Welcome back to the Chronicles of Shazam! We are in a very fallow period for Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family, but this week we did get a few choice things to discuss. Let’s dig in!
1. Category One: Minor appearances
If you’ve been reading this column with any regularity, you’ll know that I’ve been harping on the idea that DC understands that Captain Marvel holds symbolic value, and so includes him frequently in crossovers and major marketing pushes, even when he does very little. That continues with one of the bigger events in the last 20 years of comics, which has been almost totally forgotten: “JLA/Avengers.” The Kurt Busiek/George Perez comic is a bonkers romp through the history of both companies, and features Captain Marvel in a few inconsequential scenes. I know this is during one of the weirder times for Captain Marvel at Marvel, but it would’ve been a perfect opportunity for the companies to acknowledge the name weirdness.
DC did a faux-“Who’s Who,” aka my jam, called “JLA-Z,” which saw a few pages dedicated to the Marvel family, as well as entries on the Justice League International from 1986 and the current JSA, so we got a little Marvel family action, emphasis on little. In the “Justice League: Another Nail” Elseworlds title, the third issue features half a page on Earth-S/5, aka the Fawcett City Earth, but we literally just see the three Marvels flying by, and not doing anything. We get a few panels of the Big Red Cheese in “JLA: Liberty and Justice” by Paul Dini and Alex Ross, but nothing of any real import. In “JLA” #112, Cap is part of a large space battle where he gets in some licks, but it could’ve been literally any heavy hitter and the story wouldn’t have been any different.
We also have a ton of one panel appearances, mostly in the form of flashbacks, and almost always related to Black Canary and her relationship to the original JLI team. “Birds of Prey Secret Files and Origins” and “Birds of Prey” #62 and 79 feature Cap in that role. There are flashbacks in “Adventures of Superman” #623, “The Flash” #205, and “Dr. Fate” #3 from this era, all of which feature him as part of a team, either the JLI or JSA. In “Wonder Woman” #210 and “Superman/Batman” #13 Cap assumes his regular position, which is part of a large group of heroes, where his inclusion is meant to elicit “oh shit, this is real” attention.
2. Category #2: Freddie
Freddie Freeman only gets one real story in this period, and that is part of a Sabbac story in “Outsiders” #8-10, written by Judd Winick and Tom Raney. Sabbac, at least in the early parts of the story, is a demon inhabiting the body of Timothy Karnes, who was Freddie’s foster brother. However, early in the story, Timothy is killed, and Ishmael Gregor becomes to host of Sabbac. The character of Sabbac had been on the shelf since pre-“Crisis on Infinite Earths,” and more important than his resurrection was the idea of Winick writing a Marvel character. This will come into play again a little bit later again.
Winick’s writing has always been hit or miss for me at DC, and this period seems to be one where DC was pushing its creators to get a little edgier, so you see a lot of questionable stuff in these issues. Most alarming was the constant calling of women ‘bitch’ or ‘whore.’ Now, granted, this was exclusively the behavior of villains or people referring to villains, so it’s not as if a little girl was being called something terrible while walking down the street, but it stood out like a sore thumb and was pretty gross. This, along with Raney’s very sexualized female characters, led to an arc that wasn’t exactly friendly to the women of the title.
Raney’s Sabbac is practically a lawsuit waiting to happen, a Hellboy clone in just about every single way. Judge for yourself:
Despite Sabbac being the villain, Freddie was only really in the third issue of the arc, and even then, he was treated as a supremely powerful hero, and one that was quite selfless. He isn’t given a ton to do, but does deliver a pretty heartbreaking eulogy for Timothy:
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What I really like about this is that it shows Freddie’s heart and innocence, without making him like Mary in “Formerly Known as the Justice League,” where she’s a walking 1950s stereotype. Speaking of Mary and the Superbuddies…
Category 3: Mary
“JLA Classified” #5 gives us a sequel story to “Formerly Known as the Justice League,” with both Mary and Billy playing roles in it. Billy’s role is a minor one, but it continues J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen’s insistence of the Batsons being, essentially, the Right to Censor. They are played as not just innocent, but puritanical, and it’s a weird fit. Billy spends a good chunk of his time insulting Fire for being a model, and doesn’t want Mary hanging around the team because they are a bad influence.
