Shazam & Captain Marvel in Julius Caesar by John Lucas

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar ...

Mark Antony's speech to the Roman mob is one of THE great moments of Shakespearean drama. The way he, through speech, is able to turn the Roman mob against Brutus and the conspirators, who had convinced them that Caesar was a tyrant, through rhetoric, is a testament to the power of words. Though he has sworn to speak no ill against the conspirators if allowed to eulogize Caesar, Anthony manages to turn the word "honorable" ("For Brutus is an honorable man; So are they all; all honorable men") on its head and it becomes quite clear that he means "dishonorable."

The problem was, who to cast in this role. Nobody seemed to fit. The one name that always seemed to pop up when I brainstormed about it was Captain Marvel as Anthony (he is, after all, a military "man") and the wizard, Shazam, as the murdered Caesar.

This whole thing started off as a political discussion about the American healthcare bill with the artist, John Lucas, and it somehow morphed into a commission for the Shakespeare Project (which, unfortunately, may be the best result of any discussion on healthcare all year). And with Mr. Lucas' love of the Marvel Family, he was raring and ready to tackle my weird idea. (But weird ideas are what fit Captain Marvel the best, don't you think?)

Please take in the crowd that Mr. Lucas so skillfully added to the page. It was a pleasant surprise, as I had only envisioned this as a two character commission, figuring that including the crowd would be too much bother. But to quote the artist himself, "I couldn't see doing it without adding an audience."

The art, though clearly in homage to the great C.C. Beck and the wonderful Fawcett Comics artists of yore, conveys Mr. Lucas' own style throughout the piece. And the detail of the Roman architecture he employed as a background easily exceeded my expectations and enhances the art without overwhelming it.

At the beginning, I was unsure that the Marvel Family was the right choice to "cast" in this play, but Joltin' Johnny erased all my doubts. You can commission Mr. Lucas by visiting his CAF gallery and starting up a correspondence of your own.

Oh, for those of you unfamiliar with the Shazam characters, the cast includes Captain Marvel as Mark Anthony, Shazam as Julius Caesar and the crowd is a mix of heroes and villains, let's see, from left to right, Mr. Morris (the guy who runs radio station WHIZ where Billy Batson had a show), Mr. Tawney the talking tiger, Captain Marvel Jr., a Venusian (or maybe a Martian – I'm pretty sure it was from a story about Beautia Sivana, Dr. Sivana's daughter, where she was the empress of Venus or Mars, one or the other). Dr. Sivana (the Lex Luthor of the Fawcett Comics universe), Mr. Mind, Mary Marvel, Uncle Marvel (Uncle Dudley, Mary's uncle, I think, who only pretended to have superpowers), IBAC the Invincible (who had powers similar to Captain Marvel's but all his powers came from evil gods or devils), King Kull (not the Robert E. Howard version, obviously) and Mr. Atom the atomic powered robot. I hope that helps.