Shazam! #1

 
So finally, I was able to read this comic book (my LCBS got it a week later) and find myself finding a mix of feelings about it.

Seeing once again the whole Marvel Family (sort of) working together in a continuity story was... Weird! I didn't liked Mary and Billy enjoyable at all, that's true, I actually this story did to me to see Freddy more as the hero than anything else (not that I really like it at all, but well).

I just can't stand Mary, for me this character is miles away from my tastes. I don't like the way she's written is just totally horrible. Billy is still written as the lost male-alpha wannabe, and sorry, that shouldn't be. Freddy was written as a good guy, really. Once again, I think that if the intent was for him to be the real hero, the light of hope, the writer did it.

So, now we have really once again the family theme, another villain (in this case Blaze) is trying to adhere to the Shazam Family. So, DC has been doin' all the same all these last years: They first have been selling us the idea of the disfunctional Marvel Family, then they push into our throats the extended Family topic with the "Black Marvels". Now we have this Blaze "brothering" and "sistering" everybody in the pack... Yawn!

No really.

You can't handle two three family members, then add another three, and now Blaze is coming, and how far before seeing Satannus. Can we believe that he is the glaring figure at the end of JSA? (Sorry, seems there's no Oggar coming along, at least that seems to me now).

I agree on the inking issue, just terrible. Not just my cup of tea.

The art was O.K., tho' it wasn't the best. Really, what happened to Freddy's face?

Well, so just to keep up with the story... Did Freddy (just as Blaze) think Freddy's powers are still coming from The Wizard? Or when he says he got his power from Zeus, he's thinking he has the real deal or we're still running on the "gods of Magic" thingie? Anyone has an idea?

Well, in the end, we have for the rescue the promise of Freddy of giving the Batsons their powers back. For a moment, the "team" idea seems correct.

So, the story wasn't the greatest, but, I differ with those who think that didn't advance the Marvel Family story at all. The promise is there, and, at least, is a recognition of the Batson twins of getting their powers back, maybe the next year (LOL) as thing have been going through.

In the end, I do agree with people saying that if DC would like to, this matter might be solved in one, two or three issues.

OH! I almost forgot! Loved the Styx water idea. That was cool. (For me).

Things are starting to move, I just wish that the angst could just end, and I know that, no matter, many of us want a happy ending (maybe a good beginning, really) for all this mess.

For those of us who still want to believe, there's at least the lines that might give us a kind of foundation for it. But, really, I do think that for those that read this issue and just can't feel it, they might be right.

Lookie! Now I might have understood why some people say that we really didn't move that much on what we have had these past years about the characters!

Half empty or half full? Your choice.