(no subject)
So, I've been kind of fascinated by the concept behind Captain Marvel (the Shazam! one, not the Marvel Comics one... or five, actually) for a while. An orphaned kid on his own, gets the power to transform into a Superman-like character by saying a magic word, finds a long-lost sister with the same ability, somehow anthropomorphic tigers and rabbits factor into it...
I think my fascination started with the "Clash" episode of JLU, where Captain Marvel (voiced by Jerry O'Connell) ends up fighting Superman in what is EASILY one of the best three fights ever on that show (1. Superman vs Doomsday in "The Doomsday Sanction," 2. Original Seven vs Luthor/Braniac in "Divided We Fall," 3. Supes vs Captain Marvel, and for posterity, 4. Superman/Batman/Luthor vs Darkseid in"Destroyer." Your list may differ, but it is wrong.) and managed to show the League just how dark they had become through the whole of the masterful Cadmus arc.
This was a guy who SUPERMAN whined about being such a boy scout and who Batman admitted that he liked because "he's sunny." It's just such an appealing hook.
I think the first comics I actually read featuring the Marvel Family were the SuperBuddies comics (Formerly Known as the Justice League and I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League), where Mary Marvel joined the team and was basically played WAAAAAAAY over the top as wholesome (with great results)
And then, of course, DC Comics was in the midst of their "KILLING PEOPLE IS DARK AND DARK IS AWESOME!" (which happened before Marvel started calling everything "Dark" and making a good amount of it actually awesome). Seemingly half of the SuperBuddies cast was killed or turned evil (usually in ways that made NO SENSE) in the leadup to Infinite Crisis. Then when Countdown to Final Crisis came along, it was made clear that one of the main storyarcs was going to be a darkening of Mary Marvel.
Again, I had BARELY read any Marvel Family stuff, so I couldn't really comment except that 1) it seemed kind of like a bad idea, 2) Mary's new costume was totally hot (yeah, I'm a nerd), and 3) it could have been interesting. Anyway, I was intrigued, so I read a couple issues of Countdown and quickly decided that it was pure crap. I still followed the plot through message boards and columns because I was intrigued in where a few of the plots were going to go, and it was made clear that Mary's was just "Inch closer to evil. Inch closer to evil. Inch closer to evil. GO EVIL! EVIL! EVIL! EVIL! Annnnnnnd.... redemption."
And then she went back to evil for absolutely no reason at the very end. And then all of that ended up being entirely unnecessary for Final Crisis (just like the entire Countdown series was, as it turned out). And despite the fact that I HADN'T READ ANYTHING with these characters, I felt kind of offended. Mary's character was trashed. Captain Marvel himself was turned into the mentor figure and also a TOTAL DICK. Captain Marvel Junior took over Captain Marvel's former role and... Well, I know there was a 12 issue series about that stuff, but I'll be damned if I know what happened with him. And I was kind of pissed at DC about this.
All of which is a long-winded way of leading up to me saying that I've started reading the Power of SHAZAM! series from the mid-90's (through Completely Legal Means) and wow. I was absolutely right all this time. This stuff is EXACTLY the kind of stuff I really want to see in a comic book. While I totally have fun with stuff like Ultimates where people who are kind of dicks do completely awesome things, that has nothing on good people trying to do good but sometimes screwing up badly. (If I may remind you, I am a massive Spider-Man dork.)
But Power of SHAZAM! takes that to a greater level by reintroducing insane ideas from the original CM books back in the Golden Age and making them work. For example, there's a character - as mentioned earlier - called CAPTAIN MARVEL JUNIOR. SERIOUSLY. THAT'S HIS SUPERHERO NAME. And he's the same age as CM. And his archnemesis? CAPTAIN NAZI.
Let me repeat that. CAPTAIN. NAZI. And the dude's just a superpowered Nazi who wants to kill people and is really racist. And then he gets repeatedly punched in the face. It's beautiful.
But even Captain Nazi has nothing on Mr Mind. Mr Mind is a tiny worm from Venus who has vast mental powers and wants to take over the Earth. At the end of Mr Mind's first arc in PoS!, Cap and Mary defeat him with the power of rock.
No, really. Mr Mind is inside the old guy's ear, and the old guy put the headphones on to SHOOT LOUD MUSIC at him.
And if that doesn't already make Mr Mind the best villain ever, he creates a superteam of a bunch of Cap's villains called THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL.
Seriously, when Brubaker and Fraction pull this kind of crap today, I love it, I absolutely love it. But Jerry Ordway was doing it 15 years ago in PoS! and he was riffing off of stuff from 50 years before that.
