By Jerry Ordway (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-085-2 (Hardback) ISBN13: 978-1-56389-153-3 (Softcover)
Since DC acquired the rights to the Golden Age Captain Marvel (as published by Fawcett from 1940-1953) there have been many enjoyable and effective treatments of the characters. But until last year’s Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil (ISBN: 978-1-84576-389-3) none had captured the exuberance and charm of the originals and certainly none had come close to the popularity that had once threatened Superman’s, nor the sheer quality of the endeavour. Jerry Ordway’s 1994 re-imagining of the concept came awfully close, though…
Billy Batson is a little boy living on the streets. His archaeologist parents left him with his uncle Ebenezer when they went on a dig to Egypt. They never returned and he was thrown out as his uncle stole his inheritance. No one knows where his baby sister is…
Sleeping in a storm drain, selling newspapers for cash, the indomitable kid is pretty street-savvy, but when the mysterious shadowy stranger bids him follow into an eerie subway he somehow knows it’s okay to comply. When he meets the wizard Shazam and gains the powers of the ancient Gods and Heroes he knows he has the opportunity to make things right at last. But he isn’t aware of just what depths of evil corporate vulture Thaddeus Sivanna is capable, nor the role that Black Adam played in the fate of his parents…
This superb and mesmerising retelling was an original graphic novel that led to the most successful comic-book revival that Captain Marvel has yet experienced. The characters refitted in that series are more or less the same ones currently seen in DC comics such as Countdown. The pulp adventure atmosphere conjured up by Ordway in conjunction with his sumptuous art and spectacular design make for a captivating experience, and the artist’ s writing has never been more approachable and beguiling. This is a wonderful book for fans of adventure as well as “costumed drama†junkies.
© 1994 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.