With Paul Dini and Alex Ross’s deluxe takes on Superman and Batman out of the way, you’d think that our next treat would be Wonder Woman. But not quite. It didn’t occur to me until recently that the four Dini/Ross graphic novel collaborations acted as anniversary celebrations for the star heroes. Superman: Peace on Earth was released in 1998, sixty years after the release of Action Comics 1. The next year, it was sixty years since the creation of Batman. Wonder Woman didn’t debut until late 1941, so the celebration of 2000 featured another hero, and a strange one at that. Originally created by Fawcett Comics in 1940, Captain Marvel was one of the more notable Superman clones from the superhero golden age. He had all the powers you could think of, but the twist was that he was a child. Billy Batson led a normal life as a child before receiving the power of the gods. He can transform from mortality to immortality in a flash. Like in the previous two books, Dini and Ross aim to modernise Captain Marvel, or Shazam as he later became known as for legal reasons. It’s a slightly odd character to pick because he wasn’t created by DC, but he did end up
becoming one of the company’s most famous heroes. Let’s see if it holds up…
Shazam!: Power of Hope was released in 2000 as a graphic novel, written by Paul Dini and Alex Ross, who also provided the paints. I’ve read the story in the Justice League: The World’s Greatest Super-Heroes paperback.
Out of the four main heroes that Dini and Ross present in these oversized graphic novels, Captain Marvel (yes that is his name, Shazam just doesn’t work) is one I probably know the least about. I’m aware of the basics like his origin, in which a young newsboy Billy Batson is thrown out onto the streets and ends up meeting Shazam, a wizard who entrusts his godly strength to the boy. As a result, he becomes Captain Marvel. Although I’ve never been a huge fan of superheroes with such dramatic and overwhelming powers, Captain Marvel has the appeal of simply being a kid in a man’s body. But what does that mean? Dini and Ross explored the characters of Superman and Batman in the previous entries, but as Superman is so similar to Captain Marvel, what’s unique about this story? It begins virtually the same as Superman: Peace on Earth, with Captain Marvel saving a city from a volcano eruption before he goes about doing his heroic duties. Exactly like Superman, he flies above the bewildered public as they all point upwards in astonishment. Where this story obviously has a selling point is Billy Batson. As he is a child, his take on things and sense of purity is far more interesting than the morals of the Man of Steel or the Dark Knight. Working as a young presenter on a local radio station, Billy is given an incredibly large bag full of letters for Captain Marvel. No one at the station knows that Billy is Captain Marvel, but since the staff have no way of getting in touch with the Big Red Cheese (an odd nickname given to Captain Marvel) they tell Billy to read and respond to them. Billy takes the letters home and reads some from sick children in hospitals. Naturally, Billy is pleased with himself as he notices how inspirational Captain Marvel has become for children. However, that joy is cut short as Captain Marvel visits the wizard Shazam to learn that one day a child in despair will seek the aid of the Big Red Cheese. Therefore, Captain Marvel visits the hospital just in the nick of time to rescue a child from a near-death experience involving a truck. Captain Marvel then presents himself to the children in the hospital’s garden and they all surround him gleefully. The sense of fun which I usually associate with Captain Marvel is obvious here. He spends his time playing with the children and taking them on trips and he is praised by the hospital for helping the children. The genius of this, of course, is that he is a manly superhero but underneath it all he still has the mentality and thoughts of a child. Unlike Superman who can only imagine what life is like for a human child, Captain Marvel is one. In fact, Shazam!: Power of Hope isn’t about Captain Marvel at all. Its main focus is actually Billy Batson, a friendly child who can relate to these children because of his own experience on the streets after becoming an orphan. There’s no embarrassing Marvel family consisting of bearded uncles and dressed-up dogs. This is Billy’s story of his quest to enrich the lives of children. But throughout the story, there is one child who refuses to play. Bobby supposedly fell down some stairs at his home and ended up in a wheelchair. Captain Marvel goes up to him, but the friendly hero reminds him of someone tall and menacing. Instead, this is where Billy comes in as he befriends the boy and learns of his abusive father. In some ways, Bobby is even more similar to Billy than any of the other children. Both of their lives are turned upside down by distress, abuse, or trauma. This presents one of the greatest scenes featuring Captain Marvel. As Billy, he visits Bobby’s father, who quickly slams the door shut on the child. It’s then that Billy becomes Captain Marvel and, very surprisingly, he threatens Bobby’s father, ordering him to visit his son and make things right. It’s a side to Captain Marvel which is (continued)
