Image Of A Hero
Captain Marvel & Justice League Prompt
So I’ve seen a lot of stuff where Billy’s Captain Marvel form is based off of what his own personal image of a hero was when he first got his powers. So like, he grew up watching hero’s like Superman and Flash save the day on TV and his Dad was his own personal hero so he gets Superman’s build, a suit like the Flash’s and his Dads face.
I personally love this idea as it’s the perfect bittersweet mix, like I can just imagine Billy staring at his own face while transformed just so he can see his father’s face.
But I think it can be even cooler (and incredibly wholesome) if his Captain Marvel form changes as his idea of a hero changes. Maybe even gaining additional minor powers and new pieces of equipment because of it.
When he first got his powers the arm sleeves of his suit just ended at his wrist, but after he got to know Diana he got metal arm bands like hers that he can clang together to unleash concussive shockwaves and make them ultra-reflective/outright glow, so people can know he’s coming to save them no matter how far away he is. (Maybe combining the two abilities as a mystical flashbang too)
Batman saved a homeless kid in Fawcett from a mugging and offered all the resources, comfort and candy from his utility belt that he could in the aftermath, so now Cap has a utility belt, from which he can pull nearly any non-magical tool or item that the Wisdom of Solomon could design and he can use to save a life or bring comfort to others. (But the WoS does have to actually design it, basically do mystical R&D. So Billy has to think about the situations he’s likely to be in, figure out what kind of tools could help him get through them and then give Solomon a couple days or weeks to develop the new gadget. In other words, Billy has to be paranoid and plan for every eventuality like a certain caped mad man.) The exact contents of each individual pouch is not consistent as Cap can just pull anything from the WoS Catalogue, with the sole exception of the third pouch on the right, which always has candy and snacks. (And if it just so happens that’s the same pouch that Batman keeps his candy in that’s just a coincidence.)
After a particularly thrilling adventure with the Lanterns Cap winds up with a vaguely lantern shaped container hanging from his belt, containing all manner of enchanted rings. Each ring able to cast one specific spell, which just so happen to have effects that line up quite nicely with the most common ways all the Lanterns tend to use their rings. (Or you could give him some of Gwen Tennision from Ben 10’s magic, more specifically the pink hardlight constructs and blast)
From Green Arrow he gets the ability to conjure a bow of lighting that he can use to fire off lightning blast or trick arrows, whether they mundane ones developed by the WoS that he somewhat comically pulls out of his very much not arrow length utility belt pouch’s or enchanted arrows Billy makes himself.
From Aquaman he gets a mystic trident with hydro kinetic powers that he can make lightning strike down at the point of impact when thrown and call to his hand.(Nightwing is the first to notice that it looks, and functions, suspiciously like the trident from Minecraft enchanted with channeling and loyalty. Cap when he gets asked about it: whaaaat? That’s sooooo strange. Weird. Moving on!)
This just keeps happening, with Captain Marvel slowly but surely acquiring bootleg knockoffs of all the League members powers. And like, they’re not suspicious of him, per se. but it takes barely two seconds of thinking to connect the dots and realize that all of Caps costume updates, new powers and new gear bear striking resemblances to their own costumes, powers and equipment.
So they sit him down and ask him about it. Cap can’t just lie, even if he really wants to, because that’s mean and these are his friends who he looks up to so much! So he winds up blushing up a storm and very shyly explaining the way he form and powers work, and then it’s the rest of the Leagues turn to be embarrassed as holy crap imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. Captain Marvel, this Demi god powerhouse, Champion of Magic, Guardian of the Rock of Eternity, aparently thinks they’re all so cool and such good hero’s that the magic that makes him decided to steal their look/move set to make Cap a better hero. Every single one of them are preening like peacocks because hell yeah we’re awesome!
A bit more of a comedic bit:
Billy’s admiration of the women of the League cause his Captain Marvel from to shift to a bit more of an androgynous build, less “brick shithouse” and more “streamlined powerhouse”. He gets an armored skirt like Wonder Woman’s/the traditional armored skirts worn by many army’s in ancient times, a choker like Black Canary’s that lets him use a sonic screech, earrings just like Zatanna’s favorite pair that she wears to all her shows, maybe even starts to get some of his moms features along side his Dads. In the privacy of his own mind with the Courage of Achilles fueling him he can admit that he actually really likes the look, but Courage of Achilles or not he’s a teenage boy. He will not go out crime fighting in a Skirt of all things! Mr. Batman will make fun of him!
So he uses magic to hide all the more feminine stuff and give him his brick shithouse muscles, but as it turns out the magic that makes his form does not like that. Like, undercover missions, blending in with civilians and stuff, yeah sure Billy go ahead. But everyday? At all times? Billy Batson this is the form of a hero! You can not hide this! Can not hide from it! The magic of his form fights Billy’s attempts to hide all the “girly” stuff so much that at any given time like half of Captain Marvels immense mystical might is devoted solely to keeping up the transformation.
But then the League got an all hands on deck emergency, shits going down and it’s do or die time. And embarrassing or not when lives are on the line there’s not even a choice to make. So Captain Marvel give some dramatic speech about how he’s “concealed his true form to be more palatable to the human mind”, enters a 20 second transformation sequence, lightning flashing, winds howling, thunder roaring, the whole nine yards. And then….
“Dude, what the fuck?! That’s just you in a skirt!”
