Shazam and the Shazam Family Appreciation 2020

[Hatut Zeraze]

I really like the riff on The Dummy in this comic.

Batman's Ventriloquist & Scarface really nailed the imagery of a ventriloquist's dummy as the villain to a superhero in such an iconic way, that there was no way to really bring back The Dummy without feeling like you were treading the same ground.

The Dummy as the boatman to the prison of the magiclands is about as different as you could get. I wouldn't mind seeing DC publish horror/villainy mini-series about the Magiclands prisoners (MSoE and others), with The Dummy serving as story host, like Cain & Abel did in their old horror series.

[gorosaurus]

Thank you for the info!

[dswynne]

If the book "SHAZAM!" could be changed, what would you change? The name of the characters? Particular plot points? How the powers are manifested?

For me, I would definitely change the location of the story, back to Fawcett City. I don't know why there was a need to changed the location to Philadelphia...

The second thing I would change is how the story began in this iteration. The first issue would have started out with Billy as "Captain Thunder", while, as Billy, he would be searching for his twin sister Mary.

And the third thing I would change would be how Cap and Billy would behave. Billy would act as a typical teenager, while Cap would act as Billy with plus ten years worth of life experience.

Well, that's my take. What's yours...?

[Digifiend]

There's no need to reboot it. They could have it explained that Billy was originally from Fawcett City, and got moved from place to place before he ended up in Philadelphia and with the Vasquezes. The current Billy, Mary and Freddy could be explained as being descendants (grandchildren?) of a previous generation who also had the Shazam powers. That would explain away why Billy and Mary are no longer the same age and why Freddy has a different hair colour, as well as why Uncle Dudley isn't around.

[liwanag]

[sifighter]

So is Geoff Johns just off the book now or is this just a single issue? It feels so weird since Geoff was getting into Superboy Prime and the JSA...not sure what to make of it.

https://www.newsarama.com/49418-dc-w...m-in-june.html

[Digifiend]

Probably a fill-in so that rewrites don't cause a skip month. Generation Two wasn't solicited, likely because the 5G plans changed. Since Shazam was due to feature the JSA, that might have needed a rewrite too for the same reason.

[Rod G]

If the book "SHAZAM!" could be changed, what would you change? The name of the characters? Particular plot points? How the powers are manifested?

For me, I would definitely change the location of the story, back to Fawcett City. I don't know why there was a need to changed the location to Philadelphia...

The second thing I would change is how the story began in this iteration. The first issue would have started out with Billy as "Captain Thunder", while, as Billy, he would be searching for his twin sister Mary.

And the third thing I would change would be how Cap and Billy would behave. Billy would act as a typical teenager, while Cap would act as Billy with plus ten years worth of life experience.

Well, that's my take. What's yours...?

The recent/current Shazam is fine the way it is right now.

[liwanag]

So is Geoff Johns just off the book now or is this just a single issue? It feels so weird since Geoff was getting into Superboy Prime and the JSA...not sure what to make of it.

https://www.newsarama.com/49418-dc-w...m-in-june.html

that's surprising that shazam will have a new creative team...

[Hatut Zeraze]

With a new creative team, that pretty much means a lot of the threads Johns set up are not going to get completed.

Dammit.

[Digifiend]

Like I said, it could just be a fill-in. Nothing in the solicit says that it's any more than a one and done story, and we haven't yet heard from the creative teams. Not long ago, Newsarama ran a similar article about Catwoman getting a new creative team, only for the next solicited issue to have a DIFFERENT new creative team. In other words, that one was also a fill-in.

[Dougbauer]

[QUOTE=Hatut Zeraze;4888902]With a new creative team, that pretty much means a lot of the threads Johns set up are not going to get completed.

https://twitter.com/JackJacksharpe5/...641587201?s=19
He said its just a fill in

[Digifiend]

In fact, that cover showed up months ago, originally assigned to issue 10.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/co...tions/fkesdz8/

[Immortal Hulk]

If this doesn't sell well with Johns, it's pretty much doomed with your "average" creative team.

[Jekyll]

Ah a fill in team? Good I can skip that issue, especially with that horrid solicit.