DC slapped a little blurb on the cover which said "Shazam! Saturday's TV Hit Show!". The live action Shazam! show from Filmation was making people take notice. So in another brilliant move DC decides to double down and give the comic reader even more new wonderful Shazam! stories. Well actually they didn't.
What they did was turn the book into a reprint magazine for four issues. While still touting the TV connection the reader found solid but aged Fawcett stories inside the comic which was for sell on the stands. It wasn't until the TV show got a second season that DC finally got gears going to revise the series to fit and they gave us all some wonderful surprises as well.
E. Nelson Bridewell and Kurt Schaffenberger gave us a new more DC friendly version of the hero. Billy Batson is sent on an across-country odyssey during the United States' bicentennial year to visit important cities. His companion is Uncle Dudley who functions as his "Mentor" on the trip. This new mentor and Billy use an RV to traipse across the land and there they meet others and save lives from various plots by Dr. Sivana or Mr. Mind. Further Billy is given a device which allows him to contact the very "Elders" who give him his powers for useful advice. In other words, DC made the comic as much like the TV show as possible and thanks to Bridwell they did it in a rather clever way.
And then there was Isis. Dick Giordano knocks out some typically handsome art to introduce the Filmation-created female counterpart for Captain Marvel. She's a teacher who is empowered by Egyptian gods. She gets her very own comic for a time and so the Saturday morning comic corner at DC gets a little bit larger.
So Billy Batson and his "Mentor" Uncle Marvel (sporting a mustache to evoke that Les Tremayne look) travel to the cities of Washington D.C., Philidelphia, Boston, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Columbus meeting TV executives and battling the menaces they find there. They are aided in the battle by Kid Eternity and Minute Man. The "Superman" featured on the cover of one issue is not who you think it is. They battle the schemes of Sivana and the brawn of Black Adam and IBAC.
Then Schaffenberger steps aside and is replaced by artist Tenny Henson, a Filipino talent. He's really good and wraps up the peripatetic adventures with stops in Detroit and Indianapolis. Mr. Mind steps in as the uber-villain while Mr. Atom shows up to supply the muscle. Bridwell's scripts are smart and clever and do a grand job of transferring the essence of the TV show to the handsome comic. But things are about to change big time.
The cross-country odyssey is ended when the threat of Captain Nazi resurfaces. But the biggest change is the art which is done in this single issue by Alan Lee Weiss with inks by Joe Rubinstein. The classic appearance of the Marvels is at long last abandoned and a more realistic look wins the day. I liked the classic look, but I loved this new more muscular modern Captain Marvel.
In the next issue a new artist appears by the name of Don Newton and Captain Marvel and the Shazam Family will never look the same. Under a rugged Mike Nasser cover we have a Cap who is at once more real and still evocative of the classic in a battle against the evil King Kull which blows the top off. Sadly this is the last issue of the classic Shazam! run, but it's not the end of E. Nelson Bridwell's and Don Newton's Captain Marvel. But first there's this.
DC had teased a meeting between "The Man of Steel" and "The Big Red Cheese" several times over the years since they had procured the rights to Fawcett's number one hero. But despite many tempting covers, the contact always proved less than advertised. Superman makes two appearances on Shazam! series covers and is not featured in the comic book. Lex Luthor does make contact with what was dubbed "Earth-S" but thinks he had a dream. DC worked extra hard to make the first conflict between these two mega-heroes a big deal and they succeeded with the "All New Collectors' Edition" of "Superman Vs. Shazam!". Rich Buckler is tapped to draw this oversized epic with a script by Gerry Conway, the writer who had previously given the world the first ever team-up of Superman and a certain friendly neighborhood wall-crawler. Supergirl and Mary Marvel have substantial parts to play in this yarn, but after all these years the excitement of that first big clash seems somewhat dimmed.
Still, it's a great way to wrap up this volume. Next time we get to see what I think is perhaps Captain Marvel's most shining moments at DC when we follow Bridwell and Newton to Worlds Finest and beyond.
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