Publisher: DC
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Scott Kolins
Colourist: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Editors: Amedo Turturro, Brian Cunningham
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99
DC
If DC made a significant change to the original Captain Marvel/Shazam and nobody cared, would it make a noise? And does it make any difference to Billy Batson, Shazam’s young mischievous and headstrong alter ego?
In the aftermath of Darkseid’s demise, Shazam lost his connection to the gods that powered him. Those old gods have been replaced by six new gods, each bent on taking control of the situation. For the record they are Anapel (wisdom), S’ivaa (strength), Ate (impulse, and who looks like a Star Trek stripper), H’Ronmeer (fire), Mamaragan (thunder) and one more. There will be a quiz later, so start taking notes now.
In Justice League: Darkseid War: Shazam#1 Billy Batson seems at times to be as unimpressed as the reader. “Shut up and stop trying to intimidate me.” But is Shazam a simple vessel for the new gods power or something more than the sum of its parts? “You better reconsider just what I am,” says Billy. And what he is, is deep. “It’s not me, the stinking human, believing in god. He believes in me.” It sounds like a Baptist service, but writer Steve Orlando makes it personal.
Scot Kolins’ art does not match the writing for quality. Kolins’ seems stuck in the 1990s Image era. His story-telling technique is quite good, but overall his figures and faces fail to deliver.
Justice League: The Darkseid War: Shazam #1 is an interesting look behind the metaphysical curtains, no matter what gods lurk there. When the original Captain Marvel was created Great Depression-era boys loved Billy Batson’s adventures and the new incarnation, clever and smart, does him justice too.
Quiz time. Question number one: which comic book company successfully sued Fawcett, the original publishers of Captain Marvel, in the early 1950s, and had the good Captain barred from comic book shelves throughout the USA. But not completely in the UK?
Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker