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Underground > Comic Books >

Shazam and the Monster Society of Evil

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Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

06:45 / 19.02.07

According to this entry at Smith's blog, the second issue's out on February 28th? Bizarre. Do some comics really come out that fast these days?

12:33 / 19.02.07

Well, he's been working on it for a couple of years. So it's most likely already in the can.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:43 / 08.03.07

Second issue's out this week! Having never really read the original Golden Age version, I had big ??'s for eyes when it came to Mister Mind's arrival.

Already enthralled with Mary...wonder if she's going to get her own Gods, as before, or if she's stuck using Billy's; like how she accidentally becomes Mary Marvel, and her whole attitude is great.

Talky felt a bit awkwardly introduced but there's great potential there.

07:07 / 09.03.07

No the Red Skulls revenege is taking your post from one thread to another the swine !!!!

BrianFitzgerald

18:11 / 09.03.07

Has Billy needing to "come up for air" been a part of the Captain Marvel character before, or is this new?

20:30 / 10.03.07

Am I the only one who's noticed that the back covers fit together?

23:15 / 10.03.07

Something I'm noticing about this mini is that it already seems to have massive re-read potential. I've already read #1 a number of times, and even though I just read #2 I have this odd desire to pick it right back up and read it again.

Mary is great. The new Mr. Mind design is pretty horrifying. Letting Billy "out to breathe" is hilarious. Sivana as Att. Gen. is... new.

Also I've re-reading Bone, and Jeff Smith draws delightfully funny "frustrated" faces.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:06 / 11.03.07

Billy and Mary have very large heads.

No, Mario, I hadn't noticed, but I put them together and was amused. I wonder what the rest of the back covers will have on them; each issue is very much a complete unit.

I still haven't decoded the Monster Society's messages and chapter titles. Maybe I'll try to figure that out today.

Sivana - we'll see how that turns out. It's an fun twist and emphasizes how much of a Lex Luthor he is, even emulating the more recent trappings of respectibility; but I'll always love the mad scientist. I wonder if Smith's going to have Mary and Billy meet the rest of the Sivana clan.

The Talky Tawny reveal in the circus was a little awkward, and I think we're to assume that Talky was infiltrating to the Society, yeah? I wonder if we'll find out what the Society thought he was.

Talky's definitely a favourite now. His presence as a second agent of the Wizard (as yet unnamed, heh) is curious but making him a more direct, tangible mentor to Billy Marvel is a good thing. He also fleshes out some of the Marvel Mythology.

22:27 / 11.03.07

Based on some minor details, I'm guessing that the next two covers will be the lower half of the picture. I'll go out on a limb and say that Sivana and/or Billy will be on the back cover of 3, and Talky will be on the back cover of 4 (you can just make out the tips of his ears).

As for the code, it's a simple substitution that you'll be able to solve quickly with a little reflection.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

04:05 / 12.03.07

Sigh. The codes are...cute. Very cute.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:52 / 02.05.07

Number three's out today. Prepare to taste lightning--

21:43 / 02.05.07

*is happy*

Tho I must confess, part of me wanted Mary's note to Sivana to be something sassy.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

16:08 / 03.05.07

Mary having a power that Cap doesn't! Athena is one of her A's (which means that Smith has broken from her traditional S-H-A-Z-A-M acronym, which is a good thing) and that suggests a bit more about the magic word & the kids' powers.

Sivana as War Profiteer is a nice bit.

I like how clean and simple the plotting is.

Phex: Dorset Doom

17:50 / 03.05.07

Clean? Did you see where Helen Fidelity eyes wandered to when she met Captain Marvel? I'll give you a clue: his junk.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:26 / 03.05.07

The plotting is clean and straightforward, I'm not saying it's a sexless beast.

01:58 / 25.05.07

This was fun. Parts of it seemed a bit wonky somehow; not quite sure why... definitely fun, though. I like the news mogul's methods of covering his ass in case Capt. Marvel is not the do-gooder he seems.

Rather abrupt cliffhanger ending; not really well paced. It was like 'is there a next page, or was that just the cliffhanger ending?' You know when the last panel of an issue doesn't FEEL like it's supposed to be the last panel of an issue? Like that.

17:21 / 28.05.07

Not quite as strong as the first two issues, but that's only a step down to Very Good from Spectacularly Excellent, so I'm not feeling much pain.

I hope DC commissions more minis from Smith. They've got 52 universes to work with now, can't one of them be Earth-JS?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:17 / 18.07.07

Book Four is out today.

Never, ever, have I seen so many characters being given the opportunity to save the day. I would very much like to be Mary Marvel (Jeff Smith rendition) when I grow up.

"Mary -- please stop climbing on the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man."

BrianFitzgerald

23:41 / 18.07.07

No kidding. Despite not getting to speak until the last eight pages, Mary Marvel really owned this issue. "Whew! I am bulletproof!"

Loved it. My four-year old daughter was flipping through it after dinner and yelled, "Oh my gosh, Daddy! You have to see this! Come here quick!" When I sat down next to her, she held up the "too-hard punch" splash page with a look on her face normally reserved for kitchen-sink sundaes and Christmas morning.

What a great series.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

23:52 / 18.07.07

I can't say I liked the term "Global Pod" as a communications device name, but it was a small, niggling detail. This comic was great - and it was cool to put them together as a the big back-cover poster. The Secret Face of Mister Mind! The real villain of the piece! Helen Fidelity, crusading reporter! The secret origin of Billy Batson, kid reporter! Mary Marvel, Mary Marvel, Mary Marvel.

20:14 / 24.07.07

I just read the last issue of this and don't have anything of any substance to add, except: hell, yeah. This was the sweetest, goofiest comic book I've read since Tim Truman's SCOUT and it made me wish with all my heart that DC would pony up the money for whatever they pay for five or six of their other books and give it to Jeff Smith to do a monthly SHAZAM comic. The overly-expository dialog even grew on me after a while and give things a sparkly silver age shine. Really terrific and probably the best thing DC has published all year.

20:25 / 24.07.07

On reread, as a whole, I really did dig this series. So many just jaw-droppingly wonderful moments and the pacing was actually very oldschool Capt. Marvel. Still not a big fan of the de-aging of you know who but that's just me. This clearly should have been an All-Star book, and got a bit of a push from that label. It deserved it, as it's definitely pure-take and new-reader friendly. It's going to read very smooth once TPBed.

I don't know about an on-going, but a series of minis or straight-to-trades? Yes, I think I'd like that quite a bit.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:22 / 24.07.07

As it stands, I'm very much going to suggest this series to the children's librarian when it comes out in trade, and I'll be mentioning the connection to Bone -- which circulates very well in our system.

How do people feel about Talky Tawny in Smith's take? I read a review the other day that bemoaned the explanation of him as an ifrit, but I think it does wonders to make him more magical and tied into the Shazam mythology -- but how does everyone else feel?

21:28 / 24.07.07

I don't know that he needed an explanation, so long as the Marvel/Fawcett stuff is a universe unto itself, in the way that not everything in all MU or DCU books need to have explanations like making Thor an alien instead of a god, but as a brand... as a subset or purified down... I think it connects Talky a bit more to the Marvel mythos.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:46 / 24.07.07

That's it exactly - I think it fleshed him out rather than pinning him down.

01:11 / 25.07.07

I didn't think Talky needed any explanation whatsoever, and I missed his old plaid sport coats, but making him a walking-on-all-fours tiger with some wisdom to impart gave him a bit of dignity and made him seem more of a protector rather than the goofy uncle he'd always seemed in the old SHAZAM comics. And it was worth it for that last splash page of the entire cast, with him looking all noble and guardian-ish. If I'd been a kid reading this I would have wished that I could have a friend like Talky Tawny.

16:55 / 17.08.07

This was indeed pretty fun.

"What's holding all those insects up? Oh, now I see - nothing!"

>> "Mary -- please stop climbing on the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man."

Truly a hilarious moment.

DC is about to do an all-ages kids series of SHAZAM! done by the guy who wrote & drew the nifty HEROBEAR comic a few years back. It's apparently inspired by/borrowing from the 'fun' tone from the Jeff Smith mini.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:13 / 17.08.07

More fun, all-ages SHAZAM!? Sign me up!

I can has Mary Marvel, plskthnxbye?

11:50 / 26.04.08

just wanted to add a belated thums up having read the trade this week, lovely stuff and the first comic i have brought home that my 2 year old daughter has wanted to look at again and again.

was just wondering what peoples take was on how seperate cap and billy are in this? my take from the 90s JLA and 00s JSA was that cap was basically billy's character in a bog body, with the wisdom of zeus (i think) and other more adult characteristics as voices that billy / cap were able to ignore or listen to. i can't see the new shazam singing row row row your boat.

lovely though and a great leftfield choice of creator from DC.

14:45 / 29.04.08

I'm told that, in the Golden Age, Beck vacillated on the "Cap as separate persona" issue. I'm pretty sure he wasn't written as a child in a man's body until the 70's, tho.

14:05 / 30.04.08

thanks for that mario.
i am no relation btw.

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