Geoff Johns is known for his slow builds. And his SHAZAM story is no exception.
Those familiar with the classic tale, young Billy Batson is
a street kid with a heart of gold. The
old wizard SHAZAM decides to imbue him with the power of the gods so because an
adult would be corrupted, but a child is innocent. So whenever Billy says the wizard’s name “SHAZAM!” he transforms into the heroic, Superman-like
Captain Marvel.
That was the story before the new DC 52.
Johns has done something radical to Billy that long-time
fans will either love or hate: Billy is kind of a jerk. Johns has taken a more realistic approach to
the harsh life of an orphan. Billy is
not optimistic and generous. He is
two-faced and conniving. He seeks to
work every moment to his advantage and he hates following the rules.
This rough exterior is challenged when he is taken in by a
loving foster couple and now lives with pseudo-siblings. Some are familiar to readers like the sweet
Mary and the handicapped Freddy. But
there are others who round out the different aspects of human life, all living
in the microcosm of this loving home.
And despite himself, Billy finds that he cares for them.
We also see the build up to a confrontation with constant
villains Dr. Sivanna and the might Black Adam.
But Billy has yet to meet them.
Instead he fights school bullies and their rich, indulgent parents.
That is, until, he meets the Wizard.
Unlike the old story, Billy is not the Wizard’s first choice. But desperation has made him act. The wizard bemoans the fact that when he
looked into Billy’s heart, he did not see pure goodness. Billy then proceeds to ridicule the Wizard
and tell him that pure good doesn’t exist.
The wizard looks inside Billy’s heart again and sees not pure goodness,
but the potential of goodness.
Thematically, I think that this is a great development for
the character. Characters that are
completely saintly are hard to write.
Very few people (JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis for example) can right people
of unspotted virtue with ease. But
Captain Marvel has tended to come off as less believable because the writers have
not entered into that virtuous mind space as well as they should.
Johns solves the problem by making Billy venal but
trying. It speaks to the truth that we have
both goodness and badness inside us. The
question isn’t whether we have any badness, but if we give in to the badness.
Billy is given the power and is now simply called “Shazam.” This has always been a sticking spot with
people only casually observing comics.
It was commonly thought that Captain Marvel was called Shazam because
that is his magic word and it is the name of his comic. It has led to a lot of confusion. So, Johns has eliminated that confusion and
now only called him “Shazam.”
And it is fun watching him explore his power. We can see both the goodness and the badness
fighting inside Billy. After he saves a
woman from a mugger, she asks (rather amorously) if there is any way she can
repay him. He says, “I could use some
money.” She is confused but hands over
some bills to a wide-eyed Shazam. He
thinks: “I’m going to be rich!” Gary Frank proves that he is consistently one of the best artists in comics. His ability to capture so much of a character by their expression is unparralleled in comics.
We know that Billy has a long way to go, but I’m looking
forward to walking on his hero journey.
His obstacles will not just be external, but internal. I am especially looking forward to seeing
more of Black Adam. In the pre-DC 52,
Black Adam was the Dr. Doom of the company.
He was the bad guy who was not really a bad guy, but still kind of
was. I’ll be curious to see how much of
that original back story that Johns had laid out in his old run will remain.
4 ½ out of 5 stars
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