Black Adam appears on the cover of
#28, but Superman was on
#1,
#15, and this issue: from 1977,
Shazam! #30, "Captain Marvel Fights the Man of Steel" Written by E. Nelson Bridwell, pencils by Kurt Schaffenburger, inks by Vince Colletta.
The cover does have a clue, for the colossal bait-and-switch here: Sivana steals a copy of
Action Comics #467, which inspires him to create his own man of steel. Sneaking into a Pittsburgh steel mill, he dumps his invention into the molten steel, creating...famed folklore hero
Joe Magarac?! He may or may not have been actual folklore, but was like Paul Bunyon for steelworkers. "Magarac" means "donkey" or "jackass" in Serbo-Croatian languages; which is either a commentary on how steelworkers were worked, or on his intelligence: because he doesn't speak good English, he's portrayed as slow. Or, at least Sivana's version is; he's probably not super culturally sensitive.
Joe gags Billy Batson at one point, but Billy is able to write a note taunting him into punching the steel gag off him. Captain Marvel smashes him, but Sivana made a bunch of steel animals, and set them to smash up steel mills. Cap gets advice from Atlas--I think asking the gods for advice was a recurring bit from his TV show--who suggests getting help. Time to bring in the full Marvel Family: Cap Jr, Mary, Fat, Hill, and Tall Marvels! They do a song while smashing up the steel animals and seem to be enjoying themselves. But, Captain Marvel opts to face the last one himself: a steel Superman!
Victorious, the faux Supes returns to the gloating Sivana, who gloats about his new super-steel formula--which the disguised Captain Marvel promptly takes away "for use by the U.S.A.!" Is...is that OK? It may also be almost a recurring plot point in
Shazam! stories of the time, that while Sivana may have been an evil loon, a lot of his inventions
could be repurposed for good...
Black Adam is out today, although I'll wait for it to get to the cheap theatre. It'll be an excuse for some popcorn! That...that is about as high as my expectations go for it; I don't have much attachment to the character, despite remembering him from the Viewmaster reels "The Return of Black Adam," which features a memorable demise for him.
I'm guessing it's a good thing Johns or anyone else never brought back Joe in recent times.
ReplyDeleteHave fun watching Black Adam. While it doesn't look particular bad, it doesn't look particularly good either, and that's even with the Rock in it, who does look legit like Black Adam. I will say casting Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate was an unexpected but very cool choice though.
I think Black Adam was out in space or dematerialized or something for most of the series. He's definitely more prominent post-Crisis than pre-Crisis and only showed up once before DC bought the characters.
ReplyDeleteThis one might have been inspired by the story in #15, where the inverse of this situation happened. Superman's evil bald scientist (Luthor) used Captain Marvel against Superman after getting the idea from a Shazam comic he stole. The main difference is that Luthor actually brought the real Captain Marvel over instead of making a metallic version.
I have about the same feeling about the Black Adam movie- I'm not a fan of the anti-hero Kahndaq version but it's cool to see the Justice Society get their due and hopefully they'll get to show up in future movies.