And Then I Read: JUSTICE LEAGUE 21

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

In the back of JUSTICE LEAGUE, writer Geoff Johns has been slowly developing a revamp for Shazam, or what once was the Captain Marvel Family. While the originals worked well for their seminal runs in the 1940s and 1950s, this new version has a lot to recommend it. I did not like the lead at first, I found him mean and crabby. Billy Batson is not a smiling goody-two-shoes, he’s a real kid with issues and flaws, but he has gradually come to terms with his new alter ego: a very large, very muscular adult with superhuman abilities. The new family he’s found himself in did not like him either, but they’ve come around too, and are now fighting at his side. Harder to deal with are the super-villains out to destroy him, chiefly Black Adam, and this issue is the confrontation between them that has been building for over a year. Johns and artist Gary Frank deliver, it’s a fine story with terrific art. Well done, all. Let’s see where the Shazams go next.

Recommended.