Billy Batson and the New 52

[librarian_bot]

So, it's painfully obvious that DC has no idea what to do with Shazam and the Marvel Family.

I looked through the back-up story to Justice League #7 on the shelf, not being inclined to actually fork out money for hack work. And really, the whole thing would have passed with little more than some irritated muttering from yours truly if I hadn't

Comments

[dragontail]

Oh. Sorry. That's Booster Gold's origin story. And Spider-man's. And Doctor Strange's. And the Jack Kirby Thor's. And a baker's dozen of other heroic origins from every era of comics past the Golden Age. You see, the 'hero's journey' plot - which essentially runs [punk kid + wise old mentor - wise old mentor + super powers + responsibility + tragedy (+/- quest) = hero] - has been done completely to death. That's not to say that it hasn't been done well or that it does not continue to be done so, it's to say that recasting an origin story in exactly the same mould is not automatically an improvement. The 'flawed hero making for a better story' maxim only holds water so long as this particular flawed hero is somehow different from every other flawed hero who has preceded them.

Precisely, and similar (though much more eloquently-phrased) to how I answered stareyednight's challenge of "maybe they just want to show him become that better person". Super hero origins are not a one-size-fits-all, and not everyone needs to redeem themselves from

[librarian_bot]

It's even worse than that, of course. By and large, the 'jerk to hero' guys either developed their powers themselves or had them thrust upon them by cosmic coinciedence. Billy is specfically *chosen* to be the champion (I'll keep refering to it as that since the alternative is to fully go over the 'Shazam' and...yeah, not doing that just yet) and chosen for his moral qualities. He has to be, otherwise giving him all that power is a recipe for Black Adam #2 at record speed. Billy's origin literally cannot be one of him becoming a better person because of the power, since that would completely negate the point of him being chosen in the first place.

LJ has a better grasp of the characters involved in this story than the people at DC. Go figure.

[dragontail]

Perhaps not as surprising when you consider she's an eight-year-old girl who reads at the level of a 13-year-old, while DC appears to be run by people whose maturation ceased at age 13.

(I'm feeling uncharitable about DC this morning. Explanation to come.)