Sunday Trade: Billy Batson & the Magic of Shazam!

Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! Mike Kunkel writer and artist (#1-4), writers Art Baltazar & Franco (#5-6), artists Bryon Vaughns & Ken Branch (#5), artist Stephen Destefano (#6), Colors (#5-6) and letter Steve Wands

The follow up to Jeff Smith's fantastic Shazam!:The Monster Society of Evil. First by Mike Kunkel and then by Art Baltazar & Franco. The Kunkel arc has Billy "Captain Marvel" Batson and his sister Mary "Mary Marvel" Batson going to a new school and meeting the recently freed from banishment Theo Adam. Teenage Theo being the outcast member of the Marvel Family, Black Adam...

Baltazar & Franco reintroduce the robotic menace Mr. Atom and the pre-historic menace of King Kull (no relation to the Howard creation). I have to say I think I like Destefano's verson of the Big Red Cheese the best of the three here. Though Kunkel's cartoony Marvel's definitely have their own charm. I also love how in both Smith's and the later creators stories Billy and Mary come off as kids. Not teens or adults in kids bodies. But actual kids, still full of wonder at the amazing gifts they've been granted and the strange beings they now are tasked with dealing with...

Harry Brown

Think Death Wish, but with Michael freaking Caine. Which is a bit ironic given how many bad men he played in the earlier portions of his career...