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.