Shazam! Volume 1 (The New 52): From the Pages of Justice League: 01 (Shazam! (DC Comics))

A fantastic re-work of one of comics classic characters.Due to copyright issues, Captain Marvel is no more, long live Shazam! The story remains largely the same, a young boy meets an old wizard who grants him magical powers in order to protect the world from the threat of magic.The biggest difference in this book however is that Billy Batson is not the sweet young boy of yesteryear, but is instead a stuck up brat with a serious attitude problem. For years he has been bounced from home to home before he meets a couple who actively help foster children by giving them a home, as they were foster children themselves. Billy is rather mean to his foster brothers and sisters but soon warms to them, and is soon transported to meet the old wizard at the Rock of Eternity. To the shock of the wizard, Billy does not have the pure heart he seeks, but sees enough in the teenager to grant him the powers of Shazam.Billy later tells his foster brother Freddy about his new found powers and they use them to get revenge on the school bullies and buy some beer, when Billy realises that he tends to find trouble and that his new powers can help him save people. Later, a newly released Black Adam, the previous champion of magic, is revived and comes after Billy. In order to beat him, Billy shares his power with his foster siblings and together they stop Black Adam and the 7 Sins.This book is an absolute must read, the change to Billy's character really works well and adds a level to the character that he previously lacked, that he should strive to be a good person rather than being born as one. The supporting cast works well too, with Freddy the crafty sibling and Mary the eldest sensible one being joined by the adorable Darla, the tech savvy Eugene and the gentle giant Pedro.This is the one book that deserves its own series and i'm quite amazed that DC haven't given it one yet.

I purchased Shazam as I really enjoyed the Batman Earth One series which was also done by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. I have never read anything about Captain Marvel before (Shazam's previous superhero name before a reboot in 2011), so I bought this purely on the strength of Johns' writing and Frank's artwork.Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed. Johns is fantastic at character building and found myself being sucked into the story very easily. Although magic is featured a bit more, everything still remained pretty grounded. Not only that, but Shazam is actually rather funny and I found myself laughing out loud on quite a few occasions - something that rarely happens with me. The artwork is, as expected, top class.Overall a fantastic origin story for those new to Shazam. I read this in a day and immediately went looking for a sequel, which sadly there is not one as of yet!

I was listening to the podcast Fatman on Batman with Kevin Smith and his interview with Geoff Johns about some of his work.Mostly Batman stuff, but when they start talking about his new Shazam book, the premise alone instantly got me hooked.And I've figured if I'm gonna buy just one book from the new 52 line, it might as well be Captain Marvel. And sure enough it didn't disappoint. The story is great, the characters were solid and the art is gorgeous. My only problem...more like a nitpick really, they changed the heroes name from Captain Marvel to Shazam. To me Shazam is a phrase word, not a name. So I just simply pretended his name was still Captain Marvel. Pretty sad, I know.Overall, if your looking to buy any book from the new 52, then this one is a definite winner. Looking forward to Vol. 2.

This is some of the most fun you will have reading a comic book. I'm a massive fan of Captain Marvel, and so I was a little worried about what would be done with the character in this modern re-imagining. Thankfully, the more things change, the more they stay the same. My only advice to readers is to stick with it. A lot of readers were put off by the characterisation of Billy Batson at the start of the series, but reading to the end, that effect seems intentional. Character arcs are wonderful things, don't you know?A few extra notes:-Some of the pages in the first issue have been reordered from their initial printing. This improves the reading experience immeasurably, and I can't imagine going back to reading it in the originally printed order.-The back material is very good. I just wish they had used Gary Frank's design for Black Adam as it appears here!-You do not need to know ANYTHING about the New 52 reboot to be able to enjoy this as a standalone story.

I thought this book was great fun. I know nothing about Shazam's history in DC but this volume explained everything and was incredibly cool. The whole extended Shazam family were incredibly drawn and really shone in the story.The main character I guess is supposed to be unlikeable as a bit of a petulant child but after perhaps the second issue in this volume I really didn't feel like that. In fact I got a little bit bored of the time he wasted as Shazam because it was much more interesting when he was the weakened child.Also Black Adam is a great villain. I mean he's an idiot in the way he's defeated but apart from that I found him dark at times whilst quite humourous in others. I am now greatly anticipating more Shazam stories in the future.

This is effectively the story the shazam film is based on. slightly different to the film but essentially the same. a good read and I have to say I've always liked the captain marvel appearances. if you're reading this you must already be thinking about buying it and I would certainly recommend it.