Speak Now...or Forever Rest In Peace!

[skjam]

Hi folks!

When Superman the Animated Series and Batman the Animated Series were on, they had tie-in comics, the Adventures line. We've seen scans from those every so often. But there was a third title, Adventures in the DCUniverse that covered everyone else in the DCU in kid-friendly stories.



This version draws most closely on the Jerry Ordway Power of Shazam continuity. 7 pages of 22.



Captain Marvel saves a couple of sign workers from a falling billboard. It seems Black Adam toppled it during his latest fight with Cap.




At WHIZ, Mr. Morris worries about Billy Batson, who went out to cover Black Adam's rampage.

Cap feels his strength ebbing slightly, and knows that either Mary or Freddy has just said their word. (In this continuity, the Marvel Family shares their power; Cap notes that this makes them individually weaker than Black Adam, but they make up for it with teamwork.)

Dr. Sivana is watching nearby, and considers seeing if Black Adam can defeat Cap solo. Naah, he's going to activate his latest device. This is a voice synthesizer that perfectly mimics Billy's voice saying "Shazam!", the lightning strikes, and Cap turns into Billy mid-air, much to Adam's delight. Even Sivana flinches a bit at the result.

Mary feels the power flow into her, and at first thinks that Billy has won and no longer needs it or her help. At this point, Mary is not known as Mary Marvel, but as "the other Captain Marvel, the lady!" She learns that the combatants vanished in some sort of explosion, and begins searching the area.





Part two of Dr. Sivana's plan is to have Billy be his shill on radio, with carefully scripted interviews showing Sivana as a misunderstood philanthropist. Billy isn't down with media manipulation, but Sivana thinks it did rather well for Ross Perot on Larry King. (Boy, this comic just dated itself.)

Bored now, Black Adam goes in search of the other Captain Marvels.

Mary is still combing the city, noting that their adoptive parents the Bromfields will be getting worried--there aren't that many superheroes that are supposed to be home before dark. After Black Adam attacks her, Captain Marvel, Jr. joins the fray.

Sivana offers the chance to spare Mary and Freddy's lives, but Billy isn't about to negotiate. When the mad scientist turns his back, Billy rams them both out the window. Naturally, Sivana is forced to use his device to change Billy back to Captain Marvel, who promptly smashes the synthesizer and then gently flicks Sivana into lala land.

Junior and Mary team up to toss a rock at Black Adam, who isn't impressed.



A couple pages of beatdown later, Adam says his word and is taken into custody. Yay, teamwork!



And there you have it.



Now we wait for the newest Shazam-related series to find a hole in the schedule.

Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!

Comments

[tcampbell1000]

Charming stuff, with the only dissonant note coming early. The idea that Black Adam had made Billy an orphan never seemed to fit quite right, and I think it only lasted a few years before going to the Land of the Forgotten Retcons.

Man, remember all those stories where the hero goes into a state of frenzied panic because a bad guy has figured out his secret identity and OH MY GOD EVERYONE I LOVE COULD ALREADY BE DEAD? Sivana and Black Adam know Billy's identity at the end of this story (and Sivana at least knew it in the 1940s comics too) and Billy basically couldn't care less.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Sivana knew it in the 70s, too.

[skjam]

Black Adam murdering Billy's parents was blamed on Theo Adam (his modern day host) when Teth-Adam became an antihero. After that, it was just not brought up again.

[icon_uk]

I thought the Ordway story established it had always been Theo Adam, who was an assistant to the Batsons on their archaeological dig (IIRC) and let them die whilst he escaped with some plot-important loot which then allowed him to become Teth Adam

I need to dig that story out again, it was excellent (and the identity of the otherwise creepy-as-sin shadowy guy that Billy follows into an empty subway tunnel en route to meet Shazam for the first time was sweet)

..

[thepinkperil]

And off to ebay to purchase. I can't believe I didn't know about these comics before!

Also Sivana knew in the 40's too I believe.

[zapbiffpow]

Awesome. I could easily see this as a DCAU show. Though Billy should probably make a recording of his voice in case he gets his mouth tied up. Do recordings count?

Also, hells yeah on the Ordway Water Service reference! They should make a catalog of which writer got referenced in which comic someday.

[randyripoff]

I have always loved Sivana, for simply being evil because...well, because someone had to. Plus he has the most imaginative plots.

[icon_uk]

I always loved the sheer... absolute-ness of the Shazam/Earth-S story concept.

Captain Marvel was the World's Mightiest Mortal

Dr Thaddeus Bodog Sivana (I felt I had to include his middle name) was the World's Most Evil Scientist.

Mr Mind was the World's Wickedest Worm

[icon_uk]

Loved this title with it's fairly random post-BTAS/pre-JL takes on the DCU, must see if I can dig out the couple of issue I have lying around. They had things like an Impulse story, a Connor Hawke Green Arrow story, at least one other great Shazam story, and a Booster Gold and Blue Beetle tale...

[zapbiffpow]

Yeah, let's us see some of that things you just said!

I remember seeing a house ad for Adventures in the DCUniverse when I was a kid, and I was all 'who the hell are all those people beside Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman?"

I kept squinting, trying to see if Robin was there. He was not in the print ad.

[skjam]

The only other one I have is the Legion story, which is kind of jam-packed with characters and thus hard to whittle down.

[starwolf_oakley]

That was a great Legion story, and I've never gotten "into" the Legion that much. They even added "Ferro Lad is from the late 20th century" post-Crisis thing.

[bradygirl_12]

I thought Captain Marvel had literally knocked Black Adam's block off in that first panel for a minute.

Nice Clark and Lois cameo!

[jaybee3]

A Kids Line is the place any Marvel Family book really should be. Both Jeff Smith's Monster Society of Evil and the template it established for the Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam are arguably the best Shazam stories DC has published since the 70s.

It is only DC's insistence that Billy, Mary, Freddy share their universe with Superman and Co. (to whom the Marvels will always be on the losing end of the stick - they even had the Linda Danvers non-Kryptonian Supergirl fighting Mary to a standstill) and Batman and the grim, dark current aura of the Didio-era DC that has sunk the Marvels. So we get examples like Waid's mind-controlled not-too-bright Captain Marvel in Kingdom Come (which many younger readers think is the "idea" version of the character), Black Mary Marvel and her tiny skity (despite being underage) who acts like an idiot, Freddy Freeman who is so indistinguishable from Billy when in the red suit that James Robinson mocked it in JLA: Cry for Justice, Geoff Johns' rebooted Billy Doucheson (because a nice kid who grew up on the streets and is an orphan apparently WOULD not be idealistic and naturally kind) and Black Adam who literally committed genocide in the "52" series took over as the one Marvel Family character DC would use in other books and promote as a powerhouse (which speaks volumes about DC).

Arguably the only good representation Billy has had in years was in Grant Morrison's Final Crisis: Superman Beyond where alt-universe-Billy literally had wisdom beyond his years and came out looking smarter than Superman. Of course in that same saga it was Morrison who gave us DeSaad-posssesed Mary Marvel (who loses to Supergirl, of course) and it was his idea to tell DC he was going to make her evil. Because symbolism...or something.

[silverzeo]

Shazam being underused in DC comics? What a shock.