Originally published on Patreon
Mary really isn't doing well in this issue of The New Champion of Shazam!. First off, she wakes up to find her running away from the media in the last issue has become a meme, and that people are already debating what to call her, 'lady shazam' and 'girl lightning' are all being proposed by the media. But perhaps worst of all are all of the comments about her; something her sister warns her not to read.
In a lot of ways this part of the issue instantly makes me think of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, which accurately predicted the kinds of comments the series would get and put them into the narrative. This has that same kind of feel to it, as I's sure as soon as it was announced that Mary would become the new Shazam there were people heading to social media to hate on it. Girls can't be heroes after all. As one fictional commenter makes clear, people hate her for daring to be a female hero, labelling her SHE-zam.
Whilst the public attention towards her new hero persona is bad, Mary does manage to make some headway in her investigation this issue, and learns that there a re dozens of missing people that all vanished from a nearby homeless community. It's here that she meets Dudley, or Uncle Marv as his friends call him. Holy crap, the series just brought Uncle Marvel into it! I doubt he's going to become a lightning bolt wearing hero like in the golden age comics, but him just being there is an awesome Easter egg for long time fans of the characters.
Mary gathers several leads, and gets into a fight with an opponent who literally uses words as a weapon, forcing the young hero to rise up against all of the awful things being said about her online and smashing her way though it; quite literally. It's a fun metaphor for her beating away the negative comments, both in universe and without, and shows that she's more than earned her title.
Returning home, Mary makes perhaps her biggest mistake in a moment that had me yelling at her on the page. After asking to help out yet again, pushing to be part of a team, Darla makes Mary snap. Yelling at her little sister, Mary tells her how she never wanted to come home from college, and how she wanted to get away from everyone. It's a sad, and devastating moment as she hurts her younger sister. And this shows why this series is great, it has big mystery, super hero action, neat nods to the history, but it's the character moments and family drama that are really at the heart of this series; and that matter the most.
The book's art continues to be really good, with lovely clean and crisp lines and bright, vibrant colour. The art team do a great job at making Mary look like a frazzled college student one minute, and a shining god the next. The environments all look great, and the fight against the opponent who used words against her was visualised in a really cool and interesting way.
There's only one issue of the series left, and it looks like it's set to an important and action packed on if the final moment of this issue are anything to go by.
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