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Chronicles of Shazam: The Mary and Freddie Show (2002-2003)

By | June 19th, 2020
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Welcome back, one and all, to the Chronicles of Shazam! This week, we are looking back on 2002-2003 for the Marvel family, which was really just a bunch of Freddie and Mary stories. Let’s dig in!

Category 1: The Titans

Freddie Freemam joined the Titans L.A. in last installment, and here he gets a taste of being a reserve member of both the Titans (“Titans” #39, with Mary in tow) and Young Justice (“Young Justice” #49-51), but doesn’t really do much in either configuration. In “Young Justice,” he briefly flows the idea of going by ‘the Marvel,’ which is literally the most he does in any of these five issues. I do like how DC has doubled down on the idea of Freddie as a teen hero, while Mary and Cap tend to be in the bigger leagues.

Category 2: Brief appearances

Captain Marvel has very, very little to do in these issues, mostly because he and Black Adam are keeping busier in the pages of “JSA.” The biggest bit he gets is a couple of pages in “JLA” #69, where he turns down membership in the JLA to remain with the Justice Society. Aside from that, he shows up with the JLA in “Action Comics” #804 (after appearing on newspaper headline in #802), at Donna Troy’s funeral in “Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day” #3, and at Wonder Woman’s festival of sorts in “Wonder Woman” #188.

The lone Black Adam appearance here is a single panel in “The Power Company” #18 and, if anyone can tell me what the Power Company was before looking it up, I’ll be greatly impressed.

Category 3: Mary!

Mary has two major storylines here, and they both put her in interesting combinations with other heroes. She, with Freddie in tow for a one issue, guest-stars in a seven issue arc of Peter David’s “Supergirl.” This is, no doubt, the most confusing era of an already incredibly confusing character. Let’s see if you can follow this: there is an ‘Earth Angel’ Supergirl, which was inside of Supergirl, but got ripped out. So, the current Supergirl is a de-powered version – still invulnerable, still able to leap – who is also sort of a terrible person? There’s also some of the Matrix Supergirl still in there, as well as a demon companion and…oh hell, don’t try and understand it. Let’s just talk about Mary.

So Mary Marvel winds up helping Supergirl in her quest to free the ‘Earth Angel’ and get rid of the chaos energy inside of her. Long story short, the arc shows just how powerful and composed Mary is. This follows up on a plot thread from a “Power of Shazam” storyline that argued, pretty definitively, that Mary was the superior Captain Marvel to Billy. Mary is, frankly, awesome in these issues. She gets a bit annoying at times, sure, because she’s written so cloyingly. But the message is clear: Mary is incredibly powerful. She jsut isnt’ written very interestingly.

The very innocent, cloying Mary returns as a member of the ‘Superbuddies,’ the Maxwell Lord-sponsored super team in “Formerly Known as the Justice League.” This reunited the team behind “Justice League Interntional,” Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire, and you get the good and the bad of their run. Sadly, there’s a lot of bad here. First and foremost, there’s the constant sexualization of Mary. Numerous times they state that she is sixteen years old, yet Booster Gold, among others, are hitting on her almost all the time.

It’s really gross, and it keeps going and going. Spoiler alert for future installments: shit like Maguire’s upskirt shots of Mary will continue for many more years.

Almost equally as gross is the bizarre decision to have a gang of neighborhood roughs be secretly Ivy League dropouts. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what part of it is the most insulting, but it reads really tone deaf, as if the only way there can be smart people in the inner city is that they’re child geniuses who are also sort of evil. There can’t just be goodm smart people, eh? I’m sure its not intentional, but it remains fucked up.

Overall, the series removes any of the heart and action from their original run, and leave just the jokes and infighting. I really enjoyed that original run and have been looking forward to reading this series. Oh well.

Next week: a collection of one and dones!


//TAGS | Chronicles of Shazam

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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