Review: Shazam #3

Issue number 3 follows in the steps of issue 2. Once again, many of the positive changes to the new52 Shazam, now known as "The Captain", from issue 1 are missing and the series heads more into the new52 direction.  The plot has Freddy becoming the unwilling spy for the six Elders whom The Captain derives his powers from.  The Elders want to control Billy like a puppet. Billy, concerned about his erratic behavior as the Captain, unaware of the Elders interference, stops saying the magic word. New 52 Mary Shazam, now officially named Mary Marvel, has her own set of Elders, and continues to fight crime.  Billy's Elders manipulate a situation forcing Billy to become the Captain.  He saves a bus load of Gorillas from Gorilla City (yeah, you read that right), and under the Elders' manipulation, they convince the Captain that a race of Moon people are about to attack Earth.  The Captain flies off to the moon to prevent the invasion.

The plot is getting kind of weird, and I just don't get putting the Captain in such sci-fi based scenarios. This seems like a rejected Silver Age Superman story line, and I didn't even mention the scene with the alien dinosaur.  Captain Marvel's adventures, for the most part, were always more Earth bound, with some slight touches of magic.  Not sure where this series is headed. This issue earns another C.

movie review: THE FLASH

After hearing that The Flash is on track to be another DCEU dud, I thought I'd skip doing a proper review and just jump right into some thoughts and comments. Incoming DC Movies head James Gunn hyped this as the greatest superhero movie ever made. Well, the box office certainly disagrees, and Gunn may be tarnished because of it. SPOILERS BELOW.

So did I think this was the greatest superhero movie ever made?  Nope, not even close.  But I will say it may be the greatest movie under the DCEU banner that began with Man of Steel, which arguably is a low threshold to cross.  

 

It was great to see Michael Keaton back as The Batman, but I don't think this was the same character he played in the 1989 original and Batman Returns.  To me, he played it quite differently.  Of course he's older, maybe wiser, but it just seemed different.  Maybe because so much of Batman (both Ben Affleck and Keaton) were daytime scenes, or that Keaton seemed so much more talkative than in the original movies. Or that his cape does not have the bat-points along the bottom. Why do the recent movies keep giving Batman a standard cape?  I say he played a nearly identical alternate multiverse take on the original character.  A lot of the hype building up to this movie implies this a de facto Batman III for Keaton.  If you go into the movie expecting that, you will be disappointed. Keaton is a supporting character.

 

I also have to say I really liked Sasha Calle, who played Supergirl. She did a lot better than I thought she would, and it helps that she wasn't over used in the movie.  She had just the right amount of screen time.  Her and Keaton were the highlights of the movie.

 

Most of the action scenes were amazing. What I thought was weak were some of the special effects. The Flash in particular, most of the time looked like Ezra Miller's face photoshopped onto a CGI figure.  And the way the speedzone was portrayed--what can only be described as a giant Sgt. Pepper album cover.  Cheesy and kind of lame.

 

All the cameos, from Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman thru Nicholas Cage's Superman, and CGI recreations of Christopher Reeve, George Reeves and Adam West, were cool, and George Clooney is now the official DCEU Batman going forward.  Maybe.

 

The Flash was definitely done in the MCU style, far more so than the Joss Whedon version of Justice League, which got slammed for it.

 

So, this was a enjoyable film.  Why did it tank at the box office? Most likely a combination of three things: the fact that the DCEU banner has a bad track record and is tainted, that a nine year Flash TV series just ended causing over-saturation of the character, and most prominently, a boycott of Ezra Miller due to his troubling and dangerous behavior.  Perhaps WB should have re-shot all his scenes with a new actor when they had the chance. 

Review: Shazam #2

Issue number 2 take a step back from all the positive changes made in issue 1. It's not just the reversal of Freddy's hair color change.  It's almost like writer Mark Waid put the extra effort of "Fawcettizing" the first issue to hook us in, only to do a bait and switch and go back to the New52 for the 2nd issue. We get the Flashpoint kids and more of the alien dinosaurs at the beginning of the book, but once we get past that, the story gets slightly better. Instead of using one of Captain Marvel's rogues gallery, he uses the generic DC villain Psycho Pirate as the villain, but it serves a purpose to the story he is telling of the Captain becoming increasingly hostile.  Overall, the issue is not bad, but it's also not as good as the first issue. This issue earns a C. Perhaps corporate DC forced Waid to go more new52 with the 2nd issue. Let's give it a few more issues to see if things get better or worse.

