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- I'm really glad to meet you, Billy.
- —Courtney to Billy
Starzam is the het ship between Billy Batson and Courtney Whitmore from the DC Comics and DC Animated Universe fandoms.
Canon[]
Billy Batson and Courtney Whitmore are superhero teenagers from DC Comics. Billy and Courtney had rarely interacted across most DC media for most of either of their existence's. Mostly because Courtney was introduced in 1999, almost 60 years after Billy's debut. Another reason is due to both characters often being in separate teams; while Billy is usually with the Justice League and the Shazam family, Courtney is usually with the Justice Society of America. After Courtney's debut in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.S. #0, they both had met and became allies in various canons.
New Earth[]
Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.S.[]
This section is in need of major improvement. Please help improve this article by editing it.
JSA[]
Billy as Captain Marvel flying with Courtney.
In the 2000s JSA comic line set in New Earth, Billy and Courtney are both 16 year old members of the Justice Society of America. Billy and Courtney had been close allies since Billy joined the JSA. Billy had a secret crush on Courtney. Black Adam (a.k.a. Teth-Adam), ruler of Kahndaq, another JSA member, and a close ally and former enemy of Billy, notice that, but tells him that she's "out of your league." Besides Adam, no one in the JSA knew that Billy was a actual teenager who is the same age as Courtney, that is until the Princes of Darkness storyline, when Courtney and Billy were transported to the alternate realm known as the Shadowlands, where Billy can’t access his powers and is reverts to his true identity. The transformation shocked Courtney, realising that Billy is another teenager in the Justice Society. At first, Billy explains that the wizard Shazam is where he got the powers from, and when Courtney asked him if anyone else in the team knows that he's a teen, he just names Black Adam, which got Courtney understandably concerned due to Adam once being a bad guy.
I don't know. You just... you sound a little different from Marvel. A little bit more unsure, I guess. But more relaxed too. - Courtney to Billy; JSA #48.
While the two were traveling together in the Shadowlands, Courtney finds that Billy acts less sure but also more relaxed when he’s not an adult superhero and asked what is it like to be in his adult form, in which Billy claims to be strange and discusses about an school test he had in the same day he was fighting Black Adam back when he was evil, in which he decided to turn into Captain Marvel to do the test, but than realised how wrong it was to cheat, so he switched back to himself and did the test without help. He than discloses both his real age (Which happens to be the same as her) and his name to Courtney, who then mentions how glad she is to meet him and started kissing him on the lips.
Billy telling Courtney that he's leaving the JSA.
After returning to Earth, Billy and Courtney began dating, which isn't the first time for Courtney since previously, she was in a relationship with Joshua Hamman. Billy and Courtney spent most of their time as superheroes together with the JSA, a team that (besides Black Adam and Courtney) don't know Billy's true secret identity (since he's always in his adult Captain Marvel form while working with the team) making other teammates concern that Billy, who they think is a grown man (when in reality, he's not), is having a romantic relationship with a 16 year old. At first, Jakeem Williams (another friend of Courtney) and Johnny Thunder notice Courtney and Billy together, in which Jakeem was suspicious about. Then, Jay Garrick, the original Flash, expresses his concerns to Billy. While tempted to reveal the truth of his secret identity to the others, Billy finds his Wisdom of Solomon prevents him from doing so. Unable to see another option, Billy flies to Courtney’s window and tells her he’s leaving the Justice Society. Despite Courtney begging him to switch back to his true self so he won’t be influenced by the gods empowering him, Billy flies away, breaking up with Courtney before their relationship can become a scandal.
Hawkman (Vol 4)[]
This section is in need of major improvement. Please help improve this article by editing it.
Courtney: “Why are you smiling?” Billy: “The smell of your hair. It makes a cracked jaw tolerable.” - Hawkman (Vol. 4) #25
Taking place before JSA #58, Billy (rescued by Courtney) compliments the smell of Courtney's hair.
Justice Society of America (Vol 3)[]
This section is in need of major improvement. Please help improve this article by editing it. Later, Billy loses his powers and admits his true identity to the Justice Society, acknowledging to Courtney that their relationship may have worked out if he’d been honest earlier. Billy and Courtney manage to reconnect, but before their relationship can go anywhere, New Earth was rebooted into the New 52 era, abandoning the ship in the process.
Moments[]
JSA[]
- Courtney compliments Billy and kissed him on the cheek after he came up with an idea to cure Alan Scott (a.k.a. Sentinel) by finding Scott's daughter, Jade.
- As Billy is falling, Courtney rescues him.
- Billy also rescued Courtney previously.
- Courtney askes Billy out to the movies.
Quotes[]
- “No one will get hurt, Star. We'll stop him. I promise you.”
- — Billy to Courtnry; JSA #40
- “She is a pretty girl, Billy.”
- — Black Adam to Billy; JSA #41
- Courtney – “You're as old as me? You're just a kid?!”
- Billy – “Uh... kinda.”
- — JSA #47
- “Smart, Billy. And without any help from your "Wizard."”
- — Courtney to Billy: JSA #49
- Courtney – “You're okay!”
- Billy – “Be better in a sec.”
