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The Chronicles of Shazam: 1995-1997 Miscellany

By | October 2nd, 2019
Posted in Columns | % Comments

When I started this read through, it seemed like a good idea to tackle all the ‘big’ stories in a row, and then circle back for the weird one-off appearances. And, that’s been a more or less good experience, as I don’t get sucked out of a story for a one-panel appearance. But it also means that sometimes, I’m reading 30+ issues where more than half of them have really nothing to do with Captain Marvel. Let’s dig into the 1995-1997 miscellany for the entirety of the Marvel family: Billy, Mary, Freddie, the Wizard, and Black Adam.

Note: This list obviously doesn’t include the series we’ve already covered in prior installments. But, aside from reprints, this represents every single appearance through the end of 1997.

Category One: The Super-Books

If there is one constant in the post-Crisis Captain Marvel stuff, it is that the Super books are the only place he consistently shows up. I’m not sure if this was due to the abundance of Super-books, or maybe some shared editorial staff, but we see all three Marvels showing up in a variety of Super books over these years.

There are a few that are interesting enough to speak about, so let’s start with “Adventures of Superman” #552, where Cap, along with Maxima, Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, and more help Superman rebuild Metropolis after it was destroyed. This issue also features DMN, a synthetic drug that was a constant in Superman books of this era.

“Superman” #102, sees both Superman and Captain Marvel believing that the other is a villain, with Superman seeing Cap as the Cyborg Superman, and Cap seeing Superman as Black Adam. The Kents eventually convince them that this isn’t the case, and they stop being the piss out of each other.

In “Superman: The Man of Tomorrow’ #4, we see Bibbo and the Wizard interact, along with Superman and Captain Marvel. Satanis, one of the Wizard’s kids, is causing trouble in Metropolis, and Shazam and Billy are there as part of the Wizard’s walkabout to better understand humanity. The issue ends with a charity arm-wrestling competition, spurred on by the Wizard and Bibbo arguing over who is tougher, that ends in a 3 hour draw, as something came up and they had to stop. (Information we don’t find out until “Action Comics” #720)

Category Two: One-Panel Appearances

There are a fair amount of one-panel appearances, with the highlights being an appearance in the “Superman Wedding Album,” getting a Justice League communicator in “Justice League America” #100, and…well, that’s it.

Category Three: Amalgam

This time period also brought us “DC vs Marvel” and, who could forget, the Amalgam Comics! The “DC vs Marvel,” on the surface, may be the single most 1990s comic of all time. Let’s look at exhibit A, where the cover of the first issue more prominently features Lobo than Superman or Batman:

Or the fact that Nightwing makes an incredibly dated car-safety reference:

In this miniseries, we see Captain Marvel and Thor face off, as they are both lightning-branded heroes with the power of gods. Thor eventually bests Cap, but in doing so loses Mjolinir to another universe where, wouldn’t you know it?, Wonder Woman picks it up and proves her worth.

In the subsequent Amalgam Comics series, “JLX,” Captain Marvel joins with…wait for it…Captain Marvel (aka Mar-Vell) to form…suspenseful music…Captain Marvel. He’s not given too much to do, but hey! I’d love to see Marvel and DC work together again. These things are always flawed fun.

Category Four: Galleries

One of the relics of a prior comics era that just doesn’t come around anymore are gallery books. Books of pinups used to be a pretty regular thing in the 90s, and even regular comics sometimes had pinup galleries in the back for more high profile books (either nice round numbers or annuals). There were four galleries (Lobo, Wonder Woman, Rogues, and Justice League) released that featured a Marvel family member, as well as a pin-up in the back of “Superboy” #25. Captain Marvel also makes two brief appearances in the “Justice League Secret Files” on both the Justice League timeline, and on the big splash page highlighting all the various JL members. Here are three of my favorite of the pinups:

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Pinup from 'JLA Gallery' by Eric Shanower
Pinup from 'Wonder Woman Gallery' by Phil Jimenez
Pinup from 'Superboy' #25, credits on image

And then, sometimes, you get half a Cap in a pinup, and you wasted a solid 3 minutes looking at “The Lobo Gallery: Portraits of a Bastiche.”

Pinup by Phil Jimenez

Category Five: Abject Weirdness and Silly Fun

The best of the weird books this time out was “Guy Gardner: Warrior” #29, where Guy opens his bar Warriors. This issue is a hilarious hodgepodge of humor and an attempt to keep stories from the series continue, but around it are such weird, funny things. Exhibit A, where Billy Batson makes a funny to Rocket Red:

Exhibit B: The co-founds of Planet Hollywood show up

Aside from that, the biggest bits of weirdness involve a one-shot Sergio Aragones (“Groo,” MAD) drew of DC stories, a Bibbo-centric “Showcase 96” issue where Bibbo and Captain Marvel take down Black Adam, and a pair of one-panel appearances in Image books.

