"Come on! People call him The Big Red Cheese," says comic-book writer Judd Winick. "Even Aquaman doesn't have a disparaging nickname."

	DC Comics Cover of "The Trials of Shazam," part one, "The Boy & the Man." Click photo for larger image.

Nevertheless, when Winick started writing for DC Comics years ago, his goal was to tackle one of the oldest franchises in comics -- Captain Marvel.

And now he's getting his chance with "The Trials of Shazam," a 12-part miniseries that sets out to redefine the character for a new generation of readers. "Trials" has been a hit for DC Comics so far.

The redefining includes a new costume, a different purpose and, hopefully for DC, more prestige.

Captain Marvel is the ever-optimistic hero with a yellow thunderbolt on his chest who's been around since 1939. DC has tried unsuccessfully for years to bring reader interest to the character, but with little success.

"There's an inherit geekiness to the character," Winick says.

And therein lies the challenge.

Captain Marvel is secretly a kid named Billy Batson, who can change into the superhero by shouting the magic word "shazam!" A lightning bolt transforms the kid into an adult who can fly. He also has super-strength and invincibility.

In fact, his phrase is so well known that many folks assume "Shazam" is also the name of the character. That's just one of the hurdles facing the character, though.

"He's had so many ups and downs," Winick says.

Out of the pages, Captain Marvel was part of a lengthy and ugly lawsuit that kept the character at bay for 25 years.

While Superman and Batman evolved with the times during the 1960s and 1970s, Captain Marvel did not. In some ways, even today, he's still a throwback to the 1940s, thus the nickname "The Big Red Cheese" among comic-book fans.

You practically expect a "gee whiz!" to come from the character's mouth.

With "Trials," "we want to contemporize him," says Winick. "He's not a rip-off of Superman. He is his own character."

Winick calls his spin on Captain Marvel as being akin to "Hellboy meets Captain Marvel meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

"He's not going to be stopping bank robberies and stuff like that," he says.

Instead, Captain Marvel will take over the role of mentor and the mantle of a wizard named Shazam. Taking over the name of "Captain Marvel" will be his sidekick for decades, the unfortunately named Captain Marvel Jr.

His adventures will have Shazam and the new Captain Marvel tackling the tricky world of magic-based threats.

"This gives him his own 'world,'" Winick says. "I'd rather him have his own realm."

Fans are finding a payoff.

"It isn't just a retelling of the same old story," says Ryan Adcock, a 23-year-old comic book fan. "They've revamped him with magic, and that's made [the character] really cool."