SHAZAM! THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL #1 (OF 4)

Dave3 has always been a big fan of DC’s Shazam (a.k.a. Captain Marvel, not to be confused with the alien kree Captain Marvel, a.k.a. Captain Mar-Vell from Marvel Comics), so I picked this up for him. When I saw that Bone creator Jeff Smith was doing this miniseries — the writing as well as the art — I definitely wanted to check it out myself.

The young orphan Billy Batson is living a rough life out on the streets when a wizard grants him the ability to transform into the mighty adult superhero Captain Marvel. When Billy speaks the magic word “Shazam!”, he gains the wisdom of Solomon, strength of Hercules, stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, the speed of Mercury.

Over the years, Billy Batson has been portrayed as a teen, but Smith takes Billy back to being a small child, in this case around 8 years old. He’s a vulnerable orphan living in a condemned building having to fight off ill-intentioned adults who have no problem hurting a child. As Captain Marvel, Billy can protect himself as well as others, but some of his immature actions will lead to dire consequences.

While Smith does an amazing job of bringing these characters back to life, readers with no previous Shazam knowledge can enjoy this title. But since this is a retelling of the Captain Marvel/Billy Batson origin, fans of the original series will be thrilled with the familiar elements like the wizard and his lair with the seven deadly enemies of man statues, the rock of eternity, and of course, the Monster Society of Evil.

This prestige-format issue has given me a much-needed Jeff Smith fix, who has finished up the Bone series. It’s also renewed my interest in the Captain Marvel world — not so much Captain Marvel himself though, because I find the rest of the Marvel family as well as their adversaries much more fascinating than him. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I never thought he really took full advantage of all that wisdom of Solomon. Maybe it’s just me.

A cute little addition to Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil is the coded messages on the inside covers, which can be deciphered using the decoder found HERE.

In related news, Fantagraphics to release Walt Kelly‘s classic POGO comic strip.

The first volume of Fantagraphics’ Pogo will appear in October 2007, and run about 12 volumes — each designed by long-time Kelly admirerer Jeff Smith — reproducing roughly two years of dailies and Sundays per volume.