From the Normalman/Megaton Man Special

Of those two, the “Normalman/Megaton Man Special” is pretty unremarkable, but the wedding of Barbaric in “Savage Dragon” #41 is amazing. To quote Stefon Myers, this issue has everything: Hellboy, Bone, the Fem Force, Elton John…everything.

Category Six: Actual Stories:

We got a couple of really good team up stories in this batch, including “The Flash” #107, which is an ‘Underworld Unleashed’ tie-in, that featured the first (I think) team up between Wally West and Billy Batson, one on one. It was a solid issue though, like “Green Lantern“ #72 (again, the first Billy/Kyle team up), a little too much emphasis is placed on Cap’s naiveté. Sure, he says things like gosh and holy moley, but how much more cheesy is that than what Superman usually says?

Both stories also find interesting ways to give Billy an excuse to call down the lightning of Shazam. This is an aspect of the character that was heavily featured in Jerry Ordway’s writing, with characters constantly surprised at the lightning. I get that in real life, yes, it would be legitimately jarring, but I also feel like, in a world of superheroes, is that really the thing you’re going to be focused on?

Cap also shows up in 2 “Justice League America” annuals: a ‘Year One’ story and a ‘Tales of the Dead Earth’ annual. Both stories are sort of a snooze, but it is nice to see Cap back with the JLI, even for these less than memorable stories.

The Wizard gets a showcase in “Jack Kirby’s Fourth World” #10, which follows up on the Wizard leaving Earth for New Genesis, to attain full godhood. We don’t really get into his rationale or thought process, but Mister Miracle, the new Highfather – gee, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it Tom King? – asks Shazam that, since he can grant a god’s powers, can he take them away? We never really see this followed up, but it’s the rare interaction the Wizard gets without Billy or Mary, and I wish we got more of that

There are 2 really good Mary stories that pop up in this time period, too. In an issue of “Showcase 96,” we see Mary and Gangbuster share a story. Gangbuster was part of the middle “Power of Shazam” stories, as he was posing as a substitute teacher in Fairfield. But here, we also get a bit of his romantic history with Cat Grant, which was unexpected. It was also unexpected to see Cat not be insufferable, but hey, I can’t really complain about that. Mary is really a side player in this, despite getting top billing, but it is a type of story that DC just doesn’t do much anymore. None of this is “important,” none of this is revelatory, but all of this builds an overall tone and feeling of what the DC Universe was at the time, and it helps make every story more meaningful and rich.

The best Mary story, though, is from “Supergirl Plus The Power of Shazam” #1. This story has a surprising amount of nuance, with a very ahead of its time story form Peter David. In a nutshell, Mary runs away from home and winds up in Leesburg, where Supergirl was based at the time. Through happenstance, she meets up with Linda Davers, aka Supergirl, and they go to the mall together. At the mall, a cop thinks Mary is trying to steal something, and pulls her outside.

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This is where it gets intense: Mary believes that he’s trying to take advantage of her. But when we get the perspective of the cop, a friend of Linda’s dad, he says he was acting in a totally appropriate way.

The story examines both sides in a not at all gross way, and it ends with a really ambiguous ending, with the cop basically realizing that he may have stepped over the line, but not really sure if he did. But it affects him enough that he breaks down in tears.

There’s a lot of talk about guilt and intent, and all of it is handled shockingly well, both for David and for the era. If you have DC Universe, check this story out.

Freddie also gets a couple of solo adventures. He, along with Nightwing and Tim Drake, guest star in a couple issues of “Teen Titans.” This was one of the weirder Titans era, where all the team members – deep breath – were half alien half human children whose mothers were abducted and raped by aliens but their dads didn’t know and this gave them powers and made them a superhero team. Damn, Dan Jurgens, that’s fucked up.

There is a clear reason why Tim and Dick are in this story, but Freddie is…just sort of in Metropolis for no known reason and tags along? The story itself is nothing special, either, but it is nice to see Freddie at least somewhat considered a part of the young heroes of DC.

But Freddie gets a similar treatment to Mary, as he guest stars in “Superboy Plus the Power of the Shazam” #1, where he and Kon-El are hypnotized by an alien and believe to be fighting ex-love interests, villains and, eventually, their mentors.

This is actually a really interesting story, as it shows you how unique the Billy/Freddie relationship is in the DCU, as they really aren’t mentor/mentee at all, because they are the same age. Sure, Freddie respects Billy’s experience, but they aren’t the traditional older hero and young ward partnership.

Stray observations:

– Here is the aforementioned Crockpot from the “Superman Wedding Album.” That looks like paid product placement to me.

– C’mon Jurgens, that’s just gross.

– These are the times when Captain Marvel + co seemed most integrated into the DCU thus far, and it makes me sad that we still get them ghettoized in their own book and rarely anywhere else. Especially with the expanded family, these folks could/should be everywhere.

– Here are two of my favorites, Cap and Jack Knight, drawn by Sergio Aragones.

Next week: 1998 and 1999 in random appearances.


//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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