It is especially a weird fit when they then decide to make Guy Gardner sexually assault Mary by groping her ass. The book points out dozens of times that she’s sixteen, and Guy decides its cool for him to get handsy with a teenager for no real reason. It is absolutely maddening that Mary, especially after an incredibly thoughtful presence in “The Power of Shazam,” is essentially a series of inappropriate sexual references and held up as jailbait to every guy with a swinging dick in these stories.
This comic feels considerably more dated than anything from the 80s, and are so gross that I am legitimately sorry I read it.
Category 4: “Identity Crisis”
Continuing the “I’m sorry I read this” train, there are a few small Marvel Family appearances in Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales. Billy and Mary are at the funeral of Sue Dibny. Mary is portrayed as sobbing, and this makes sense, as Mary and Sue had some nice moments (when not being sexualized for no reason) in the Superbuddies comics. Billy is also present at Firestorm’s realization that he’s about to explode. He simply tells Ronnie, “Fly. Hurry,” before Ronnie soars to the sky and blows up, sparing the lives of those around him. It’s easy to point to this as lazy writing with no emotional substance, but if I’m being generous, it could be Billy summoning the Wisdom of Solomon to give him the most succinct and important advice in his final moments. But to do so would be to praise something in “Identity Crisis,” and I don’t think I want to do that. We also see the same scene again in “Firestorm” #6.
Category 5: Good Cap Shit
Unlike the last few installments, we do get some legitimately good Captain Marvel moments in these years. The first is a story in “Superman/Batman” #4 by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness, which is smack dab in the middle of a larger arc about President Luthor calling for the arrest of Superman and Batman. We see the JSA dispatch Hawkman and Captain Marvel to stop them and, in a really shocking turn, they do! So many times the World’s Finest duo are presented as unstoppable, but here, we see that they are able to be countered by two of the most powerful heroes in DC. The best part of this story, to me, is that they manage to lose without looking weak. They got beat, fair and square. Comics should do that more often.
The second good Cap story comes in the form of “Countdown to Infinite Crisis” #1, which has a little bit of Black Adam (remember that guy?), another ubiquitous cover of “Justice League” #1 reference, and, most importantly, a conversation between Ted Kord and the Wizard Shazam. It’s a really good sequence, and gives the Wizard something to do for the first time in a long time. This issue, overall, is very good, and sets up a lot of really fun stuff, both in the other ‘Countdown to Infinite Crisis’ minis and the event itself. R.I.P. Ted Kord.
But the real star of this batch is a three-issue Superman/Eclipso arc that has Captain Marvel as a co-star. The story, named “Lightning Strikes Twice” and written by Judd Winick and illustrated by Ian Churchill, begins with “Action Comics” #826, continues into “Adventures of Superman” #639, and concludes with “Superman” #216. It seems like this may have been the pilot program for Judd Winick’s “The Trial of Shazam” that would launch in 2006.
Continued belowWinick shows relatively quickly that he has a great handle on Captain Marvel from jump here. His Cap is heroic and single minded on helping others, in this case Superman. Superman is possessed by the Eclipso diamond, and wants to infect Captain Marvel as his ‘permanent’ host, as he is a being of magic, and would be a near unstoppable vessel. Winick deftly weaves the magical elements of Cap, the Wizard Shazam, and the Spectre together, as well as creating a compelling Superman story in the process.
The only real knock I have on the story is Churchill, again from a Winick script, going way over the top in sexualizing the female characters, especially Lois. Lois is constantly busting out of her top, seemingly for no reason. Lois is one of my all-time favorite characters, in part because of her portrayal in the Superman television and films as someone who is as smart and tough as anyone in the DCU, not because of her body. It may be coincidence that both Winick scripts have overly sexualized women, as that might just be the art style of the time, but it’s not a great look. But this story is quite good and, if you can ignore Lois giving every male character ‘fuck me’ eyes, it’s well worth a read.
Next week: the final ‘catch up’ installment before getting into some of the bigger Cap events of the 21st century!
