Delayed Reaction: Superman/Shazam!

Superman/Shazam!: First Thunder (DC Comics), by Judd Winick and Joshua Middleton

Why’d I Wait?: You know the deal by now. Judd Winick + DCU comic = Wait for the trade to make it to the library.

Why Now?: Word from some of my fellow Best Shots shooters was that this is a book well worth reading, and even those who normally hate Winick’s writing (Hey, that’s me!) will be pleasantly surprised. Plus, Joshua Middleton’s art is absolutely gorgeous, and I’ve always liked Captain Marvel as a character, even if I’ve never read more than a handful's worth of stories featuring him in them that weren’t crap.

Well?: The words "pleasantly surprised" pretty much sum up my feelings about this book. After it’s “prelude,” the three-part “Lightning Strikes Twice” story that ran through the Superman titles (and was collected in the Day of Vengeance trade), and the weak issues of Outsiders featuring Captain Marvel Jr., I was pretty sure I’d hate this series.

But surprise, surprise, mostly freed from the bounds of continuity (this story is a “Year One” one), Winick does seem to get many of the characters fairly well, and arranges the toys in a way that allows Middleton to make the most of them.

In Fawcett City, evil scientist and industrialist Dr. Sivana is trying to destroy a solar research station using giant robots and other mad science inventions, but new hero Captain Marvel keeps getting in the way. Also on Captain Marvel’s agenda is breaking up a ring of relic thieves targeting museums, a team-up with Superman, a battle against Eclipso and Sabbac and a fight with a Sivana goon squad that hits him while he’s in his secret identity.

Winick’s Sivana is perhaps the weakest part of an otherwise strong book. The more of Winick’s writing one reads, the more apparent certain ticks become, and perhaps the most grating is the way he writes every single villain—Luthor, the Joker, Gorilla Grodd, Black Mask, the Penguin, Sivana, Brick—the exact same. His Sivana is is pretty much just like Lex Luthor with bigger ears (Middleton does a nice job physically distinguishing the two bald baddies in a face-to-face meeting in one scene), and once more Winick gives his Big Bad a toadie/lieutenant to carry on rat-a-tat conversations with.

The rest of the characters Winick handles with more grace and individuality, and he does a wonderful job in the first two pages establishing Captain Marvel as an icon worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the DC’s big guns (now if someone would just put him on the Justice League…), and his first appearance, catching a falling plane, is simply delightful.

The end is just as strong as the beginning, with a fantastic four-page sequence in which Superman reveals his secret identity to Billy Batson (That was fast! Lois Lane had to wait years for that, and Jimmy Olsen still doesn’t know).

As impressed as I was with Winick’s writing here, it’s Middleton who makes this book well worth a read, regardless of your feelings for Cap or Supes (Like Alex Ross, Middleton’s skilled enough an artist to make you like Captain Marvel, by the sheer force of his own talent being applied to him). There isn’t a character design in the entire book that isn’t a homerun. Middleton evokes a perfect amount of boyishness in Cap’s expressions, his Billy is a treasure, and he draws perhaps the best Wizard Shazam of anyone, excepting only C.C. Beck and maybe Ross.

If there’s ever going to be a Captain Marvel monthly again—and there damn well better be!—Middleton’s the man for it. I’m really digging Howard Porter’s art on the Winick-written Trials of Shazam (even if I hate the direction—this graphic novel is yet another example that the character isn’t broken and thus doesn’t need fixed), but Middleton simply can’t be beat.

Would I Travel Back in Time to Buy the Original Issues Off the Shelf?: As pleased as I was with the series, I don’t think so. If I recall correctly, there was at least one major delay in the release of this series (I guess art as gorgeously lit as Middleton’s was takes a little more time than the editors realized), which might have killed the momentum. If I read it chapter by chapter, I might very well have lost interest when I saw Sivana playing Stock Winick Villain. I wouldn’t mind owning this in trade though, when I have $12.99 to blow on a graphic novel I’ve already read.