While plenty of stories and creators use the comic book medium to tell weighty, mature truths, comics are ultimately the domain of children. This is far from something negative, as children are some of the most imaginative, thoughtful people.
Shazam (formerly Captain Marvel) is the superhero who best exemplifies this trope. A boy with the ability to turn into a superpowered man, Shazam fights villains who spring from the archetypal bad guys of childhood. Some of his villains are punchable versions of societal evil, while others are just wacky monsters. Whatever the case, Shazam's best villains come straight from the toy box.
10 Ibac Is A Criminal Jerk
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Shazam derives his power from mythic figures like Hercules and Mercury. Similarly, supervillain Ibac pulls on historical menaces for his. By saying Ibac, small-time crook Stanley "Stinky" Printwhistle becomes empowered by the terror of Ivan the Terrible, the cunning of Cesare Borgia, the fierceness of Attila the Hun, and the cruelty of Caligula.
The idea of "crime" as the ultimate cause/result of evil is critical to a child's sense of morality. Such a belief allows kids to better accept the rules of society. Ibac's alter ego is a small-time criminal; Ibac the superpowered fiend is the perfect villain for Shazam to combat.
9 Mister Atom Is An Evil Robot
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Some of Shazam's enemies are thematically linked to him. Others are just big, mean robots. A hulking automaton powered by a nuclear reactor, Mister Atom has never sought to rule the world. Mister Atom has enormous strength, a gifted intellect, and a powerful carapace capable of firing nuclear blasts.
Mister Atom is simply evil. A giant robot with big fists and energy blasts, Mister Robot seems like the hottest new toy this holiday season. Atom is a perfect villain to set against a hero like Shazam. The hero can completely destroy his enemy without any fear of moral catastrophe.
8 Sabbac Is A Big, Red Demon
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For some children, the idea of the devil is the ultimate bad guy. A red monster with cloven hooves and a pentagram on his chest, Shazam's villain, Sabbac, is a classic rendition of the pop culture devil. Instantly recognizable as an evil being, Sabbac has grown more devilish as time has passed.
Sabbac boasts powers of strength, durability, size-changing, and fire manipulation. Sabbac also invokes others to summon his powered form, though the names he calls upon are demons rather than heroes. Like Ibac, Sabbac is a perfect personification of childhood conceptions of evil. However, his powers and appearance make him one of Shazam's more formidable foes.
7 King Kull Is A Warmongering Warrior
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Like many others in Shazam's rogues' gallery, King Kull's motif is a simple one: rampaging warlord. Kull's origin has varied throughout publication history, but the character is most often a ruler of a protohuman, underground race of technologically advanced cave dwellers. Like any good supervillain, Kull only wants one thing: to conquer the world.
Kull is a curious mix between silly and scary. Although the character's longevity and ruthlessness make him the in-universe explanation for the bogeyman, his costume is a loincloth and a horned helmet. Kull represents war without being graphic, and his might has pushed Shazam to his limits.
6 The Seven Deadly Sins Refine The Meaning of Evil
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As with Sabbac, the Seven Deadly Sins (also known as the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man), are an example of a religious idea that has come to influence the way media portrays evil. Although the sins themselves have changed in the comics, the group always comprises grotesque monsters representing specific evils.
The Sins are great Shazam enemies for two reasons: they nuance what "evil" can manifest as while also being a bunch of spooky gargoyles. Their visual flairs allow young readers to more accurately interpret real life causes for human malice while also becoming a fun group of enemies for Shazam to battle.
5 Captain Nazi Makes Abstract Evil Concrete
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Many pop media depictions of evil are hyperbolic: slavering werewolves, kid-eating witches, and planet-invading aliens, to name a few. Classic Shazam enemy Captain Nazi is another example of this hyperbolic evil, but Albrecht Krieger's hyperbolism serves to introduce kids to a darker reality of humanity.
As a Golden Age superhero, Billy Batson fought his fair share of Nazis, but few had as much staying power as Captain Nazi. A metahuman, Captain Nazi didn't derive powers from a god. The villain also killed Freddy Freeman (AKA Captain Marvel Junior)'s grandfather. The pain Captain Nazi caused in-story was easily empathetic for kids, setting up a path to understand real-world, human evil.
4 The Monster Society Of Evil Is Exactly What It Sounds Like
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No collection of enemies in comics better exemplifies the action-figure-smashing joy of childhood than the Monster Society of Evil. The group, typically formed by Mister Mind, has gone through a variety of members and iterations, ranging from supervillains like Black Adam to aliens like the Crocodile Men and even real-world villains Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo.
The Monster Society of Evil has the same punchability as Ibac or Mister Atom, but makes the logical conclusion to who Shazam fights. Sometimes, Shazam fights mirrors of himself, other times he fights stand-ins for real-world evils. At the end of the day, Shazam fights whoever is the most entertaining villains for readers to enjoy. In this case, it's everyone.
3 Doctor Sivana Is a Silly, Scary Adult
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Everything about Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana is cartoonishly evil, right down to his catchphrase being "Curses! Foiled again!" A genius with a mind for weird technology, the relentless, wacky scientist is one of Shazam's most enduring foes.
Doctor Sivana is a perfect villain. As a grown-up tech genius, he and his inventions are an excellent foil for magic child Billy Batson. Sivana's adulthood makes him a natural enemy for kid readers to latch on to, but his bizarre brand of villainy allows adds a scary edge to his sillier antics.
2 Mister Mind Is Perfectly Bizarre
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Most of Shazam's enemies are examples of classic villain archetypes, but not so for Mister Mind. Mister Mind is a small, green, alien worm with telepathic powers. In other words, he's very silly. Although the founder of the Monster Society of Evil is a potent wizard, tech-user, and strategist, Mind is impossible to take seriously.
This is key to Mind's appeal. While adults tend to lean towards more serious antagonists, Mister Mind's strange nature and earnest desire for evil make him a perfect villain for kids who have yet to develop a more hardened view of fiction.
1 Black Adam Is The Horror Of Adulthood
Contrary to what the Rock might say, what's compelling about Black Adam isn't how epic he is; it's the fact that he's an adult. Billy Batson uses the power of Shazam for good, living out the kid's dream of being a superhero. Neither true villain nor hero, Black Adam represents the complexity of maturity.
Although beneficiaries of different deities, Adam and Shazam are two sides of the same coin. Adam is driven by a past unknowable to the young Batson, paralleling the at-times terrifying distance between parent and child. Black Adam was once like his primary antagonist, and Shazam must strive to ensure he's better than those before him.