Billy Batson and the Magic of SHAZAM! #13

[skjam]

I don't think we've had scans from this series in quite a while.

"Billy Batson and the Magic of SHAZAM!" follows on from the Jeff Smith Captain Marvel miniseries a couple of years back. It's part of the Johnny DC line, so any variations from the continuity you prefer should just be noted as "alternate universe."

Issue #13, "Kid Games" brings us yet another new artist (I think there have been six in thirteen issues, not a good sign.)

SPOILERS below the cut, this is the latest issue as of this writing.



It's Schoolkids Day at the Fawcett City Museum of Natural History, which has just added a display of ancient Egyptian artifacts. Hmm...ancient Egyptian artifacts, "Kid Games"...nahh. Billy and Mary Batson are in attendance, and their teacher is keeping a sharp eye on them. Which is a bit of a problem, as Captain Marvel needs to be showing up soon.

They recap that Cap needs some good publicity due to his recent stint of being an arrogant, self-centered jerk. This was caused by Mr. Mind being in Billy and Cap's head, influencing their thoughts, but Cap's actions have had consequences. (One was turning the Arson Fiend from a punchclock villain who only burned building because he got paid, into a deformed revenge-seeking monstrosity.)

Mary volunteers to run off to distract the teacher from Billy's disappearance. By the way, Mr. Tawny, who normally shapeshifts between human and tiger, was grieviously wounded during the battle with Mr. Mind and is stuck in tiger-man form, which is why he's recuperating at the Batson kids' apartment.




Mr. Tawny's human form is a senior citizen, so this pairing is slightly more plausible than you might think at first.



Theo's had magical amnesia ever since the Marvels turned him back from Black Adam the last time he appeared. Mary comes around the corner and bumps into Theo, promptly panicking when she sees him. Theo is pretty sure he's seen Mary before someplace. Mary runs off to tell Billy--and promptly bowls a kid in a wheelchair over. She helps him up, and explains that she needs to find her brother...uh...because Captain Marvel is coming! The boy seems unimpressed.



After Mary leaves, Theo approaches the walking-challenged boy and proposes a team-up.

I'm going to skip over most of the rest, including the mysterious new secretary at WHIZ. At the end, Theo's plan pays off, and the boy in the wheelchair, now revealed as Freddy Freeman, is able to supply him with the magic word. Black Adam's back!



Your thoughts, comments?

Suggested tags
Character: Black Adam/Theo Adam
Character: Mary Marvel/Mary Batson
Character: Tawky Tawny
creator: Art Baltazar
creator: Franco
creator: Mike Norton
publisher: DC Comics
title: Billy Batson and the Magic of SHAZAM!

Comments

[crinos]

Looks like they changed the artist from the early issues. I approve.

[auggie18]

The original artist was apparently having severe delay issues, so they replaced him.

[silverzeo]

I am surprise the old lady didn't had a heart attack when she laid eye on Tawny.

Is that Freddy or Osiris?

Shame, I really want to get into Captain Marvel, but they don't have this series at the comic shop or the book store.

[skjam]

Apparently, there's some sort of weirdness filter in place.

Freddy. Although it would be amusing if he becomes Osiris instead of Cap Jr. in this timeline.

They don't have it next to Super Friends?

[tacobob]

I think if you lived in a comic book world, things like that probably wouldn't bug you. :D

[silverzeo]

So when will Marvel-verse get a grip on things? They had all this bunk since the 60s and they have yet to resolve anything.

[thosefew]

I figure the lady just sees a humanoid blur and assumes its human.

[silverzeo]

Must be the works of glasses in the DC-Universe.

[flidgetjerome.livejournal.com]

I think it might be a shout-out to the original debut of Mr Tawny, where everyone freaked out at the fact that there was a talking tiger roaming the streets . . .

. . . Until Mr Tawny realised, land's sakes, he was naked! No wonder everyone screamed when they saw him! So he went into a shop and got himself a nice suit and after that everyone was cool with him.

Original Captain Marvel has some of the best stuff ever.

[jaybee3]

Mike Norton's art was great and totally matches the feel of the book.

I wish the Marvels were written so well in the normal DCU (the writers are by the same guys behind Tiny Titans - another book that really gets at the core what various DC characters are like).

Right now the Billy Batson book is pretty much an all-ages book even with the Johnny DC title. Anyone can enjoy it. The irony? It is edited by Dan Didio himself, the very individual behind the current grim and dark era of the Marvel Family.

[silverzeo]

Wasn't the first artist did a comic called HeroBear? What was that like?

[icon_uk]

Reminiscent of Calvin and Hobbes IMHO.

[galateus]

This is waay better than the exposition-fest in the last issue with Mr. Mind. I need to check this out again...