:11
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    @DoctorPenguin, The acronym things is a constant in SHAZAM. For exemple Black Adam also got it's power from divinity and it's also spell "SHAZAM", but from egypthian god : Shu, Haru, Amon, Zehuti, Aton, Mehen.
    – xdtTransform
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 7:02
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    In more modern comics he's often directly facing the god he got power from. And the letter are always part of the dialog static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11127/111270529/…
    – xdtTransform
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 7:05

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