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The Curse of Shazam - Your Thoughts (SPOILERS)
LibraryBoy
Posts: 1,084
Okay, we now have the first chapter of Geoff Johns & Gary Frank's The Curse of Shazam in this week's Justice League #7. What'd you think?
I'm of two minds. On the one hand, 8 pages of introduction isn't really enough to draw any really solid conclusions. All we really get is a Lex Luthor-y Sivana, a dick Billy Batson, and an up-close shot of the wizard's awful teeth... on the other hand, we get a Lex Luthor-y Sivana, a dick Billy Batson, and an up-close shot of the wizard's awful teeth, which doesn't inspire much confidence in me. Making me dislike the main character from the get-go is a risky move, and I worry it's the wrong one. But I feel like I need to give this a little while longer to see if it's something I'll continue with. We'll have to see how it looks next month.
I'm of two minds. On the one hand, 8 pages of introduction isn't really enough to draw any really solid conclusions. All we really get is a Lex Luthor-y Sivana, a dick Billy Batson, and an up-close shot of the wizard's awful teeth... on the other hand, we get a Lex Luthor-y Sivana, a dick Billy Batson, and an up-close shot of the wizard's awful teeth, which doesn't inspire much confidence in me. Making me dislike the main character from the get-go is a risky move, and I worry it's the wrong one. But I feel like I need to give this a little while longer to see if it's something I'll continue with. We'll have to see how it looks next month.
Comments
I suspect I will be with Bill on this one, though: it's a bad idea to make the reader hate the main character. You have to like the characters with which you spend the most time in a story or you won't spend the time.
I'm kinda frightened what he's gonna do with the poor, sweet Batson kids.
Of course, this isn't Captain Marvel, it's Shazam, so there's my out if I should decide I need one, I guess.
I wish DC would sell the Fawcett Universe to another publisher and be done with it.
When Billy Batson first appeared I thought 'Here we go, same old sweet innocent but boring Billy Batson...' - but no! He's a creep and involved in some sort of scam! Nice.
When old sweet Billy Batson became the adult Captain Marvel he turned into the goofy big red cheese who never really had a place in the DCU but I'm imagining a smart Shazam with a lack of respect for authority and enough power to challenge Superman.
I also think that the personality and costume will provide a good contrast if an Earth-S is found somewhere in the multiverse later on.
This Shazam IS the evil doppelganger.
Maybe the "New DC" can make Sugar and Spike into child terrorists who communicate in a secret language.
Apparently, in this case the trick was throwing in a token mortal (Solomon) with the various gods. Adds a bit of perspective.