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Shazam! (2023) - TV Tropes

  • ️Fri Feb 10 2023

Warning: Shazam (2023) is a direct sequel to events in Teen Titans Academy, Lazarus Planet, and Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods, so Late Arrival Spoilers for those comics may be unmarked on this page.

Shazam! (2023) (Comic Book)

The Dork Knight Returns

Shazam! is an 2023 relaunch of the DC Comics hero, written by Mark Waid and with art by Dan Mora. It is a spinoff of Lazarus Planet and part of the Dawn of DC publishing initiative.

The relaunch picks up Billy Batson and the Shazam Family's storylines in the aftermath of Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods, as they deal with Billy's return from the Rock of Eternity and the changes to magic in the wake of Lazarus Planet.

From #10, the book has been written by Josie Campbell and drawn by Emanuela Lupacchino and Mike Norton.

The first issue was released May 2, 2023.

Shazam! (2023) provides examples of:

  • The Bus Came Back. Billy Batson gets his own ongoing monthly title for the first time since the conclusion of Shazam! (2018) in 2020 (and, to a lesser extent, Shazam! (2021)). Billy also returns to the forefront of the contemporary DCU after having been sidelined during the Infinite Frontier era.
  • Canon Character All Along: #19 reveals that The Vasquezes' neighbour Beau is Beautia Sivana.
  • Canon Discontinuity: King Kull appears in #13, and in #14 says he and his followers have been trapped underground for centuries. Freddy doesn't seem to recognise him and there's no mention of being an Earthlands representative of the Monster Society of Evil in Shazam! (2018). The book has also had its own take on Jeepers and the Crocodile Men, but this is the first villain that seems to directly contradict the Seven Magic Lands version.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • #10 directly refers to Hera's coup in Wonder Woman (2016); apparently the other Olympians are annoyed that Zeus let it happen. Yes, she killed him, but that's a purely temporary situation for a god, and they think he used it as an excuse.
    • When Uncle Dudley appears in #14, he refers to the events of The New Champion of Shazam where he first met Mary, including that he was using a different name at the time ("Uncle Marv").
  • Costume Evolution: Dan Mora's cover for Shazam #1 reveals that Billy's design has been tweaked for the Dawn of DC era. Gary Frank's New 52 redesign, which has been the standard template for a decade, has been discarded in favor of a return to a more classic Captain Marvel look (albeit with a few minor tweaks here and there).
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Mr Mind believes humanity is based entirely on hate, because that's all he fosters. Freddy's ability to overthrow its control because he doesn't want to hurt Billy is completely unexpected.
  • Jerkass Gods: The opening arc is about the sponsors of Billy's powers seeking greater relevancy in the modern world by exerting control over him while transformed. While not evil, under their influence Billy acts more like a Smug Super during his time as Shazam.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Billy mentions he's not calling himself "Shazam" anymore because it confused a lot of people, reflecting how fans were annoyed by the change from "Captain Marvel" to the wizard's name (even though saying Shazam out loud is what caused Billy's transformation back and forth).
  • Logical Weakness: Billy's sponsors having a greater influence on him results in him suffering from their psychological weaknesses, from Atlas's gullibility (since his most famous moment in legend is taking support of the sky back because Herc told him it would just be for a second) to Zeus's Really Gets Around tendencies.
  • Loophole Abuse: In #4, Billy is unconscious and possibly dying, and Zeus is frustrated that the agreement with the wizard is that he can't throw the transformative thunderbolt unless Billy says the word. Then Mary, after establishing to her current pantheon that this isn't adressed to them, says "Shazam" to trigger Billy's transformation, and even though she no longer has a pact with them, Zeus decides that's close enough.
  • Meaningful Rename: Billy's superhero form is now known as The Captain, a happy medium between the contentious Shazam renaming and his more traditional "Captain Marvel" name. It should be noted this is due to magic shifting, so unlike the New 52 take on the character, if he says "Shazam" he will without fail transform, like every other version of the character prior to the New 52. The Captain in this case began as a nickname that stuck after a maritime rescue ended up with him needlessly drenched. It seemingly has caught on quickly as even news sources refer to him as The Captain, calling into question how long he WAS known as Shazam. In addition, some of his fans are calling him "Captain Marvel" in the comments to Billy's podcast, probably by analogy with Mary taking the Mary Marvel name in Revenge of the Gods.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • In #10, Freddy buys a beaten-up camper he calls the "Shaz-Van", which looks not unlike the RV from Shazam! (1974).
