These folks don't just disguise themselves,they literally become another person.

I vote for Cap and Billy because I insist on the version where they are not quite the same person.

I went with Captain Marvel as well because he really was my first encounter with the concept.

My favorite is Thor, so he got my vote, but the objectively correct answer is the OG, Billy Batson and Cap.

Of course, you never forget your first...

Hmmm....even Superman had glasses when he was Clark Kent, but Prince Adam and He-Man even had the same haircut and no glasses...he changes clothes when he 'transforms' into He-Man but I don't know that he qualifies as a true Shazam-alike.

I sort of want to be a curmudgeon and vote for Dial 'H' for Hero...but I voted for 'other' on behalf of Bruce Banner/The Hulk.

That is also a fantastic one. I love the way classic Hulk is a seemingly different person from Bruce.

Alas, it needed to be bumped to make room for Freakazoid.

Well, naturally.

I always see Banner/Hulk as the classic example of this genre/category/whatever, even though I was familiar with the Saturday morning live-action Captain Marvel. Somehow the Hulk was the character that stuck in my mind.

I watched a couple of Captain Marvel guest appearances recently when I picked up the complete ISIS series on DVD.
I don't think I could have made it through watching the SHAZAM series as an adult. ISIS at least had Joanna Cameron
to keep me interested.

But ISIS would be another one of these presto-chang-o heroes. She-Ra, too, for that matter.

Ooo, Freakazoid!

TV Wonder Woman was also transformational in this manner: I think it was easier for TV producers to have that transformation scene than to break up the action by having the hero go and change outfits. It may even have been why certain characters were chosen for development into TV shows - even the 60's Batman series solved the costume change dilemma by having them simply jump onto the Batpoles as Bruce and Dick and arrive in the Batcave as Batman and Robin.

I don't really think it was for any practical purpose- it's not like we had to watch the characters change into their costumes, (though I am sure we all have favorites we'd like to see do that!) - so much as it is just cool.

Bruce Banner / The Hulk should qualify, no?

I agree. I just think the 'quick change' trick was used for reasons of pacing as much as any other consideration. It's unimportant, really, and we're already suspending disbelief in a superhero show so it's glossed over (as in Batman) or used as a source of drama ( TV Hulk) or as a way to clue the audience in to the fact that some action was about to happen (TV Wonder Woman). Only the old Superman show ever suggested Supes changing clothes rather than showing it happen. Clark would start loosening his tie as he ran off somewhere, and the next thing you know he'd be flying through the air as Superman. The quick-change was implied, but not overtly shown. He'd do whatever he had to do, then show up as Clark again once the dust had settled, etc.



I think so. There was nothing that said it had to be a mystical change, as commonplace as that is with magical/supernatural characters.

Best Alter Ego? That magazine put out years ago by Roy Thomas.

Still being published, the (current) November issue has a Captain Marvel/ Sivana cover. Coincidence? I think not!

I watched the show and was awfully intrigued a few years later when I saw this poster in a local comic book shop which my parents wisely refused to let me enter.

I thought it was an interesting direction to take the character. It took me a couple years to piece together the whole story.

It's was funny how they mimicked the Billy Batson/Captain Marvel dynamic by having the MU Captain Marvel literally switch places with Rick Jones. I always thought that was a bit cheeky of them.

I first learned of that development in What If? #12, so it seemed even stranger to me. Rick Jones was switching places with Captain Marvel AND turning into the Hulk.

That was the best What If? issue, by the way.

Wrong. Issue 11 would like a word.

Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk