Bring on the Thunder!!
I haven't read alot of Captain Marvel/Shazam comics, but from what I can find about this comic and the characters, I became a fan of it. I mean, whats not to like? A young boy says a word and becomes a grown-up with Superpowers, with a completely unique cast of supporting characters and villains. This is why I was relatively peeved how they basically put the Marvels on the sideline in the last couple of years. After Infinite Crisis, Billy inherited the role of Wizard which had do hardly anything, Freddy was out to reclaim the powers to become the new Captain Marvel, and Mary lost her powers but then became evil in Countdown... in which she became corrupted by Black Adam's powers and when she was free of them... she made a deal with Darksied just to have them again! It from there things get worse, Mary become possessed by Darksied's forces in Final Crisis, Desaad I believe, in which she wore leather and had purple hair that was shaved down the middle.... she was cured at the end of the Crisis... but was turned evil again in an issue of Justice Society as well as converting Billy to the dark-side of Shazam as well. This causes dead Wizard came back to life, and be royally mad with rage, and completely took away all of Mary's and Billy's powers, turning Black Adam and Isis into stone-statutes, and makes a promise to go after Freddy too for no real reason... and that was it. Years past and nothing continued for the Marvel Family, with the exception of " Billy Baston and the Powers of Shazam!". It was then I realize that DC was lietrally down playing the Marvels focus more on their darkcounter parts, the Black Marvel family. The good and up standing characters were replaced by murderous anti-heroes! This really ticked me off. The Marvel family gets royally screwed in the comics they at least appeared in, and then they get replace altogether! But that was then, this is now.
The story opens up with Mary acting just like she did around the end of Countdown, namely she complaining to Freddy about not having her powers. Freddy is lamenting on the events of "Cry for Justice" (which is painful to me as I have seen Linkara's reviews of the entire comic and how BAD it is). We learn that Mary has sold herself to evil again as she has drugged Freddy and ready to trade him to the Wizard's estranged daughter, Blaze, in order to get her powers back. So it just like Countdown to Final Crisis? NO! It was all a ploy, as Freddy says the magic word and fights Blaze and sends he back to the Underworld, all the while Mary and Billy helping him without their powers.
Basically, this comic tries to rebuild the entire Marvel family from all the crap they went though last couple of years, reestablishing what made them great characters from the all the poorly written stories in which they just damage their images as moral superheroes. If you love or are new to Captain Marvel and family, this issue is the best way for you to see them in their prime form in a long time, even if they don't have their powers. Hopefully, this rebuilding will continue later on, and we get to see our the Marvel Family shining like they used to be.