- — JSA #50
- “Looks like Captain Marvel and Stargirl are makin' pretty good friends, huh, Jakeem?”
- — Johnny Thunder to Jakeem Williams; JSA #52
- Courtney – “You should be sitting at the kid's table!”
- Billy – “Ix-may on the id-max.”
- — JSA #54
- “I care about you. I really do.”
- — Billy to Courtney; JSA #59
- Billy – “I've missed you.”
- Courtney – “I've missed you too, Billy”
- — Justice Society of America (Vol. 3) #24
- “Oh, how cute!”
- — Black Mary to Billy and Courtney; Justice Society of America (Vol. 3) #24
Fanon[]
Starzam is a small rarepair and one of the less explored het ships in the DC Comics fandom, due to it only being canon in New Earth, the limited interactions they have most of the time, and their ages often being different outside of New Earth where they were both the same age. And considering that this pairing only existed in the 2000s, it lead to a lot of new DC fans from the New 52 era and onward to not know that Billy and Courtney were dating prior to New 52. Nonetheless, it is well-liked by fans. While some didn't care about the ship, a majority of DC fans who knew they were dating found Billy and Courtney to be cute together and were upset that they were force to break up, and Billy flirting with Courtney in his adult form is generally accepted to be a bad idea that could of been avoided. Being one of the only canon ships for both Billy and Courtney in the comics, Starzam grew to be one of if not the most popular ship for both characters, and regarded as one of their best, and is often considered to be one of the best teenage pairings from DC. On AO3, Starzam currently has over 30 works, making it the fifth most written ship for Courtney.
While Starzam does has a number of fanfics, it is the fanarts that portrays the ship the most. A majority of the fanarts relating to the ship were drawn by Mayo Naito.
Like most popular DC ships, this one has a number of rival ships. There's BillyCissie, a pairing between Billy and Cissie Sommerly (Billy's first love interest from the Fawcett comics), and CourtneyJosh, a pairing between Courtney and Joshua Hamman (Courtney's first love interest from the Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. comics). However, Starzam proves to be the more popular ship amongst DC fans due to Cissie and Josh both being obscure characters.[1] There's also Camney, a pairing between Courtney and Cameron Mahkent (a.k.a. Icicle) notably featured in the Stargirl TV series (2020-2022), and CourtneyRonnie, a pairing between Courtney and Ronnie Raymond (a.k.a. Firestorm) notably featured in Justice League Action (2016-2018). Despite all of that, there are barely any ship wars between the fandoms.
As for the DCAU fandom, Starzam is less shipped by fans of the universe due to Billy only appearing in one episode from Justice League Unlimited and is no where near as old as Courtney, who is a more recurring character in said show.
Earth-27, a fan-made project based on the DC universe created by Roy Westerman, has Billy and Courtney dating.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Billy/Courtney tag on AO3
- TIKTOK
- Billy Batson and Courtney Whitmore tag on TikTok
- Shazam and Stargirl tag on TikTok
- WIKIS
- Billy/Courtney on Fanlore
Trivia[]
- The two first met in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #4.
- Courtney met Billy in his normal form in JSA #47.
- Courtney was originally going to appear in the 2022 movie, Black Adam, a spin-off of 2019's Shazam, but was cut in favor of Cyclone.[2]
- Starzam is listed on multiple lists made by CBR, including:
- Number 4 on their "Bad Romance: 16 Awful Couples DC Wants You To Forget" list.[3]
- Number 10 on their "10 DC Couples Fans Can't Believe Were Real" list.[4]
- Number 8 on their "10 DC Couples Who Gave Up Too Soon" list.[5]
- Number 9 on their "10 DC Romances That Were Tragically Cut Short" list.[6]
- Number 5 on their "10 Worst DC Superhero Breakups" list.[7]
- Mayo Naito, a Starzam shipper, drew some official artwork for a number of DC comic books, including two cover variants; one for Shazam!: Fury of the Gods Special - Shazamily Matters #1, and the other for Stargirl: The Lost Children #1.
- James Gunn, co-head of DC Studios, hinted at the possibility of this ship being canon in the DCU on Threads.[8]
Gallery[]
- Main article: Starzam/Gallery
References[]
- ↑ Shaz-WHO?!?: Eight Forgotten Shazam Characters
- ↑ DC's Arrowverse Reportedly Prevented Black Adam Movie From Including Major Hero
- ↑ Bad Romance: 16 Awful Couples DC Wants You To Forget
- ↑ 10 DC Couples Fans Can't Believe Were Real
- ↑ 10 DC Couples Who Gave Up Too Soon
- ↑ 10 DC Romances That Were Tragically Cut Short
- ↑ DC: 10 Worst Superhero Breakups, Ranked
- ↑ Gosh @dcofficial is full of such fun lore. Can’t wait to see some of these moments (and the thousands of more like them) on the big and small screen. Thanks for the fun thread, @captain_mohando. - James Gunn on Threads, quoting a thread by Captain Mohando listing Comic Book moments the DCU should (in his opinion) recrate, with Stargirl discovering Captain Marvel's secret identity, being one of them.
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