Power of Shazam had its problems in pacing and dialogue, but Shazam: The New Beginning was indeed pretty bleak (and the sequel serial that ran in Action Comics Weekly with Captain Nazi was even worse). Unless your name is Alan Moore, you should probably think twice before trying to "modernize" Captain Marvel, and at least he had the common sense to use an obscure (in this country, anyway) pastiche character to do it. I really hope DC doesn't try this approach again in their new "DC Comics: Don't You Dare Smile" campaign.

Thunder joined the Legion? Wha huh?!? The Power of Shazam annual that introduced her was one of the only two "Legends of the Dead Earth" annuals I bothered with (the other being Starman), and I really liked her character. It's nice to see they got more than a single use out of her. I'll have to check those issues out.
Bill Doughty | Email | Homepage | 03.29.05 - 1:41 pm | #

My main problem with Power of Shazam was that right at the start, Ordway and DC did two things that I thought were huge mistakes:

1) Making the origin one big, neatly-tied together contrivance involving businessman Sivana and Black Adam as his hired goon. It smacked of the first Batman movie, where the Joker is the Waynes' killer, in the name of a very misplaced dramatic economy

2) Revealing Shazam's messenger as the ghost of Billy's dad, turning subtext into really clunky, overt armchair psychology that "explains" why a modern kid would take a subway ride with a weird guy in a raincoat, why Billy becomes an adult, etc. No explanation needed.

Anyway, I think Captain Marvel is a creature of his times, and just doesn't work outside his original context.
Cole Odell | Email | 03.29.05 - 1:47 pm | #

To me, PoS's failure to update Captain Marvel for the modern DCU was proof of something I'd been mulling for a while; that the comics world had moved on from the strip in a way that not only left no room for whimsical superheros, but in a way that completely inverted the point of the character. Originally, he was a pure wish fulfillment for kids who wanted to imagine the power of adults to affect their world. Today, those kid readers are gone, replaced by adult fans for whom the fantasy is either a) that I look like an adult, but I'm really a little boy inside or b) I'm an adult who identifies with a powerless little kid, and still fantasizes about being a mature, confident alpha male. Both possibilities are more in the realm of pathos than of fun, and fatally undercut the essential charm of the strip which separated it from other superhero comics of the 1940s and 1950s. Without that charm, and those thematic underpinnings, it's nothing special. Which is exactly what we got with PoS.
Cole Odell | Email | 03.29.05 - 1:56 pm | #

I liked how Mary Batson got a white version of the costume (thus making the three Marvel Family heroes be red, white and blue), and that she insisted on being called Captain Marvel as well (instead of Mary Marvel).
Dave Carter | Email | Homepage | 03.29.05 - 2:05 pm | #

Mike, I find it interesting that you re-read Orion and PoS together, because those books have always been linked in my mind. Along with the various Plastic Man revivals, I think they invariably fail for much the same reasons. As I said above, they tend to be linked to a particular time, mostly because they were cancelled and suffered long gaps in publication. This forces the stink of nostalgia onto them.


Beyond that, they’re so closely linked with one artist or art style that any attempt at revival comes off as either a tired rehash or so far off the reservation that it doesn't feel authentic. The books end up feeling more like exercises in trademark and copyright maintenance than anything else. And hey, I like Kyle Baker, I like Simonson. I like Ordway. But as well-done as Orion might be, IMO it can't escape seeming too inessential to justify its existence. Heck, Kirby even finished his story in Hunger Dogs, everybody just decided to ignore it.
Cole Odell | Email | 03.29.05 - 2:12 pm | #

I, too, prefer the original cartoony Mr. Mind. Glad they're ditching the
"realistic" version.
Isaac B2 | Email | Homepage | 03.29.05 - 6:47 pm | #

Is it just me, or should all of Roy Thomas' 80s post-Crisis DC work be classified as a hazard substance?
Dan Coyle | Email | 03.29.05 - 8:03 pm | #

One of the weirdest things in ALTER EGO are Houseroy's periodic looks at his various attempts to do SHAZAM in the 1980s, many of which look like they would have been even worse than NEW BEGINNING. Extra points when RT is being completely oblivious to what's wrong with them.
Bob | Homepage | 03.29.05 - 8:40 pm | #

This is a really interesting discussion; however, what I want to know is: Did Sivana eat the Mr. Mind he found at the bottom of the tequila bottle?
Chris Galdieri | Email | Homepage | 03.29.05 - 9:33 pm | #

Bob - I keep meaning to fish out that paricular Alter Ego. As bad as The New Beginning was, the proposed Shazam revamp was even more horrifying, if I recall correctly. I mean, God bless Roy Thomas, his work was an important part of my childhood, and Alter Ego is one of my favorite magazines, but -- phew, those Captain Marvel ideas!
Mikester | Homepage | 03.29.05 - 9:42 pm | #

Is it just me, or should all of Roy Thomas' 80s post-Crisis DC work be classified as a hazard substance?

I blame the stress of losing his beloved Earth 2.
Franklin Harris | Email | Homepage | 03.29.05 - 10:32 pm | #

ALthough oddly some of Thomas's post-Crisis work in Young All-Stars and Infinity Inc. served as the basis of some mighty fine Sandman storylines from Neil Gaiman.
Dave Carter | Email | Homepage | 03.30.05 - 8:59 am | #

And some mighty...okay JSA storylines from Geoff Johns.
Dan Coyle | Email | 03.30.05 - 5:49 pm | #

If OK = snore-inducing, then, yes, exactly.
Joe Rice | Email | Homepage | 03.31.05 - 12:30 pm | #