Captain Marvel Tales (and comics TPBs) (#SFWApro)

The original Captain Marvel (boy reporter Billy Batson, who got Superman-like powers when he said “Shazam!”) was the best-selling comics character ever, hitting 2 million in sales with a bi-weekly book at the peak of his success (cover by veteran Cap artist C.C. Beck, rights with current holder). In the 1950s DC sued him for infringing Superman’s copyright, and after the publisher, Fawcett, settled, got the rights to the character. DC revived him in the 1970s and did some excellent work (primarily the late E. Nelson Bridwell’s run on the character) but after the Crisis they’ve been quite lost what to do with him. Cap at his best has a strong streak of whimsy even in serious stories and whimsy doesn’t play well. Plus due to Marvel’s having the rights to Captain Marvel as a comic-book title, DC can’t use it (so it’s usually Shazam or some variation of that).
Judd Winick was one of many writers to take a shot at rebooting the character, in TRIAL OF SHAZAM Vol 2 by Winick, Mauro Cascioli and Howard Porter. The premise is that Cap’s sidekick Freddy, AKA Captain Marvel Junior, becomes the inheritor of the full power. But to do this he has to prove himself to the six gods or heroes (Apollo, Atlas, Zeus, etc.) who grant the Shazam power—but someone else is trying to steal the power first. And if Freddy gets the power he’ll call himself Shazam rather than Captain Marvel, thereby making the character match the magazine named.
The writing is surprisingly good for Winick: The concept of Atlas, telepathically holding the world on his shoulders (“I know you’re tired, but read the patient report, read it, she’s allergic to penicillin … that’s it, good …”) is particularly effective. And if this had been a completely new character, I’d have been satisfied—but straining to fit the old franchise into the new bottle was a lot to take (these are actually six gods and heroes unrelated to the ones who used to grant Billy and Freddy the powers, they just have the same names).
The reason DC can’t use Captain Marvel in the comics title is that Marvel, knowing DC was planning to revive the character, released its own Captain Marvel book to lock in the trademark (as detailed here). The protagonist was Mar-Vell, a captain in the Kree spacefleet who wound up fighting to protect Earth from his own people (humans assumed his super-hero name was Captain Marvel). After he died, Marvel hung on to the trademark by creating new Captain Marvel characters, most recently Carol Danvers, a security officer who acquired powers from Mar-Vell and used various super-names (Ms. Marvel, Warbird, Binary) before finally taking the classic name.
CAPTAIN MARVEL: In Pursuit of Flight by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma RiosDexter Soy is the first TPB from Carol’s new series, dealing with her own Air Force history, her idols in the 99 (an organization of female pilots founded in the late 1920s) and a time trip (“What’s the Avengers protocol for time travel? Butterflies, it’s to do with butterflies.”) that confronts her with aliens and a team of WACs called the Banshees. This was thoroughly entertaining and I really love the Banshees—if Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandoes was still in print, I’d love to see them team up (or even a second string team like Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders)
WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM Vol 2 by Rob Kirkman and different artists has Rick, Michonne and Rick’s son escape the massacre at the end of Vol. 1 (Kirkman wiped out a lot more of the cast than I expected) and hook up with new friends and old as they continue hunting for a place to live. I see the book is increasingly emphasizing that other humans are even more deadly than the zombies (though those are bad enough), forcing Rick & Co. to make increasingly tough decisions. On the flip side, for all Rick’s flaws, Kirkman makes him so invariably right about any big decisions it gets a little much for me. Overall, entertaining, though more as a good post-apocalypse drama than a zombie book (as I’m not a zombie fan, that’s a plus)
BLACK CANARY AND ZATANNA: Bloodspell by Paul Dini and Joseph A. Quinones Jr. sets up a long-time friendship between the two female heroes, starting when they both go mountain climbing as teenagers by different means. Years later, after Canary infiltrates and takes out a female gang, the other members start committing suicide. It turns out the leader has bound everyone with a “bloodspell” that lets her take over their bodies—including Canary. Can Zatanna get her out of this? This was fun, but way inflated in price: the book is padded out by reprinting all of Dini’s script along with the story (I love Dini but this is not the sort of story where the script has Deep Insights to offer). Wait for the paperback.