{"id":30774,"date":"2024-10-24T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30774"},"modified":"2024-10-24T10:25:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T10:25:46","slug":"shazam-the-monster-society-of-evil-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/10\/24\/shazam-the-monster-society-of-evil-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\n\"\"
\nBy Jeff Smith<\/strong>, coloured by\u00a0Steve Hamaker<\/strong> (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-1466-1 (HB) 978-1-4012-0974-2 (2009 TPB) 978-1-4012-9307-9 (2019 TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fights<\/strong> \u2018n\u2019 Tights Fiction for the Whole Family…<\/strong> 10\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Superhero comics don\u2019t get better than this.<\/p>\n

No soft-soap, no easing you in. Jeff Smith (in a tale originally published as a 4-issue prestige format miniseries in 2007) came the closest yet to recapturing the naive yet knowing charm that made the World\u2019s Mightiest Innocent far and away the most successful super-character of the Golden Age in this sharp and seductive reworking of one of his greatest adventures.<\/p>\n

Following an adulatory Introduction <\/em>from Alex Ross, the trip back to our magical communal childhood kicks off with a scene of appalling deprivation and terror…<\/p>\n

Billy Batson<\/em> is a little homeless kid with a murky past and a glorious destiny. One night, he follows a mysterious figure into an abandoned subway station and meets the wizard Shazam<\/strong>, who gives him the ability to turn into a hefty adult superhero called Captain Marvel<\/strong>. Gifted with the wisdom of Solomon<\/em>, strength of Hercules<\/em>, stamina of Atlas<\/em>, power of Zeus<\/em>, courage of Achilles<\/em> and speed of Mercury<\/em>, the literal man-child is sent into the world to do good.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by verbose tiger-spirit Mr. Tawky Tawny<\/em>, Billy sets out to find a little sister he never knew he had, and even parlays himself into a job as a source for TV reporter Helen Fidelity<\/em>…
\n\"\"
\nHe sets to, fighting evils big and small, but at his heart he\u2019s still just a kid. After impetuously causing a ripple in the world\u2019s magical fabric, he must face the escalating consequences it causes: cosmic conniption fits that endanger the entire universe. When Billy finally tracks down his little sister, he also – accidentally – shares his powers with her and suffers the ignominy of having her be better at the job than he is…<\/p>\n

The Captain soon encounters evil genius, US Attorney General and would-be ruler of the universe Dr. Sivanna<\/em>, as well as the deadly and hideous minions of mysterious Mr. Mind<\/em>, whose Monster Society of Evil is dedicated to wiping out humanity! Can he make amends and save the day?
\n\"\"
\nMaybe, if Mary Marvel<\/strong> helps…<\/p>\n

The original saga this gem is loosely based on ran from 1943-1946 in Captain Marvel Adventures<\/strong> #22-46: a boldly ambitious, captivating chapter-play in the manner of the era\u2019s movie serials, and still regarded as one of the most memorable achievements of Golden Age comic books. It\u2019s fairly safe to say that this reworking will stay in people\u2019s hearts and minds just as long, too. It certainly spawned an excellent spin-off series which I\u2019ve covered a time or two…<\/p>\n

Jeff Smith accomplished the impossible here: crafted a superhero tale for all ages restoring some part of the genre to the children for whom it was originally intended. Shazam!<\/strong> The Monster Society of Evil<\/strong> is exciting, spectacular, moving and unselfconscious; revelling in the power of its own roots and the audience\u2019s unbridled capacity for joy.<\/p>\n

If you can track down the original hardback volume, it\u2019s stuffed with added features. The dust-jacket opens into a truly magical double-sided poster, there are sketch and script pages for the reader with industry aspirations, biographies and historical sections, a lavishly illustrated production journal, puzzles and even a modern version of the secret code used as a circulation builder in the 1940s. Most important though, and irrespective of what iteration you get, it is the mesmerising quality of the story and artwork that you\u2019ll remember, forever.<\/p>\n

Words are cheap and I\u2019ve used enough: now go get this is a truly magical, utterly marvellous book.
\n\"\"
\n\u00a9 2007, 2009, 2019 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Smith, coloured by\u00a0Steve Hamaker (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-1466-1 (HB) 978-1-4012-0974-2 (2009 TPB) 978-1-4012-9307-9 (2019 TPB\/Digital edition) Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fights \u2018n\u2019 Tights Fiction for the Whole Family… 10\/10 Superhero comics don\u2019t get better than this. No soft-soap, no easing you in. Jeff Smith (in a tale originally published as a 4-issue prestige … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,76,125,97,107,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-dc-superhero","category-humour","category-kids-all-ages","category-science-fiction","category-shazam"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-80m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30780,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30774\/revisions\/30780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}