| The Power of Shazam! | |
|---|---|
 The Power of Shazam! original hardcover graphic novel, cover art byJerry Ordway. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Schedule | Vol. 1: One-shot Vol. 2: Monthly |
| Format | Vol. 1: Graphic novel Vol. 2: Standard U.S., four-color, ongoing |
| Publication date | Vol. 1: 1994 Vol. 2: March 1995 - March 1999, 1996 (Annual) |
| No. of issues | Vol. 1: 1 Vol. 2: 49 (47, plus 1Annual and issue #1,000,000) |
| Main character(s) | Both Captain Marvel Shazam Doctor Sivana Black Adam Vol. 2 Captain Marvel, Jr. Mary Marvel Mister Mind |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Jerry Ordway |
| Artist | Jerry Ordway |
| Penciller(s) | Peter Krause Jerry Ordway |
| Inker(s) | Mike Manley Dick Giordano Jerry Ordway |
| Colorist | Glenn Whitmore |
The Power of Shazam! is a 1994hardcovergraphic novel, written and painted byJerry Ordway forDC Comics.[1] The 96-page story, depicting the revamped origins of formerFawcett ComicssuperheroCaptain Marvel, was followed by an ongoing series, also titledThe Power of Shazam!, which ran from 1995 to 1999.[2]
After a previousretcon byRoy Thomas and Tom Mandrake in 1987 with theShazam!: The New Beginning miniseries, Captain Marvel was again given a revised origin in the 1994 graphic novelThe Power of Shazam!. Captain Marvel's origin would also be retold inJeff Smith'sShazam!: The Monster Society of Evillimited series in 2007, though this origin takes place outside of DC continuity.
AsThe Power of Shazam! graphic novel opens, ten-year-old Billy Batson's parents, both archeologists, are working in Egypt, excavating the tomb ofRamses II with their associate Theo Adam. Murdering the elder Batsons, Adam also kidnaps their young daughter Mary and steals ascarab necklace once attached to one of the sarcophagi in the tomb. Billy had been left behind at home inFawcett City because of poor school grades. As in the Fawcett Comics origin story fromWhiz Comics #2 (1940), Billy is abandoned by his cruel uncle Ebenezer, and becomes apaperboy to earn a living. One night, Billy meets a dark-clothed stranger outside of a subway tunnel, and follows the stranger onto a magic subway car. The subway car leads Billy to the realm of the WizardShazam, who assigns the boy as his successor. By speaking Shazam's name, Billy is struck by a bolt of magic lightning and transformed into Captain Marvel, an adult superhero.
As Captain Marvel, Billy thwarts a plan by Theo Adam and his employer, the rich tycoonDoctor Sivana, to destroy the WHIZ radio building and silence a witness to Adam's murders. Adam's encounters with Marvel, who is the "spitting image of C.C. Batson", along with the clues from the expedition, lead him to realize he is the reincarnation of Teth-Adam, the original heir to the power of Shazam. Upon crossing the Wizard, Teth-Adam was killed and his powers drawn into a scarab, the very same scarab that Adam stole from the tomb after killing the Batsons. Taking the scarab from Sivana's trophy room, Adam says the Wizard's name and is struck by magic lightning, becomingBlack Adam.
Adam and Captain Marvel battle each other on the grounds of the Sivana-funded Fawcett World Fair, with Marvel winning the battle by snatching Adam's scarab from him. Marvel takes Adam to the Wizard, who takes Adam's voice and wipes his memory. Billy later learns that the stranger who led Billy to the Wizard was the spirit of his father, and that his sister Mary is still alive. Billy promises, as Captain Marvel, to fight injustice and evil, and also to find his missing sister. Meanwhile, Sivana has lost all of his money and possessions due to the destruction of his properties by Marvel and Adam, and swears revenge on the Captain.
