Geoff Johns Talks about the Curse of Shazam Back-Up Stories, Plus Korra Screencap

[espanolbot]

Firstly, the bit that's actually about comics.

Geoff Johns has just had an interview regarding the semi-reboot backup stories that'll be appearing in the back of upcoming issues of JLA.

Here's a link.
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/geoff-johns-curse-of-shazam-120126.html

On the one hand, he says that Billy, Mary and Freddie will all be in it... BUT Billy's superhero name won't be Captain Marvel anymore, because "Everyone assumes that his name's Shazam anyway".

...Errr, besides that being kind of lazy, doesn't that just make things confusing?

I mean, if it's a reboot, if Billy's Shazam, what's the Wizard's name? Rincewind? Will Mary still be Mary Marvel or Mary Shazam? And if the Wizard exists and his name is Shazam, what would Freddie's supername be? Shazam Jr. Jr.?

I guess it would kind of make sense to change the name of the wizard, what with it being an acronym and all.

Anyways, here's a leaked screencap (aren't they all?) of Older!Toph from Legend of Korra,

DAMMIT, JUST AIR THE THING ALREADY!

For legality, here's Mary in a situation that just comes off as being... a little off.

Comments

[darkknightjrk]

I was kinda worried that, with a name like "The Curse of Shazam," it would be yet another attempt at making the world more serious/gritty. The interview seem to say that isn't the case, so that's good.

[jlbarnett]

I'm just hoping the curse of Shazam will be something like the Wizard can't die until he passes on the powers.

[shadowpsykie]

i don't mind it being a little dark. i have said this before, the idea that a child who grew up in the foster system was as... naive as Billy and mary never made sense to me... even in its original setting. The "Happy Orphan" just never sat well with me. Billy wasn't in a foster family (at least not that i can remember, mary might have been....) he was in the foster sytem, either orphanage or trying to evade the foster system. Could he still retain a lightness about himself and the world? yes. could he still retain a child-like innocence and purity? yes. but I won't miss the naivete.

one great example. Billy in Young Justice (the tv show) i could buy his personality. you could tell he had a hard life, but he still had his uncle there to support him and you could tell from thier brief interactions that that love his uncle had made all the difference.

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, I totally see that--I'm just saying that I would like to see what, say, Eric Wallace was doing with them just before the relaunch in the DCnU. With this relaunch, there's the opportunity to throw out the crap they've been thrown into and get back to the core/heart of it, which is what you're talking about there.

[jlroberson]

Have you ever read the Mary Marvel stories though? The artwork is fairly dark. And then there's the deep drama of Mac Raboy's stories which have nothing whimsical about them. And then there's Billy's backstory. There's a lot of darkness in those stories, it's just obscured to us by the merriness of CC Beck's style and that they were built for smart kids, not adults. To a kid it's obvious. Was to me reading the reprints as a little kid.

[icon_uk]

I don't really see it as naivete so much as it's an unquenchable optimism. Yes, he's had tragedy in his life, and been through bad times, but he he retains, with a childlike conviction, a belief of the fundamental underlying decency of people.