BC: SHAZAM #20

I was still making my way through the complete run of SHAZAM that had been lent to me by my grade school friend Donald Sims. I didn’t need to read issue #19, as I’d bought that one when it first came out–and went through it here:

BHOC: SHAZAM #19

So it was on to issue #20 for me. As you can see from the above, DC continued to be forbitten from using the name Captain Marvel anywhere on their covers (though they could still refer to the character by that name on the interiors of the book.). Consequently, the copy references the Marvel Family only as the World’s Mightiest Family. I can’t say that I really noticed this at the time, but it’s readily apparent to me now. Additionally, as with a lot of DC’s super hero covers during this period, the cover is a bit empty and lacking in impact. This wasn’t a great time for DC covers, and it would be a year or so before they really started to get better, the result of artist Nick Cardy having departed the company.

The bloom was definitely off the rose for SHAZAM by this point, and what had started off showing such promise (as unscrupulous dealers moved to corner the market on copies of SHAZAM #1 prior to its official release) had now been downgraded to bimonthly status, a sure sign that sales and interest were flagging. The only thing that was keeping Captain Marvel and the series going was the successful Saturday Morning live action SHAZAM series, which was touted prominently on the cover. But it didn’t seem as though there was much carry-over from readers who may have come to the book after seeing the show. The material being offered here was simply too different. That situation would be addressed as well in just a few more issues.

The story in this issue is a bit of an improvement over recent outings–it seems as though editor Julie Schwartz was finally getting his arms around what to do with the series in the aftermath of creator C.C. Beck’s departure. The issue featured one book-length tale, which had enough space for some decent character development and a variety of incident–it felt a lot more substantial than the short 7- and 8-page stories that had ben featured in the series for the most part. The artwork was handled by Kurt Schaffenberger, who had worked on the Marvel Family during their original Golden Age run and whose clean, open style was a perfect match for the strip’s feeling of whimsy and charm. Elliot S! Maggin wrote the story, and while he never seemed entirely comfortable with the Captain and his world, he had proven to be more adept at taking the assignment seriously than some of his contemporaries had.

The story opens on a bit of a mystery. A woman comes forward saying that she knows that Captain Marvel gets his powers from a bolt of lightning, and that she knows who he is. She recounts her tale to Billy Batson: she lived next door to an eccentric man named Maxwell Zodiac. One day, while spying on Zodiac as he flew a kite in a thunderstorm, she saw the man get struck by lightning and vanish. In her mind, Maxwell had become Captain Marvel, and this is why she never saw him again. She also came with a map scavenged from Maxwell’s apartment, with three locations marked off. Billy tells Mary and Freddy about the woman’s story, and while they know that Maxwell isn’t Captain Marvel, they are curious about what happened to him. So changing to their Marvel forms, they split up to check out the three marked locations, hoping to find a clue.

But in each of the three locations, the assorted Marvels all have similar experiences: they encounter danger, triumph over it, then find Maxwell Zodiac. In Junior’s case, he’s got to overcome a fearsome dragon who turns out to be pretty harmless. Mary ventures to Japan, where she contends with some sadly stereotypical sumo wrestlers (who are colored in an unfortunate orange shade). Captain Marvel heads up into the stratosphere to the location of a flying saucer (no idea how anybody would have marked that location on a map of Earth) where he battles a bunch of robots created by his usual foe Sivana. All three Marvels return with Maxwell Zodiac, and are astonished to find that there are now three of him.

Returning to Television Station WHIZ, the Marvels broadcast their reunion of the disparate Mr. Zodiacs to the world. Zodiac tells them that he’d always theorized that if a person wanted to advance faster than normal, that the solution would be to split themselves into multiple bodies, then reform after each had had separate experiences, thus giving their combined form the benefit of all of that additional experience. And that’s what the three Zodiacs proceed to do, return to a single form. This, though, causes panic and terror among the viewership of Station WHIZ, and despite all that the Marvels can do to try to quell the panic, society as a whole is fearful that Maxwell Zodiac has now somehow acquired fearful powers which he might use to terrorize the city–despite all evidence to the contrary.

With little recourse, the three Marvels carry Mr. Zodiac away from the angry mob, eventually alighting with him some distance from the city. There they learn that at least a portion of the people’s concern was justified: Zodiac’s experiences have left him imbued with cosmic powers. Fortunately for all concerned, in his new state, Maxwell Zodiac doesn’t have any interest in the affairs of men, and so he heads off into the cosmos to seek his destiny–a pretty typical ending for stories involving human characters becoming semi-divine, of which there were quite a few in this period of comics. So the whole story was relatively basic but still charming in its presentation, and felt like a bit of a step forward. Unfortunately, this wasn’t to be the case, and beginning with the next issue, SHAZAM became entirely a reprint magazine.