Superman/Shazam: First Thunder #4
Originally Presented at Comixtreme.com on March 26, 2006.
Quick Rating: Great
Title: Men and Boys! Gods and Thunder!
Sivana’s hit on Billy goes horribly wrong - will the man of steel set the world’s mightiest mortal aright?
Writer: Judd Winick
Art: Joshua Middleton
Letters: Nick J. Napolitano
Editor: Mike Carlin
Cover Art: Joshua Middleton
Publisher: DC Comics
Review: Wow - it’s amazing how big a turnaround a comic book can make sometimes. After a fairly disappointing first two issues, the third issue of this series showed marked improvement, and Judd Winick made it into the home stretch with a fantastic conclusion that beautifully sums up the two heroes’ first encounter and redefines their relationship in a way that’s never really be explored before, but that works incredibly well.
Last issue, the evil Dr. Sivana sent out an army of hired thugs to murder young Billy Batson, the child know to the world as Captain Marvel. Things go horribly wrong, however, and the world is faced with the prospect of a Captain Marvel gone mad.
Winick really manages to encapsulate both heroes very well this issue. The confrontation between Superman and the wizard Shazam is played perfectly, and the final few pages cast Superman and Captain Marvel’s friendship in a whole new light. To the best of my knowledge, no version of those characters’ friendship has ever taken this path before, and as Winick is going to be writing the upcoming Post-Infinite Crisis miniseries The Trials of Shazam, it’s reasonable to assume that he plans to pick up on this thread.
Joshua Middleton’s artwork initially felt a little two soft for these powerful, square-jawed heroes, but it’s grown on me. He’s shifted slightly, and instead of soft the two characters now manage to have the strength they need, but still maintain an innocence (Captain Marvel especially) that echoes the classic incarnations of the two of them.
If I were to rate this miniseries as a whole, the lackluster opening would give it three and a half, maybe four bullet points. But this final issue alone gets a solid four and a half, a “great” on the Blake-scale. People who abandoned this title after the first two issues… well, I can’t blame them, really, but they missed a great finale. And I’m confident now that Winick’s are the right hands to redefine Captain Marvel for the new DC Universe.
Rating: 9/10