rarely seen. We’re used to the bright and cheerful child superhero, but this move shows Captain Marvel to have a slightly darker streak in his character. Yes, it is still very similar to the ending of Superman: Peace on Earth where the Man of Steel comes close to murdering the military for destroying grain for the hungry. However, it’s less expected with Captain Marvel because of his jovial character. This scene is followed by another powerful one. Captain Marvel returns to the hospital and holds onto the hand of a child in her dying moments. It’s an incredibly emotional moment and it’s made better because Dini and Ross capture Captain Marvel’s character so well. He appears heroic, but you can still tell just by looking at him that he is a child. It provides him with a human edge which I think Superman often lacks. In the end, Captain Marvel visits the wizard once again, frustrated that he couldn’t help all the children. “There are some battles even Captain Marvel may not win”, says the wizard before cementing the moral of the story: “You have given them hope. It is a good and powerful force, one that I had feared someone young and dear to me was losing.” That person, of course, was Captain Marvel. Being around those children and helping just some of them has given them and himself hope. The story concludes nicely with Billy visiting his friend Bobby. As the two of them throw a ball between them, the work of Captain Marvel is done. Dini and Ross gave both the Superman and Batman stories unique messages and purposes. For Superman, it was about helping those who couldn’t help themselves. For Batman, it was effectively a thesis about how crime is a virus and the Dark Knight’s mission is to stop its spread. As for Captain Marvel, this story is strikingly similar to the Superman one in all sorts of ways. Although Superman’s journey focuses on ‘peace’ and Captain Marvel’s on ‘hope’, they are effectively doing the same thing. They both feature moments where the powerful heroes fight against a form of aggressive hierarchy, with Superman against the army and Captain Marvel against Bobby’s father. Effectively, the plots are almost too similar to be properly distinguished. But what does make Shazam!: Power of Hope a more notable story is the Billy Batson angle. His child-like attitude and way of thinking makes him different from Superman, but it doesn’t solve all of the problems. I can easily see Superman featuring in much of this story, especially in scenes such as the confrontation with Bobby’s father and the death of the girl in hospital. I suppose this is more of a criticism of Captain Marvel as a concept rather than Dini and Ross’s work here. He was effectively made as a Superman clone and while the Batson angle is different, they both share pretty much the same heroic traits. But, in order to compensate for the huge similarities, the writing team could have written a different kind of story to this one. That’s not to say that this one is bad by any means, but it simply lacks an identity and comes across as rather basic. Although I wouldn’t have been too fond of it, featuring some of the Marvel family may have actually improved the story’s unique image. Sure, the wizard is present, but not for very long and his impact on the story is relatively limited. Overall, Shazam!: Power of Hope does what it says on the tin well, but it is too similar to Superman: Peace on Earth to have a real seismic impact. But perhaps when you examine Captain Marvel and Superman together, that was always going to happen.
Do I really need to tell you what I think about Alex Ross’s art again? As opposed to his Batman story, the visuals are far brighter and more colourful to look at. Ross captures the tone of the story excellently and his paints are as beautiful as ever. Certainly, the most impressive and best feature of Ross’s art is Captain Marvel himself. Ross has this magical skill to make superheroes appear different from how other artists draw them. For example, although human, Batman doesn’t look like a guy in a suit. At times he looks like a bat and almost a mythical figure. With Captain Marvel, Ross conveys him as impressive and tall, but facially he still looks like a child. His bewildered expressions and sincere faces make you realise that underneath his stern heroic body, he looks like a child and is one. Overall, Ross’s art here is just as good as in his other stories and is near-flawless.
VERDICT
Overall, Shazam!: Power of Hope is a decent read with a few great moments. Billy Batson is undeniably a unique feature of this story, but he is the only one and a fairly limited one at that. The problem is that Dini and Ross fail to give this story its own identity. It could just as easily be a Superman story and some elements feel extremely similar to the plot used in Superman: Peace on Earth. It is a good and powerful read, but despite Alex Ross’s beautiful paints, it is sorely lacking in originality.
Story: 7/10
Art: 10/10
Next Week: Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth. Written by Paul Dini and Alex Ross, with art by Ross.
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