The Trials of Shazam

[Darthphere]

Yeah, well Hunter/Killer was drivin me up an F'in wall.

Your fault for actually picking that up.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

.....it's a good comic.

 

[BrianWilly]

My thoughts on the second issue...

The Trials of Shazam #2
Ooh boy. Too much too fast, Judd. Too much, too fast.

I'm all for changing up Captain Marvel's direction. In fact, I think that this focus on the new age of magic is really just what he needed. But was there really the need to drive a mack truck over almost everything we had in the past? Too much, too fast.

Let's get the most annoying continuity problems out of the way first. Freddy Freeman is in college? Not just in, but practically done with college? What the hell? With a sexy ethnic girlfriend? Did I miss something?? Considering that Billy Batson was still wooing Star Girl just last year, this would make Freddy older than Billy by at least three or four years.

And let's observe, for a moment, Freddy's new look. Look Judd, Freddy is not supposed to look like some emo-savvy mop head rocking the goatee. He's just...not. He's supposed to, and I quote, love the "rockabilly crap. Flame shirts and hot dice belt buckles." His role model is Elvis. What you've go here is like...Ultimate Freddy Freeman or something. I get that we're trying to update these characters for the times. I really do. And I know the whole goatee hipster emo look is what's hot these days. But, Judd, surely you know by now that DC works best when it embraces the iconic for the iconic characters instead of giving people mullets or rocket blasting armor or whatever. Seeing something akin to that here is just...embarrassing. No other way to put it. Which is especially perplexing, because in the front cover you've got Freddy looking like what he's always looked like, and you open the book and there's a Radiohead fan staring back at you.

And what's with all the name changes? You've got Billy, who's now the keeper of the Rock wizardly type, being named "Marvel" whereas you've got Freddy, who's his champion out in the world, being named "Shazam." It just feels incredibly backwards. I know that you're doing it for the copyright issues, but it just. Feels. Incredibly. Backwards.

I like change, generally. I like progress in comic books. Anyone who's read my posts know how fervent an opponent I am of the status quo. But there is such a thing as throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I really liked the general direction Winick was taking this book in during the first issue, but now we're at the second issue and it's like a big 'ol slap in the face. I just really feel that he could have had that direction he was going for without quite so many of these awkwardly drastic changes that don't seem to have been thought out very well. So, what...is Billy just stuck in that form all the time now? And he's just okay with it? "I had to grow up"? There was still so much potential left in Billy as a character. Judd, even if you had to make Billy the...Marvel...Freddy could have filled those roles except that you seem to be turning him into something really different too. On that note, why the heck can't Billy just snap his fingers and fix up Mary? He's the all-powerful Marvel (damn, that's going to take some getting used to), and she's his dang sister. Or is he just going to forget everything about his old personal life?

On the plus side -- and I'm really reaching here -- the art is quite fantastic. That spread of the seven deadly sins reimagined is pretty sweet, and I like the new designs for the sins...very imaginative.

(6 out of 10)

 

[Assassin]

Doesnt Freddy have a bum leg or something?

 

[BrianWilly]

He still has it, although he's down to one crutch now as opposed to his usual two.

 

[Tropico]

I can't believe I got so jazzed on a "captain Marvel" comic! The frist issue was good, although it left more questions than answers but then Trials of Shazam #2 steps in and answers many of them and teasing on others. Of corurse, if they answered all of them in one fell swoop the mini would be over by now. The art was incredible and doesn't disappoint; I loved the remade Sins. I'm anxious to see if Freddie will have access to each "power" he acquires from each trial or if he has to get them all to access them and if by the end this will open the window for Mary's return/healing. A very high .

 

[Jono87]

I can't believe I got so jazzed on a "captain Marvel" comic! The frist issue was good, although it left more answers than questions but then Trials of Shazam #2 steps in and answers many of them and teasing on others.

So issue 2 answers the answers raised in issue 1 eh?

 

[Tropico]

So issue 2 answers the answers raised in issue 1 eh?

Fixed. Thanks for catching that. What did ou think about the comic, btw?

 

[cerealkiller182]

Some of the best art I have seen

 

[Hellstormer]

Some of the best art I have seen

Agreed

 

[Darthphere]

I didnt bother picking up #2 because the preview pissed me off.

 

[newmexneon]

Lovin the story but can't stand the art. It feels like I am wearing drunk goggles sometimes reading this book.

 

[Tropico]

I didnt bother picking up #2 because the preview pissed me off.

Errr, you didn't buy something because it pissed you off? No, really, why didn't you pick it up?

 

[Darthphere]

Errr, you didn't buy something because it pissed you off? No, really, why didn't you pick it up?

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

I'm still pissed that they let the Spectre basically effortlessly kill off Shazam, and Dr. Fate had to push the Spectre to the edge. Either way, I like the book, I have a few problems, such as CM2 being the new bearer of the name "Shazam" where I think Billy should've taken it, and that there's still no real Shazam. Other than that, awesome stuff.

 

[Assassin]

u mean CM3?

Billy is Shazam, Freddy will be the new Champion of Shazam.

when is Uncle marvel coming back?

 

[Not Jake]

Yeah, the Shazam thing is going to bother me, just because I learned the difference between Shazam and Captain Marvel at a young age and it's one of those pieces of trivia that most people don't know, since everyone just thinks Captain Marvel was Shazam, what with the catchphrase, and that every licensed thing with his logo or image refers to him as Shazam. The comic shop has at least three toys which have SHAZAM on the package as opposed to his name, due to the licensing problem. Anyway, it may bug the comic fan, but Joe Idiot is going to be less confused, and DC really did need to do it, as every book CM was in had to be called "The something of Shazam," stupidly.

 

[BrianWilly]

I actually thought that Shazam lasted a good long while against Spectre...it was a decent little shindig. And technically, Dr. Fate lasted far, far shorter than Shazam did...it was Nabu that fought him last...and technically, he lost too.

What's actually kinda funny about this whole Freddy becoming "Shazam" thing is that, after all this time now, he still can't say his own name without transforming.

Eh, I'll get over it. What bothered me more was the changes Winick made to Freddy himself. Which is all the more inane, considering that the last we saw Freddy in Brave New World -- also written by Winick -- he looked as old-school as he ever did. Seriously...college? College??

 

[yenaled]

Making Freddy the new Champion of Shazam but calling him Shazam is just ******ed. Then making the keeper of the power now Billy called Marvel... is just stupid. It almost spits in the face of the legacy. Is Mary Marvel now going to be Mary Shazam?

 

[BrianWilly]

Lords, that's even assuming she wakes up from that comfy coma by the end of this.

(Actually, I assume that she is since that spread in IC#7 shows her zipping right along with everyone else, sporting a new costume.)

 

[dumbdumduccan]

I thought this was crap! They are changing him into more of a magic character. He is an alternative Superman, thats what he should be. It also looks like he is turning into the old man that sat under teh rock. So someone else is going to be captain marvel. Overall, its NOT captain marvel.

PASS!

This comic is really ghey.

 

[Tropico]

Wow, looks like this is goiing to be a another Kyle/Hal kinda thing.

 

[Darthphere]

Wow, looks like this is goiing to be a another Kyle/Hal kinda thing.

I highly doubt that.

 

[Tropico]

I highly doubt that.

Well, the b!+ching's already started. But, I hope you're right and doesn't reach that level.

 

[Hellstormer]

Wow, looks like this is goiing to be a another Kyle/Hal kinda thing.

Hey Kyle was cool, Conner was cool, Wally was cool, Jean-Paul was.....pass, Tim Drake was cool. People just gotta get used to change.