Captain Marvel / Shazam Appreciaton

[Güicho]

Official description of the new Shazam series:

A new series coming in fall 2018! Billy Batson and his surrogate family; Mary Bromfield, Freddy Freeman, Darla Dudley, Eugen Choi and Pedro Pena unlock the mysteries of the Rock of Eternity and delve into the secret worlds of magic to discover their ultimate destiny!

Terrific! where is that from? Link?

Edit:
Never mind, - it's on his own site, hadn't looked under comics:
http://www.madghostproductions.com/category/comics/

[Rod G]

Or you could have it all it all in one trade:
Attachment 66960

An extremely good read.

[andersonh1]

Like Geoff Johns, but I absolutely can’t stand his version of the character. Dang.

Agreed, same here.

[ironman2978]

Agreed, same here.

I think I enjoyed New 52 Shazam and Billy, especially on reread. I think Ascended described it best here:

Im of two minds on this.

I really liked that the New52 Billy wasn't just naturally the "best kid in the whole world." I imagine the wish fulfillment quality of Shazam dies awfully quick when a kid realizes he could never be Shazam because they're not always perfect. I like the idea Johns brought in, that being "worthy" is an active choice, something you decide to be and not an innate quality you're born with. It also goes well with the "family is what it can be, not what it should be" angle, which again, seemed very fitting given Billy's orphan status.

And while the first backup issue went way overboard with the "this isn't the Billy you knew!" crap, that extreme quickly fell away and Billy was much closer to what we remember for most of the story. Still not the perfect, always-good little kid, but far closer to it than the first issue would have us believe. There were actually some really great Billy moments in that story, you just had to suffer through the first issue to reach them.

And of course, the way Johns instilled the Rock of Eternity with this "Harry Potter" type of fantasy.....that was brilliant in the most obvious and fun way. In my opinion the Rock had never been better than it was during that backup. Perfectly built to capitalize on Rowling's genius and a seamless mesh of superhero and Hogwarts.

But on the other hand, the character growth and journey Johns put Billy on in the backup was completely forgotten and ignored afterwards. It seems pointless, almost cruel, to establish this character arc and then ignore it, as if Billy himself had back-tracked somewhere between defeating Black Adam and joining the League. It was very disappointing. And that goes for the whole backup story. Sivana and Mr. Mind, Mary and Freddy and the other kids......the entire backup ends up feeling like a huge waste of potential because no one, including its original author, could be bothered to follow up on it.

And I never did get over Freddy being blonde and *not* having a rockabilly obsession.

It felt like Johns intended on showing Billy evolving into the classic Billy as it went on, not to mention developing his relationships with characters like Shazam. But the problem was, like a few other elements, it was never really delved into so you only got to see the more superficial elements before really exploring these characters to its full extents.

[J. D. Guy]

"Captain Thunder" sounds weird for Mary.

I remember Weisman made Mary and Freddy's codenames in Young Justice "Lt. Marvel" and "Sgt. Marvel" and that still felt weird.

I actually like those names. In particular, Sergeant Marvel works better than Captain Marvel Jr. for Freddy, I feel, especially going with him aging to his own approximate Shazam-level age or what have you.

[Frontier]

I actually like those names. In particular, Sergeant Marvel works better than Captain Marvel Jr. for Freddy, I feel, especially going with him aging to his own approximate Shazam-level age or what have you.

Ah, I actually like that Freddy goes by Jr. I think it's cute, especially when he's with the adult marvel's .

(Although, yeah, it doesn't really make sense for him to go by that if he has an adult form like Billy and Mary do).

[astro@work]

Yeah, my biggest complaint has been the lack of follow through on everything that was set up in those back up stories five years ago...the Shazam kids, the status of Black Adam, Adrianna Tomaz and brother Amon in Kandahq (but not yet Isis and Osiris). Capt Shazam (or whatever we're supposed to call him) got decent page time in Justice League but rarely saw Billy and NEVER saw any of the others.

Looking forward to seeing ALL of that get followed up on.

[dswynne]

I vote for no names...at least from the start. I think each kid should earn their name. So, we have Billy as "Shazam", the heir to the Wizard. Mary and the others should earn their own names during the course their adventures.

[KurtW95]

Agreed, same here.

The rumor is that Morrison is taking over Green Lantern. Man oh man do I wish it was reversed. Geoff did amazing things for Green Lantern and Morrison’s (who I typically don’t like) Thunderworld was phenomenal. Parker also would’ve been good given his work on the Convergence series. I don’t like the idea of modernizing Billy and his story. The cheesy stuff is part of what defines him as a character. And the foster kids that Johns keep pushing are fine, but they steal the spotlight from Freddy and Mary, who have always been his closest friends and those he shares his powers with. And the New 52 version of Mary is also dramatically different in that she is older than Billy, not his twin sister, and wasn’t raised by a wealthy adoptive family. And I absolutely hate the decision to call him Shazam.

[Mutant God]

"Captain Thunder" sounds weird for Mary.

I remember Weisman made Mary and Freddy's codenames in Young Justice "Lt. Marvel" and "Sgt. Marvel" and that still felt weird.

So that would make a Lt. Thunder, Sgt. Thunder, Captain Thunder, Major Thunder, Colonel Thunder, and General Thunder and that would make Black Adam "Fuhrer Thunder" lol

[Güicho]

...although not using Marvel, there is no reason they can't still keep Captain, and expand on the Military designations.
Billy would obviously be Captain. The others like the traditional Liutenants have different added ranks.

So that would make a Lt. Thunder, Sgt. Thunder, Captain Thunder, Major Thunder, Colonel Thunder, and General Thunder ...l

This^ Although you don't even need Thunder, if they don't want to use their real names, they can just simply use the military rank designation to refer to themselves.

[andersonh1]

The rumor is that Morrison is taking over Green Lantern. Man oh man do I wish it was reversed. Geoff did amazing things for Green Lantern and Morrison’s (who I typically don’t like) Thunderworld was phenomenal. Parker also would’ve been good given his work on the Convergence series. I don’t like the idea of modernizing Billy and his story. The cheesy stuff is part of what defines him as a character. And the foster kids that Johns keep pushing are fine, but they steal the spotlight from Freddy and Mary, who have always been his closest friends and those he shares his powers with. And the New 52 version of Mary is also dramatically different in that she is older than Billy, not his twin sister, and wasn’t raised by a wealthy adoptive family. And I absolutely hate the decision to call him Shazam.

I have to agree. Both Thunderworld and Convergence Shazam had all the charm and fun I enjoy so much about Captain Marvel, while New 52 Shazam lacked all of that. I appreciate the arguments people make in defense of the new approach, but it just does not work for me.

[SiegePerilous02]

It's about damn time we got an announcement for the new ongoing. I can't wait for this.

I especially want to see Mr. Mind and the Monster Society of Evil. Mr. Atom, Ibac, Captain Nazi, King Kull, the Crocodile Men, etc. Bring 'em all on.

[Frontier]

It's about damn time we got an announcement for the new ongoing. I can't wait for this.

I especially want to see Mr. Mind and the Monster Society of Evil. Mr. Atom, Ibac, Captain Nazi, King Kull, the Crocodile Men, etc. Bring 'em all on.

I'm expecting we'll probably get Sivana and Mind forming the Monster Society for the Marvel Family to fight (and provide material for the Shazam sequel).

Personally I'd like to see Johns start bringing in more classic Captain Marvel stuff, like Uncle Dudley, the real Tawky Tawny, maybe even Billy working at WHIZ Radio...

[Jekyll]

My LCS said October for the Shazam book! YES!! Can’t wait!