The moment's already gone, I suppose, but I didn't get a chance to contribute earlier on something that is kind of a crucial misconception. The word "Zangief" came up in this thread, and, well... that's a problem.
I'm a little perplexed where the idea of Shazam being a grappler came from. On the most superficial of levels, okay - he throws you. But really, they're not even throws as we perceive them in terms of gameplay function, which exist to eliminate guarding the high-low game as a defense option. Against Shazam, though, that high-low game remains entirely intact. The valid defense option is still exactly the same, just in a mirror image of the usual dichotomy; i.e., if he goes low, you defend high, and if he goes high you defend low, rather than low to low and high to high, as it would be any other way. He's far more comparable to Frost than he is Grundy.
Although, funny thing is, Shazam would probably work a lot better if he was actually a grappler. Leaving all other tools the same, let's say his "throws" get replaced with a truly fast grab, something like Zangief might have. Did he just do 2,2 and you didn't avoid or escape it between hits somehow? Enjoy being thrown on your head. Hey, he's walking towards you and he's got a grab that can beat all your pokes because it's so goddamn fast! Dash away from him? Nah, Atlas Torpedo or a lightning bolt to the face. Or best of all, imagine him plodding towards you, trait active, threat of a real grab, threat of even just d1 doing several percent even on chip, threat of getting even a relatively low damage combo into a setup into another godlike grab. Sweet mother of god.
But young Mr. Batson can only dream that he will one day be as broken as Teth Adam...
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