    • In #14, Uncle Dudley, who's taken on his own Shazam-inspired identity, but without claiming to have powers, complains about his lumbago. In the Golden Age, "Uncle Marvel" would always insist that the reason he couldn't use his powers (which he didn't have) was that his "Shazambago" was acting up.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: It turns out that the reason the Captain has been hiding the fact Billy's biological mother wants to get in touch with him is because the stability of the Rock of Eternity — and therefore of magic itself — is tied to Billy's emotional state, and the Wisdom of Solomon tells him Billy will react badly to learning she has a new family. It apparently didn't occur to him that he couldn't keep it secret forever, and Billy's reaction would be worse when it's a series of bombshells one after the other, including that the Captain is keeping secrets from him.
  • One-Steve Limit - the wizard is called Shazam, but Billy is called The Captain, instead of Shazam. Mary, who in The New Champion of Shazam! used the name Shazam as well, reverted back to her original name Mary Marvel in Revenge of the Gods.
  • Other Me Annoys Me: #15 reveals that the Captain's separate personality, born of an increase of Solomon's wisdom, is really just "Billy, but mentally an adult". His apparent lack of trust in Billy is actually Billy's own self-doubt.
  • Paperwork Punishment: In issue #7, the Auditors say they sent a scout who has not returned to their planet, whom Billy, in Shazam form, tells he is now living as a maid/butler in the Rock of Ages, then questions if the penalty for failure in the Auditors' planet is death. The dinosaur leader says that the penalty is even more paperwork.
  • Pet the Dog: After Billy's foster home gets destroyed and they risk losing the house, Zeus uses his powers to restore it for them as a goodwill gesture. Kind of spoiled a bit when if turns out he added some dimensional weirdness for his own benefit.
  • Reimagining the Artifact: Billy as a child reporter for a radio station simply doesn't make sense in the modern world. Billy as a podcaster, on the other hand..
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Garguax is featured as a villain, when he started out as an adversary of the Doom Patrol. He's working with Queen Bee, who's usually a Justice League villain.
  • Secret Test: In #19, when Freddy rejects Mr Mind and declares he'd rather be forgotten than lose Billy, Hephasteus tells him he's passed the test of the "outsider gods", and gives him their power of Shazam.
  • Shout-Out: #8 ends with Pedro yelling from off-panel that they might just have breakfast cereal for supper, and Tawky Tawny vetoing this while referring to the cereal as Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs. Bonus points for coming from a talking tiger.
  • Spinoff: Of Lazarus Planet, picking up Billy and the Shazam Family's storylines in the wake of Revenge of the Gods.
  • Stomach of Holding: Garguax reveals he can store objects inside himself when he disgorges a bomb. He also slims down a lot after doing so, silently justifying his variable weight between appearances.
  • Superpowered Alter Ego: Following the first storyline and a shift in how the Shazam powers work, Billy and The Captain start seeing each other as different people. The Captain also has the ability to keep secrets from Billy, something Billy doesn't realise.
  • Superpowered Evil Side:
    • In the first storyline, Billy's transformation leaves him vulnerable to mental manipulation by one of his six "sponsors", now scheming to make a move on the world through him. Downplayed in that, to paraphrase Futurama, they're not evil, but they are jerks.
    • Played straighter when Freddy becomes the Commander, and gets a voice in his head tells him he's better than everyone, especially Billy, and should be treated accordingly. When he questions the voice, it turns out to be more in control than he is, and reverts to telling him he's nothing, while using his body.
  • Take That!: Waid makes a pointed dig to the people who felt Billy wasn't believable as a happy, well-meaning kid who smiles. One of the comments about Billy smiling and having fun has him being called a "Soyboy" by a user named "MANCHILD95."
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In #2, when a tyranosaur in a suit arrives at the door to speak to Billy, he decides this just isn't something he wants to deal with right now. Everyone else thinks he's being very rude to a guest.

    Billy's narration: This is what we get for living with a talking tiger. Now everything seems normal in this family.

  • Variant Cover: Evan "Doc" Shaner, Ariel Colón, Mike Deodato, and Mora himself contribute variant covers.
  • You Are What You Hate: The voice in Freddy's head when he becomes the Commander keeps talking about "leeches" and "parasites" bringing people down. It's Mr Mind, who is literally a parasitic worm.