It's fun comics done awesome with Good but Flawed leads and my only regret is that it's taken me this long to check it out. I've missed out on so much genuine outrage over the past few years because I hadn't actually read this stuff.
For the record, here's the fight from JLU. Luthor was totally playing everyone, of course.
I think my fascination started with the "Clash" episode of JLU, where Captain Marvel (voiced by Jerry O'Connell) ends up fighting Superman in what is EASILY one of the best three fights ever on that show (1. Superman vs Doomsday in "The Doomsday Sanction," 2. Original Seven vs Luthor/Braniac in "Divided We Fall," 3. Supes vs Captain Marvel, and for posterity, 4. Superman/Batman/Luthor vs Darkseid in"Destroyer." Your list may differ, but it is wrong.) and managed to show the League just how dark they had become through the whole of the masterful Cadmus arc.
This was a guy who SUPERMAN whined about being such a boy scout and who Batman admitted that he liked because "he's sunny." It's just such an appealing hook.
I think the first comics I actually read featuring the Marvel Family were the SuperBuddies comics (Formerly Known as the Justice League and I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League), where Mary Marvel joined the team and was basically played WAAAAAAAY over the top as wholesome (with great results)
And then, of course, DC Comics was in the midst of their "KILLING PEOPLE IS DARK AND DARK IS AWESOME!" (which happened before Marvel started calling everything "Dark" and making a good amount of it actually awesome). Seemingly half of the SuperBuddies cast was killed or turned evil (usually in ways that made NO SENSE) in the leadup to Infinite Crisis. Then when Countdown to Final Crisis came along, it was made clear that one of the main storyarcs was going to be a darkening of Mary Marvel.
Again, I had BARELY read any Marvel Family stuff, so I couldn't really comment except that 1) it seemed kind of like a bad idea, 2) Mary's new costume was totally hot (yeah, I'm a nerd), and 3) it could have been interesting. Anyway, I was intrigued, so I read a couple issues of Countdown and quickly decided that it was pure crap. I still followed the plot through message boards and columns because I was intrigued in where a few of the plots were going to go, and it was made clear that Mary's was just "Inch closer to evil. Inch closer to evil. Inch closer to evil. GO EVIL! EVIL! EVIL! EVIL! Annnnnnnd.... redemption."
And then she went back to evil for absolutely no reason at the very end. And then all of that ended up being entirely unnecessary for Final Crisis (just like the entire Countdown series was, as it turned out). And despite the fact that I HADN'T READ ANYTHING with these characters, I felt kind of offended. Mary's character was trashed. Captain Marvel himself was turned into the mentor figure and also a TOTAL DICK. Captain Marvel Junior took over Captain Marvel's former role and... Well, I know there was a 12 issue series about that stuff, but I'll be damned if I know what happened with him. And I was kind of pissed at DC about this.
All of which is a long-winded way of leading up to me saying that I've started reading the Power of SHAZAM! series from the mid-90's (through Completely Legal Means) and wow. I was absolutely right all this time. This stuff is EXACTLY the kind of stuff I really want to see in a comic book. While I totally have fun with stuff like Ultimates where people who are kind of dicks do completely awesome things, that has nothing on good people trying to do good but sometimes screwing up badly. (If I may remind you, I am a massive Spider-Man dork.)
But Power of SHAZAM! takes that to a greater level by reintroducing insane ideas from the original CM books back in the Golden Age and making them work. For example, there's a character - as mentioned earlier - called CAPTAIN MARVEL JUNIOR. SERIOUSLY. THAT'S HIS SUPERHERO NAME. And he's the same age as CM. And his archnemesis? CAPTAIN NAZI.
Let me repeat that. CAPTAIN. NAZI. And the dude's just a superpowered Nazi who wants to kill people and is really racist. And then he gets repeatedly punched in the face. It's beautiful.
But even Captain Nazi has nothing on Mr Mind. Mr Mind is a tiny worm from Venus who has vast mental powers and wants to take over the Earth. At the end of Mr Mind's first arc in PoS!, Cap and Mary defeat him with the power of rock.
No, really. Mr Mind is inside the old guy's ear, and the old guy put the headphones on to SHOOT LOUD MUSIC at him.
And if that doesn't already make Mr Mind the best villain ever, he creates a superteam of a bunch of Cap's villains called THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL.
Seriously, when Brubaker and Fraction pull this kind of crap today, I love it, I absolutely love it. But Jerry Ordway was doing it 15 years ago in PoS! and he was riffing off of stuff from 50 years before that.
It's fun comics done awesome with Good but Flawed leads and my only regret is that it's taken me this long to check it out. I've missed out on so much genuine outrage over the past few years because I hadn't actually read this stuff.
For the record, here's the fight from JLU. Luthor was totally playing everyone, of course.