 

PS- So, I watched Shazam Fury of the Gods on HBO.  Wow.  If you always wondered what a superhero movie that is worse than Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin, worse than Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, worse than Wonder Woman 1984, worse than Thor Love & Thunder would be like, wonder no more, because this movie is it. Director David Sandberg would be very lucky if this movie doesn't Trank up the rest of his career. Maybe he should have just made it a musical. Asher Angel, who plays Billy Batson, and I thought was one of the few good things about the first movie, has little more than a glorified cameo in this one. With so little Asher, that means there is way too much Zachary Levi.  I thought he was horribly miscast as Captain Marvel in the first movie, and he does nothing to change my mind in the sequel. Perhaps the only bright spot in this movie is Jack Dylan Grazer, who plays Freddy Freeman (who I thought was one of the other only good things about the first flick).  In many ways this is really Freddy's movie, and Grazer, along with Rachel Zegler, the only other good thing in the sequel, steal the show, what little there is to steal in this stinker.  Hopefully we can get a real and proper Captain Marvel film reboot, but this movie is so bad, and did so poorly at the box office, it may be decades before the World's Mightiest Mortal gets another shot at cinematic stardom, if ever.

Review: Shazam #1

After a little hiatus I am back to review Shazam #1 written by Mark Waid with art by Dan Mora. This is, what, like the 5th or 6th attempt post-New52 to give the World's Mightiest Mortal an on-going book.  All the previous attempts have been failures.  But the first issue of this latest series kind of delivers. In a perfect world, we would just get a complete reboot reverting back to the original Fawcett continuity.  But Mark Waid gets as close as he can while still sticking with the New52 timeline.  In this premiere issue, Captain Marvel gets his traditional costume back and kind of, sort of, gets half his name back. Fawcett City officially returns being a suburb of Philadelphia.  Billy reveals his side hustle of hosting a podcast that details the exploits of Captain Marvel (a modern day twist on his gig as a WHIZ radio personality) with hints of classic supporting characters like Whitey Murphy, Cissie Sommerly, and Sunny Sparkle waiting in the wings to appear in this series. Freddy Freeman once again has black hair, and as Captain Marvel Jr, sports a red cape. Waid gives us the best insight into Billy and the Captain's inner personalities since Alex Ross or E. Nelson Bridwell.  Best of all, while mentioned, none of the three Flashpoint kids or the foster parents appear in the story to clutter it up. 

All is not perfect though.  The opening scene where the Captain helps a family of alien dinosaurs just seems a little too out of place (I never pictured Captain Marvel to be that invested in a sci-fi setting), and as The Captain, there is still that tinge of Big influence, although not nearly as annoying and obnoxious as some previous writers or the movies have done it.

In many ways, this issue is like the new52 timeline seen through Thunderworld lenses. As a classic and traditional Captain Marvel fan, I can encourage the premiere issue is worth getting and supporting.  Hopefully the issues that follow will get even better.  This issue earns a solid B.

PS- in case anyone is interested, I watched Black Adam on HBO (did not go see it at the theater). I thought it was slightly better than Shazam! which isn't saying much. I didn't see any reason to have the JSA in it, when the Fawcett heroes would have worked just as well, if not better- Ibis instead of Dr Fate, Bullet Man instead of Hawkman, Bullet Girl instead of Cyclone, and Minute Man instead of Atom Smasher.  And of course, Captain Marvel instead of Superman at the end.  Also, I thought that kid was kind of annoying, and was basically a carbon copy of the way Freddy Freeman was portrayed in Shazam!.  I have not yet seen Shazam! Fury of the Gods (which apparently neither has most of the movie going public), but may watch it when it airs on HBO.

Shazam 2 trailer and a new Black Adam scene

Warner Brothers/New Line Cinema have released the first official trailer for Shazam Fury of the Gods and a new teaser for Black Adam. As with the previous Black Adam trailer, this one seems very basic and superhero generic. The Shazam 2 trailer gives us more of what made the first movie unbearable. More "New 52", more of the World's Mightiest Mortal acting like the World's Most Obnoxious Brat, and more campy, lowest common denominator "comedy". Having an Eminem song polluting the whole thing does it no favors either. Neither of these trailers have changed my mind. I won't waste my money to go see either of these movies in the theater. I'll either wait until they air on TV... or I may not bother seeing them at all. I hope there is a Captain Marvel reboot soon, and maybe Baz Luhrmann should direct it.  He showed far more respect and reverence to the source material in Elvis than either of these missteps.