I have a “If I wrote…” script for Dr.Sivana, but before I post it I wanted to talk about the character a little bit - particularly in light of the announcement DC made earlier today in regards to relaunching and rebranding the classic Captain Marvel family of characters.
Every time they relaunch Captain Marvel - and they’ve done it a few times now - they reinvent Sivana, very often from whole cloth.
- In Roy Thomas’ “Shazam: A New Beginning”, Sivana was positioned into the role previously held by Billy’s treacherous Uncle Ebeneezer Batson, meaning that the World’s Wickedest Scientist was also apparently the legal guardian of his own worst enemy.
- During Jerry Ordway’s “Power of Shazam” years, Sivana was something of a Post-Crisis “Luthor Lite”, a corrupt business tycoon hiding under a veneer of respectability.
- In Jeff Smith’s “Monster Society of Evil”, Sivana was jaw-droppingly the Attorney General of the United States and a secret war profiteer…
I think this is a shame because, frankly, I’ve always been of the mind that Sivana’s original origin was flawless: As an idealistic young man, Sivana dedicated his tremendous intellect towards inventions meant to serve the betterment of mankind. He traveled the world, offering his inventions to governments and industry, in order to make the world a better place to live.
His only failing, though, may have been his vision - his inventions were so far advanced as to seem like fairy tales and magic tricks, so he was shown the door at every turn. His reputation was dragged through the mud, and he went penniless, only ever trying to serve mankind.
In poverty, in shame and disillusioned, his worries compound when his wife dies giving birth to twins. Furious and in terrible despair, he turns his back on humanity, and - brace yourself -builds a rocketship, takes himself and his children to the savage planet Venus,battles a planet full of savage frog people and carves out an advanced alien civilization with his own bare hands.
At some point during his self-imposed exile, having conquered an entire planet and having been damned by the short-sightedness of the Earth’s political and industrial luminaries, it occurs to Sivana that he’s obviously better-suited towards running a world than anyone on Earth (and could you argue with him?) and so declares himself RIGHTFUL RULER OF THE UNIVERSE, and then spends a few decades sapping Billy Batson on the back of the head.
No one remembers this origin - I seem to recall that it was only ever mentioned once, way back at the beginning of Captain Marvel’s run - but I think it’s absolutely perfect. It gives Sivana sympathy, it gives him motivation, it has the breathless internal logic of a fairy tale as all the best stories from the Golden Age of comics had. You have to admit, it makes you see things from his perspective.
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And with that as my inspiration, here’s my “If I Wrote…” monologue for Sivana.
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Twisted genius?
Would-be conqueror?
World’s Wickedest Scientist?
BAH!
What do they know about DR. THADDEUS BODOG SIVANA!
NOTHING, that’s what!
Why, when I was an idealistic young fool, all I ever wanted was to (Yech!) HELP the world with my inventions!
Living Androids! Time, distilled in a liquid essence! TABLET COMPUTING!
Where were all my accolades then?
But no, the fools laughed me out of town! My ideas were too revolutionary for them! They ruined me!
Left me destitute! Humiliated!
And yet it was Sivana who built a rocketship and left the Earth! It was Dr.Sivana who conquered the savage frog-hordes of Venus!
Only Sivana’s brain is centuries more advanced than any other brain on Earth!
Only Sivana conquered an alien world with his bare hands!
What other conclusion can any scientific mind deduce from this insurmountable evidence
…except that Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana is no “Mad Scientist” …
…He’s the RIGHTFUL RULER OF THE UNIVERSE!
And if I have to kill the Marvel Family to prove it, I WILL!
(NYAH heh heh heh heh!)