Ordway's graphic novel was a success, winning theComics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Original Graphic Album of 1994, and led to the publication of an ongoingPower of Shazam! series, set four years after the graphic novel. The series, which began publication in March 1995, reintroduced many of the characters from Fawcett Comics into current DC continuity, including Mary Bromfield/Mary Marvel, Freddy Freeman/Captain Marvel, Jr., Beautia Sivana, MisterTawky Tawny,Bulletman,Minute-Man, theSpy Smasher,Ibis and Taia, and evenHoppy the Marvel Bunny. Villains reincarnated in the series includedIbac,Mister Mind,Mister Atom, Aunt Minerva, andBlaze and Satanus from theSuperman titles, who were retconned as the wizard Shazam's illegitimate children with a demoness (name unknown).
Mary Marvel was introduced as an adult instead of in her traditional teenage form, and insisted upon sharing the name of "Captain Marvel" with her brother. Captain Marvel, Jr., resenting being called "Junior" all of the time and needing a name he could say without calling down the magic lightning (his magic word being "Captain Marvel"), renamed himself "CM3". Jerry Ordway wrote all of the stories for the series and the oneAnnual, and provided painted covers in the style of the graphic novel as well.Peter Krause,Mike Manley,[3]Dick Giordano, and Ordway himself served as the series' main artists.
While the series received good reviews and featured guest artwork from comic book icons such asCurt Swan andGil Kane, sales for theGolden Age-inspired series slowed as it went on, as darker, more intense comic book stories had become more popular by the 1990s than the Marvel Family's more light-hearted adventures.[4] The book was cancelled with issue #47 in March 1999 (issue #1,000,000 was published in November 1998 as part of theDC One Million event, giving the main series a total of 48 issues published). OneAnnual was also published in 1996, bringing the total number of issues to 49.
In January 2010,The Power of Shazam! had a single issue revival (#48, continuing from the (vol. 2) numbering) tying into DC'sBlackest Night event. It involved Black Adam's dead protégéOsiris being reanimated as aBlack Lantern, and battling his killer, theApokoliptian crocodile manSobek. Billy and Mary Batson, powerless after the events ofJustice Society of America (vol. 3) #25, appear briefly in the issue.
The Power of Shazam! #33 (Dec. 1997) was among the selected stories reprinted in the 2008trade paperbackShazam! The Greatest Stories Ever Told (ISBN 1401216749), highlighting some of the best Captain Marvel tales published.
Issues #35-36 were collected in theStarman: To Reach the Stars trade paperback and inStarman Omnibus Volume 4.
Issues #38-41 were collected inDC Comics Presents: Shazam! #1 (Sept. 2011) and #44-47 were collected inDC Comics Presents: Shazam! #2 (Oct. 2011).
Issues #1-2 and 33 were among the stories reprinted inShazam!: A Celebration of 75 Years hardcover collection (2015). (ISBN 978-1401255381)
In August 2020, the ongoing series was properly collected for the first time in the hardcoverThe Power of Shazam! Book One: In The Beginning, which collects thePower of Shazam! graphic novel, issues #1-12 of the ongoing series, plus a story fromSuperman & Batman Magazine #4; plus bonus material (ISBN 978-1401299415).
A second volume,The Power of Shazam! Book Two: The Worm Turns, was published in trade paperback in May 2023, collecting issues #13-23 of the ongoing series, as well as the Annual, "Playing with Fire" fromShowcase '96,Superboy Plus #1,Supergirl Plus #1, andSuperman: The Man of Tomorrow #4 (ISBN 978-1779521743). A hardcover edition, due for release in December 2021, was never published.
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The book was critically praised.[5][6][7] Later releases however, such asThe Power of Shazam! Book Two: The Worm Turns, suffered a decline in sales. Some critics claim thatThe Power of Shazam! has received a lack of modern positive reception in part due to DC's avoidance towards reprinting the series.[8]
Writer Jerry Ordway chronicled the further adventures of Billy Batson, the World's Mightiest Mortal, in the new ongoing effortThe Power of Shazam!, alongside artists Mike Manley and Peter Krause.
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